So, the dust has settled after what is steadily appearing to be Gordon Brown’s last budget and people are starting to see it for what it really is – a cover.
However, the front to it is most definitely an attempt to drum up support for his campaign – especially in Scotland – his own people, where he is rapidly losing support ahead of the 3rd May elections.

I’d much rather have Miliband (either of them) as the leader of the Labour party – in fact it’d make me more inclined for vote for them, as I would probably have voted for Blair in the previous three elections, but there is no way on earth that I will vote for Gordon Brown.

Apologies for the slight hint of a rant, but at least I didn’t move on to our esteemed President and Lord of the Universe, George W Bush…

This is, quite clearly a hot topic – and I have tried to leave this for as long as possible before making a comment on it so I don’t have to either a) keep on editing the post or b) keep on posting updates.

Iran have got themselves and us into a bit of a fix. We’re both at a stage where neither of us can back down without looking weak. Quite simply – we’re stuck.
Neither the UK or the Iranian governments are going to admit that the other is right – no matter whether it is true or false – and I think that they are probably both at a stage in the preceedings where even if their data is fabricated (on either side) then they will start to believe it.
The communication from within Iran has been used totally ineffectively – starting a letter with:

Dear Representative of the House of Commons

– what kind of a brit would *ever* use that – and if they did, they’d fail New Labour’s citizenship test.

Therefore the demands within that letter – withdrawal from Iraq – cannot be taken seriously, however the opposite is true of the treatment of the soldiers as even if this was written by Faye Turney’s hand, it certainly didn’t contain her own words, therefore her own beliefs – and therefore necesarily the truth.

So, both in this post, and in the situation – we’ve got nowhere. The UN has proved itself to be useless – the EU is doing what it always does, offer mindless chatter but no action and meanwhile Mugabe’s Zimbabwe looks set to have to endure another half decade of violence, torture and general persecution because the African continent is afraid to stand up for itself.

As I’ve just expressed in this post on Twitter I’m a) not feeling great and b) not in a good mood (as a result of both that and also an argument in a restaurant earlier) so apologies for the slightly rambling nature of this post and as ever, I’m offering a vaguely reasonable excuse.

Well, luckily for me, for the train journey that I most frequently take hasn’t changed too much – the single has remained the same and the return is up by just 5p – about 3%.

I think we’ve been quite lucky – in fact the extended journey into town hasn’t gone up, but down…

However where I think I may be hit the most are the tube prices unless I give in and get an oyster card, although I believe you can just get one from a simple vending machine so it remains totally anonymous.

We know that Blair is on his way out – certainly by this time next year he will be long gone, but are we really going to be subjected to Gordon Brown leading the country for 2 years until the next election, or will David Cameron get what he wants and there be an election before the end of 2007.

I’m torn on this one – if the election sticks to the current schedule, chances are that it would be held in May 2009 – by which time I will have turned 18 and therefore be able to vote.
However on the other hand, without an election soon, there may not be much of a country left for me to vote in.
по моему (in my opinion), Brown’s economic policy has crippled the country quite well – especially with the pensions system and the rate of tax – included some wonderful stealth taxing.
He seems to me to be a wholly irresponsible leader – although I would love to be proven wrong on this – sadly his last budget would suggest that there is truth to my argument.

Well, as of 0300 GMT this morning Saddam Hussein is no more, but I still have not been convinced that the death penalty was the right way to punish him.

For one, it isn’t much of a punishment – he is now seen as a martyr for the cause – especially in the eyes of his supporters.

The Americans are still occupying Iraq – therefore it is not the Iraqi’s justice, but Bush’s. Another death, after so many will solve nothing. Whatsoever.

There are much better punishments and the trial should have been in an international court like similar trials before – morally sounder and juster – but the American’s wouldn’t support it.

Oh, and I support the Government on this one:

“The British government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or anywhere else. We advocate an end to the death penalty worldwide, regardless of the individual or the crime.”
Margret Beckett – Foreign Secretary

And I could go on for days about the nature of the war in Iraq itself. We were lied to. Simple as that – so why are we still interfering?