Rebekah Brooks: Now The Whinging Begins.

We've had the quiet and dignified Rebekah Brooks and, at the Leveson Enquiry, we've had the confident but sadly ill-informed Rebekah Brooks. Now, with news that she is to be charged with perverting the course of justice, we have the whinging Rebekah Brooks. Let down by her friends (she means Cameron), subjected to a "witch hunt" that she was only too willing to inflict on others and unable to explain where her files and laptop have disappeared to, she is now reduced to suggesting that her prosecution is "an expensive side-show." Professing to be "baffled" by the charges which she sees as the "result of an unjust and weak decision," she cannot understand the concept of taking responsibility for the way in which she allowed her staff to break the law on an industrial scale. Rather she sees herself as having "no involvement with the central issues," an innocent who was happy to wield the power and happy to take the money but is now trying to make us all believe that she had absolutely no idea what her job was supposed to be or what those who worked for her were doing. Of course in News International she was hardly alone. No one from Rupert Murdoch down, it seems, had any grasp of the business they were in and absolutely no idea of what all those strange people who surrounded them were up to. Sounds like any other highly paid executive to me.

Economic Forecast Cut Again.

The Bank of England has cut its forecast for economic growth in Britain this year from 1.2% to 0,8% and has warned that inflation will remain stubbornly high for the foreseeable future. Worse yet Mervyn King has said that the Eurozone is "tearing itself apart" and that Britain cannot remained unscathed as our chief trading partners descend into chaos. With Baroness Warsi warning against "radical thoughts" it seems that the British government is content to remain in its complacent lethargy safe beneath layers of thought-proof concrete. David Cameron remains distracted by his potentially disastrous appearance before the Leveson Enquiry. George Osborne is too busy protecting the rights of tax havens. Andrew Lansley is too intent on asset stripping the last thing of value in the country, the NHS, for the benefit of his rich mates. Ian Duncan Smith, believing himself to be Jesus Christ, is too preoccupied with inflicting revenge on the disabled for refusing his command to "get up and walk." Theresa May is too busy removing police officers from the streets and border guards from the airports. And what can we say about Nick Clegg except that he's the walking dead? Forget radical thought for the moment, any kind of thought from this sorry collection of misanthropes would make a refreshing change.

Greece Refuses To Fall On Its Sword.

Greek politicians have now completed the final round of their new national game OXI! (NO!) and have failed once again to offer themselves up for sacrifice at the Euro altar. A disorderly exit from the Euro now seems inevitable. Yet the head of the European Bank, Christine Lagarde, has spoken of her bemusement over the present crisis, telling us that she thought she had "covered all the possibilities." All the possibilities except the most obvious it would seem. And that, apparently, is the nub of the problem. Many European leaders, though there are less of them every day, just cannot accept that their most cherished economic theories are more or less bunk. Nor can they bring themselves to see the glaringly obvious truth that the system is now broken beyond repair. It does not need fixing - it needs replacing. Growing inequality is no longer acceptable and, if we are to believe that "we're all in this together," we want concrete proof that it is so. Rewarding the wealthy for yet another failure is no longer an option. And if the wealthy can't accept this then they should be allowed to emigrate to Mars or Pluto or wherever they feel their money can keep them safe.

Baroness Warsi In State Of Panic.

Baroness Warsi, the soon to be ex-CoChairman of the Tory party, had an attack of the vapours today. This was prompted by Ed Milliband's decision to appoint the free thinking Jon Crudas as his policy chief. "Labour has lurched to the left," she commented, as if this was enough to damn the Labour party out of hand. Curious, we asked the mentally challenged Tory peer to expand on her outburst; "When the Labour party starts to think in radical terms in order to tackle what is merely an economic disaster of unrivaled proportions it simply goes to show that they think too much about these things. We in the Tory party try not to think too much because it confuses us and we prefer knee-jerk reaction based on ideology. Its a well-known fact that talking to anyone who is not a banker makes you a Communist. Voters have to realise that our fiendishly clever plan to destroy the country's economy, flog off the NHS to our corporate mates, throw all disabled and useless people onto the street and reward the rich with even more privileges is the only way forward. At a time of mass starvation it is vitally important to serve the rich with ever larger meals - that's only common sense. Ed Milliband has abandoned the centre ground making it absolutely certain that we'll win the next election and, as CoChairman and chief ethnic token woman in the Tory party, that frighten's me to death. I mean, what are we supposed to do in a second term? It's not as if we'll have another economy to destroy or another population to bring to the edge of despair is it?"

Olympic VIP's To Be "Fast-Tracked" By The NHS.

Olympic VIP's who happen to fall ill or suffer and accident during the games will be "fast-tracked" by London A&E departments to make sure that they are treated within 30 minutes. The arrangement, which has been vigorously denied by the government, is reported "to be in force" at all the designated hospitals and is designed to make sure that rich, important people jump the queue ahead of those tax-payers who finance the NHS. "Of course this is nonsense," Andrew Lansley told our reporter. "Rich and important people have always been able to jump the queue ahead of the peasants. That's how it should be in any modern democracy where privatisation is king. You can't expect rich people, with their natural superiority, to wait around in a hospital corridor on a trolly for hours on end with working-class scum - especially if they're connected with sport in some way. It's inhuman and would embarass the government no end."

Top Tories Vie For Approval In The Fuehrer's Bunker.

Nicholas Soames pictured above, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill and widely regarded as a member of the Tory party's "old guard" has today resigned from the influential 1922 Committee. He was forced to do so because he thinks that David Cameron is an idiot, which is true, and because Cameron's admirers want the criticism by the "old guard" of their leader to stop. As the country sinks ever deeper into economic disaster and the enemy, just about everyone who doesn't vote Tory out of habit or sheer idiocy, is approaching from all sides, Cameron has slammed shut the idea-proof door of his bunker while his admirers vie for his approval as the world around them disintegrates into rubble and dust. Hitler, in the end, shot himself. So has Cameron, though only in the foot. Perhaps Rebekah Brookes will now pick up the still-smoking gun and finish the job.

Germany Sucks The Blood Out Of Europe.

To be honest you can't blame Germany for taking the stance it has. Always productive, always efficient and always hard working, why should they pauperise themselves to save feckless countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy? There's no reason why they should except, of course, they allowed these countries to join the Euro for purely "political" reasons knowing that they were a disaster just waiting to happen. Now, in order to save the European banking system and their own economic future, they have no choice but to force austerity down everyone else's throat. If they don't the Euro will fall apart, European banks will either fail or have to be rescued by Germany alone and the German economy will go the way of all flesh. For the French, waking up to the realisation that the austerity strategy only gives them minimal protection, the temptation to jump ship is becoming overwhelming. Which leaves Britain. Why is it persuing austerity? For the narrow ideological interests of a tiny elite intent on protecting their money while the rest of us go under. In Britain the neoliberal economic thesis is being allowed to run its course to ultimate disaster, while Germany is forcing its neighbours down the same route even as it runs for the hills itself. For the German government it is a cold equation, for Britain it is the pure vindictiveness of Tory party that has no interest other than maintaining privilege for the wealthy. Unfortunately for Angela Merkel and David Cameron the ordinary people in Europe are not content to roll over and play dead. The message is clear. They said "We're all in this together." The people have said, "OK, then you can crash and burn with the rest of us."

Neoliberlism: The Jig Is Up.

"Neoliberalism is a contemporary political movement advocating economic liberalizations, free trade and open markets. Neoliberalism supports the privatization of nationalized industries, deregulation, and enhancing the role of the private sector in modern society." Hmmm. Well, we've had thirty years of this horse manure so far and how has it fared? Free trade has so far delivered only unemployment. Privatization of nationalised industries has delivered ever-increasing prices. Deregulation has led to ever-lower wages and less rights for workers. Enhancing the role of the private sector has led to ever-increasing inequality. The rich have got richer and the poor have got poorer. The rich pay less and less tax, the poor pay more and more. Corruption in high places, in business, politics and the media is rampant. And now, to add insult to injury, the whole rotten system has come crashing down, threatening to ruin us all, destroy a civilization that has lasted 2,000 years and delivered victory to our ideological rivals on a plate. After the so-called fall of Communism in the 1990's the West has managed to seize defeat from the jaws of victory. They sold us a pup and now are busy trying to sell us another one. When these greedy, smug, self-centred morons talk to us about austerity there is not the vaguest hint that they are ready to take the hit as well. "We're all in this together." Really? Of course not. They are busily engaged trying to save a system that is beyond repair because that is in their narrow interests. But the worst thing is that they are too dim, too unimaginative and just too plain stupid to see what is staring them in the face. The party's over, it's time to call it a day, the jig is most definitely up.

Lansley Continues Campaign To Soften Up The NHS.

Andrew Lansley continued his campaign of softening up the NHS for privatisation by lying through his teeth at the Royal College of Nursing's annual congress. Hr trotted out the usual rubbish about "listening" to NHS professionals but his body language showed clearly that he wasn't listening and had no intention of doing so. Then he claimed that front line staff had actually increased during his ministry, prompting one member of the audience to shout out "Liar!" It was clear, by this stage, that Lansley wasn't actually talking to the congress but to the cameras hoping that his soundbite approach would bury the facts. But the truth cannot so easily be hidden. Lansley is deliberately undermining the NHS, destroying morale and preventing it from working as it should in a shabby attempt to retrospectively excuse his privatisation plan. He is wrecking it with malice aforethought, softening it up for the corporate vultures lining up to bribe the Tory party as their reward for this piece of criminal assett stripping.

Francis Maude Feather's His Own Nest.

While the likes of William Hague, Simon Hunt and Eric Pickles have been telling everyone today that they will have to work harder and longer their mate Francis Maude has been busy making sure that MP's and Cabinet Minister's pensions are even more gold plated than they were before. The changes to their pensions that came into force yesterday meant that they would have to pay an extra 2.4% in contributions, but the rewards they get will soar. For an extra £229 per year while they are in cabinet (which in the case of this lot means 3 years) they will receive a whopping £314 per year for up to twenty years. In other words for an extra contibution of £687 they stand to get back as much as £6,280. By any standards a good deal. All in all that means that today’s cabinet ministers can look forward to a £731,000 retirement pot - worth a potential £43,000-plus a year - for five years "work"! Many people regard such things as proof of hypocrisy. In fact its much worse then that - it is proof of sheer criminality.