Great leaders on adversity

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." - Winston Churchill.

"I have nothing to offer but taxes, taxes, taxes and taxes." - Gordon Brown perhaps!

PS When will Gordon Brown let the people decide if he's the best person to "steer the economy through difficult times"!?!

Listen and lead?

How many of the voters in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election are demanding reforms to the House of Lords as proposed in the next Queen's Speech!?!

It's barely a couple of days since Gordon Brown had said he would "listen and lead" the British public!

Number crunching

£6.5bn: Revenue raised from residential Stamp Duty last year.

£100m: Government help offered to first time buyers in the next Queen's speech.

PS Is it appropriate for the Government to encourage first time buyers when house prices are starting to fall!?!

Undercover Mosque

Will West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service now prosecute the Imams featured in "Undercover Mosque" after they have apologised to the documentary makers who they originally condemned for misrepresentation and misleading editing!?!

Number Crunching

£3.1bn: Cost of Conservative inheritance tax proposals condemned by Chancellor Alistair Darling as "an example of where the Tories are making promises on tax which they can't afford to pay for" in October 2007. "If you do that, you create the very instability which is the last thing the economy needs and people in this country would pay for that."

£2.7bn: Unfunded income tax cuts proposed by Chancellor Alistair Darling eight months later. "the measures would be funded through borrowing so as not to take money out of the economy while it was slowing."

Social Care

As Scottish Prime Minister Gordon Brown has no responsibility for social care provision in Scotland since devolution, why is he worried about social care in Britain as opposed to just England!?!

PS Number crunching!

£6bn social care shortfall in England within 20 years.

£6bn Annual UK contribution to the European Union from 2011.

Ethnic tensions

Will the Department for Communities ever suggest that the best way to reduce local tensions caused by "rising migration and diversity" would be to reduce immigration!?!

"It calls on local officials to plan against tensions by:

Properly understanding who is living in the local area

Working with a wider range of people to better monitor local trends

Making better use of local intelligence, including warning signs from community workers

Learning how to counter rumours of scaremongering which lead to violent clashes

"

Brown mouse

Does Gordon Brown have the power or support to do "whatever is necessary" to preserve the United Kingdom!?!

He is a spent force in British politics.

Air heads!

Are domestic airside workers being discriminated against if they have to undergo criminal records checks that are "too long and too complex" to be carried out for foreign workers!?!

Number Crunching

33% - Confiscation rate for assets of convicted drugs dealer.

40% - Higher rate income tax.

BNP voters

Has anyone welcomed the election of a BNP member to the London Assembly as a victory for democracy and proportional representation!?!

Why should 130,417 voters be denied representation!?! They have as much right to be represented as any other voters whether you consider their politics to be distasteful or not.

They polled twice as many votes as George Galloway's Respect and were only 75,000 votes behind those crazy Greens! The same greens that the major political parties are all trying to embrace!

Personality defects?

Which Labour MPs have personality defects!?!

"There isn't - outside of those who have their own personal malice towards Gordon or indeed the odd ones with personality defects - a challenge against Gordon Brown." - Tony Lloyd, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party!

Politics of the snake?

How will Gordon Brown possibly reassure Labour backbenchers that he can lead them to success!?!

Labour face a double whammy of electoral defeat. They are unable to appeal to floating voters thanks to rampant tax increases and have shed too many of their core voters due to devolution and immigration.

Labour backbenchers are finally facing up to the fact that they cannot be replaced, unlike a snake!

In the Name of God, Go!

It's great waking up to discover that you are not alone in despising Gordon Brown!

"Labour is on course to suffer its worst performance in at least 40 years in the local elections in England and Wales."

Unions strike back!

If workers should not suffer when management make mistakes, should workers benefit when management do well!?!

"The workforce did not contribute to the situation which the bank now finds itself in and should not be expected to pay the ultimate price by being forced out of their jobs." - Graham Goddard, deputy general secretary at Unite on Northern Rock.

"This is a very profitable plant. It's made, we reckon, about a billion pounds over the last 10 years. Why is he attacking the workers?" - Labour MP Michael Connarty on Ineos

Mayday!

How do you vote in the local elections when you want to punch Gordon Brown and slap David Cameron whilst ignoring Nick whatsisname!?!

Ministry of Indefensible!

Why did the Ministry of Defence opt for a "cost plus" scaffolding contract rather than a fixed price deal!?!

It would then have avoided any possibility of fraud and offered the taxpayer better value for money too!

"It was an environment which was ripe for printing money but they did not have to print money." - Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith

Student rags to riches?

Would fewer graduates consider a career in the City if they could leave University with fewer debts!?!

"I do think it is rather unattractive that so many young people, when contemplating careers, look at the compensation packages available in the City and think that these dominate almost any other type of career." - Mervin King speaking to the Treasury Select Committee.

"Graduates leaving university [in 2005] had average debts of £13,252." - BBC News Online.

Number Crunching

48,217 - Teachers who think they deserve a pay rise.

511,671 - Pupils who think they don't.

Tidal flow

If half the recent wave of EU migrants have already gone back home, who has stayed!?!

Counting chickens before they come home to roost!

How will the FSA keep a straight face investigating liquidity rumours and short selling in HBOS shares when it has just announced a £4bn right issue!?!

Will HBOS management welcome another request to invest in their employer!?!

Criminal Injustice System

Will anyone in the criminal justice system be sacked for their "lackadaisical or nonchalant approach [ ] to many routine aspects of the handling of cases" that culminated in the murder of Richard Whelan?

Are the authorities more fearful of appearing "institutionally racist" than of victims' families?