Petition to make him go.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/please-go/

Squiffy.

From disappointment to anger

After the budget I said that I felt disappointed. As time goes by I'm getting more and more angry.

The vindictive tax rises on entrepreneurs and wealth creators continues to unravel. This morning we found that there will be a further raid on their pensions, even though this is out for consultation they have included the figures in their future revenue forecasts. This Government has no shame, they wrecked the great pension provisions we had made by their 1997 raid on pensions, then set-up an inquiry on how to improved pension provision, and are now raiding the again. Absolutely scandalous.

The Chancellor said in his forecast that growth in Q1 2009/10 would be similar to Q4 2008/9. Well it was -1.6% in Q4 and is now -1.9% in Q1, so his growth forecasts are already being missed, only two days after being revealed! That is surely some record, even for this "numerically-challenged" lot.

The latest figures are showing that we may be back in balance by 2032! 23 years away! I'll say that again, it will take 23 years before we can pay back our debt, they have truly mortgaged our future. That's Wangernumb.

An top of all that, the treatment of the Ghurkas is absolutely disgraceful. They should be allowed to stay here after fighting for our country.

The Government should hang their heads. They are a disgrace. We need rid. Please, for God's sake go. Leave. Resign. If you had any decency left, you'd have gone by now. Your moral decency has passed, ceased to be, and gone to moral heaven. You have no bills and no ideas. You are destroying the UK, so call a General Election Now!

Nuff said.

Squiffy.

The dance mix

Check out this dance mix of dear leader.

Squiffy.

The verdict: disappointment

The hope of an honest and decent budget has gone. I feel disappointed. There were some piecemeal initiatives, which will get some headlines but will achieve very little. The 50% rise in the top rate of tax will raise very little a year, and is just an extension of the dividing line established in the pre-budget report. The Tories should say nothing, but repeal it at the first possible opportunity.

There were no significant ways mentioned on how to bring the budget back to balance. The Chancellor is hoping that by returning to growth in 2011 (at an unbelievable rate of 3.5%) he will start to pay off the debt. Well, it's not good enough, that sort of strategy got us into this mess in the first place. He's bearing his head in the sand whilst crossing every appendage he's got. Over-optimism is this Chancellor's Achilles heel, and he's stumbling around on it again.

This was a major disappointed, debt is going to get even further out of control. All Labour chancellors run out of money, and this one has just been added to the list.

Squiffy.

Will this budget be better received than the last few?

The last four occasions that the Chancellor has presented a budgetary report (two budgets and two pre-budget reports) the details have quickly unravelled. Each budget has been deemed as a springboard to Labour's comeback but each one has plunged the party into the abyss. Think back to the damage that the 10p tax fiasco caused.

Will this budget be any different? If the papers are to be believed, then maybe. From what we read, the Chancellor will finally give us some truths about the state of Britain Plc's finances and will not try to be too rosy. It sounds like he is not going to be pushed around by the Prime Minister any more, creating dividing lines with the Tories, rather he will try to get a grip on the amazing levels of debt we are now reaching.

If he does this, then it maybe seen as a successful budget - if not a cheerful one. Here's waiting with baited breath.

Squiffy.

Spot on

Dizzy gets dear leader exactly right.

What ever happened to purdah?

No not the noisy cat, the practice of keeping details of the Budget under wraps until Budget day. In days gone by, there were even prosecutions for Budget leaks, but I can't see Mr Plod doing a Damien Green-esq House of Commons type raid as the leakers are all on the Government benches.

The last two days have seen headlines stating that the Budget will help the construction industry, the stamp duty cut will be extended and that £15 billion will be cut from efficiency savings. On top of that the last month we've heard of car "scrappage", and eco-bonuses for electric cars which don't exist. These should not be announced until budget day, but the Government is desperate to change the subject of conversation away from smeargate to something more wholesome, like the terrible state of the country's finances!

Tomorrow is going to be bleak, and it needs to be. From what we hear Alistair Darling is going to fess up, he's going to tell us that we are deep in the poo, he's been unbelievable optimistic in the past few years and now he's going to give it to us straight. He probably won't go so far as to say that we wouldn't be so far up to our necks in it, if his boss had been more prudent with the finances because that would be too honest!

It's interesting to hear the figures of £15 billion efficiency savings, when the Tories have proposed such savings in the past the Government have screamed "cuts to nurses and teachers". I guess that's another tactic that has been blown away.

So, go out tonight and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow we will all be dealing with a massive hangover.

Squiffy.

Frank Field should cross the floor

Every time Frank Field speaks or writes an article, I'm impressed and bemused. Impressed that he seems to have grasped ideas which his fellow backbenchers haven't and bemused because everything he says points to Tory policies.

For instance read this article, and it strikes you that it could have been written by George Osborne or Kenneth Clarke.

So why on earth does he continue to sit on the Government benches? One of the big mysteries of our times!

Squiffy.

And on the sixth day...

Anyone who has watched the absolutely marvellous West Wing will know about how controlling the news cycle is a major part of Government's agenda. Watching CJ Cregg try to get to the serious news of the day whilst being dragged down by the media storm of the President's MS gave some idea of how difficult it can be.

Our Government finds itself in a similar situation. Guido Fawkes timed his smeargate attacks to perfection, in a quiet period known as Easter he did his worst. For the last five days the news has invariably led with the response to the smear e-mails. Today is different, but no better for the Government. Instead of a Government looking squalid by getting dirty in the ether, we have a Government looking incompetent over the arrest of Damian Green MP. From the frying pan into the fire!

It's not looking good, a Government amid sleeze and incompetence reminds me of a not too distant past. And if the Tom Watson libel suit were to go the way of the 'sword of truth and trusty shield of fair play' (not that it should) the parallels would be ever greater.

I doubt whether it will get better either, rumours exist that there are further e-mails to be released as part of smeargate affair, which will bring it to prominence again. Oh, if only GB had a CJ!

Squiffy

The world is poorer today without Sir Clement

It is a morning of great sadness, hearing of the death of Sir Clement Freud. A man of many talents, including MP for Ely and North Cambridgeshire, chef, horse racing fanatic, writer, television and radio performer.

As part of the Liberal contingent in parliament, I will always be grateful that he chose to vote against the discredited Callaghan government.

In my mind, though, his appearances on Radio 4's Just a minute will forever be in my memory. His dry tones were just the foil for a witty anecdote, sometimes we wouldn't know where he was heading but at the end it was always a delight. Some of his put downs to Nicholas Parsons were priceless, even if you could detect that occasionally he really did meant it!

That brings an end to the original line-up of Sir Clement Freud, Peter Jones, Derek Nimmo and Kenneth Williams and the passing of an era. Thankfully with talents like Ross Noble, Graham Norton and the wonderfully surreal Paul Merton "Just a Minute" will continue, but just like the loss of Humph in "I'm sorry I haven't a clue" it won't quite feel the same.

We'll miss you.

Squiffy.

Never shall he say it's about ishoos

One of Gordon Brown's frequent ripostes in PMQs is that the Tories don't want to talk about policies, but personalities. Now that the operation within Number 10 to reveal unfounded stories on political opponents on a new 'Red Rag' website has been exposed, he will not be able to repeat the jibe with effect.

That doesn't mean that he won't try, the PM has shown that he's not fleet footed within the Chamber and I will be extremely surprised if he stops himself saying something similar. If he does, David Cameron will bring up the McBride emails and the house will be in uproar.

One of Gordon Brown's stock answers has been taken away from him, as well as one of his key aides. The possibility of a Labour recovery has now further narrowed. And quite rightly.

Squiffy.

They have to go

I've said this before, but this Government has to go. The Damian McBride emails have shown that there is something rotten in the heart of Number 10. He may have gone, but the person who appointed him and set the parameters for his behaviour is still around - and that is dear leader.

Gordon Brown cannot wash his hands completely of what has been done in his name. He may not have typed the emails himself, but the tone is set by him - and the spinning and back stabbing throughout the years in power by his coterie of advisers has now gone too far.

Will no-one rid us of this troublesome Government?

Squiffy.

The dead cat that did not bounce

Last week's G20 meeting seemed to be relatively successful for the Prime Minister, whether it is successful in bringing the worldwide recession to an end we'll have to wait and see. But for Gordon Brown, the threatened walk outs and violent demonstrations did not happen and he could pose in his favourite position as Chancellor to the world spouting large figures such as the $5 trillion fiscal stimulus. Never mind that the figures need to be taken with a pinch of salt (the $5 trillion being the total amount spent through the recession by all countries, including the natural automatic stabilizers such as unemployment benefit rather than specific fiscal stimuli packages).

For GB, it looked good and I would have been predicting a 5% increase in the Labour party poll figures which would quickly disappear as reality stepped in. The first poll (for YouGov) had the party increasing by 4%, but the second poll (for Populus) taken after the meeting showed no increase in the Labour party position and the Tories advancing by 1 point. It's too early to say whether the G20 lustre has so quickly faded, but it may be that the dead cat did not bounce this time. In fact it looks like the dead cat has been to a taxidermist and has that very strange stare that only stuffed animals and expense challenged MPs get.

Squiffy.

He's not the messiah, just a very naughty boy

Which must be how Lewis Hamilton feels today. Whatever the details of whether he chose to lie or was told to by the team manager, it should have been clear that the car to pits radio would expose any discrepancies. In such circumstances it seems like a very foolish thing to have done and his reputation has suffered, in a similar way to Schumacher parking his car after Rascasse in Monaco 2006.

This year he needed to repair his relationship with the stewards after the controversies of the last two years. Unfortunately, it's all gone wrong from the first race of the season. The world championship is already looking like a tough ask this year, and it just got tougher.

Squiffy

Capitalism = Freedom

I was listening to an anti-capitalism protester today, when he said "Capitalism equals oppression, we need to rid the world of it."

How utterly, absolutely, undoubtedly wrong.

The guy doesn't seem to realise that capitalism gives people freedom. Not the democracy kind of freedom, but pretty close to it. He has the choice of what to spend his money on, that's capitalism. He has more of his money in his own hand before the tax man takes it, so that he can spend it on paint to splash over RBS windows if he so chose.

You need to ask yourself, what has capitalism done to China? Although the people of China do not have the freedom to choose their politicians, they have a choice of what they spend their money on. For those not living in the countryside, their standard of living has increased immesurably since the East embraced capitalism. They can choose when to borrow money to invest, how many people to employ, the rates that they employ people on and what to charge their customers. Everyone benefits and world spins on its axis.

There is not an enonomic/political system to rival communism for lack of freedom, but these demonstrators see some pseudo-communist state/system as the panacea for the world's ails. It's so wrong-headed, capitalism goes with the grain of the human condition, not against it.

Squiffy.