Darling Comes Clean

They say confession is good for the soul, well I’m a sure Alistair Darling soul feel less burden. When he insisted it was his duty to be straight with the public yesterday, after delivering a dire assessment of the UK’s economic prospects. He said; "It is important Government ministers and particularly me, as Chancellor, level with people.
It’s a pity that his boss Gordon Brown was a bit more honest when he was Chancellor. He was too busy buying Labour party members to become the successor to Tony Blair to worry about the economic future of the UK.
I’m sure Labour will lose parliamentary seats in the next General Election, the question is how many. There is a strong possibility Labour will look to the Liberals to form a coalition to keep them in power. I'm sure those sandal wearing nice people, would be over joyed at the prospect.

Miserable and Obese

Two very interesting surveys have been released. 1) Unhappiest places to live. 2) The most obese parts of the UK. The valleys haven’t come out very good in both. Is it Alcohol and fast foods? Both are a major diet. Every Local supermarket has special offers on packs of lagers, beers and ciders (2 for £18 or 2 for £20). Coupled with too many fast food outlets. People think alcohol is a pick me up but in fact it makes you more depressed. So the vicious circle is worried and unhappy people or people who want to forget drink and eat far too much. They then have less money and put on weight, thus eat and drink more. There should be more investment in sporting and keep fit within schools and free or subsides fitness centres for all the family. A restriction on alcohol special offers supermarkets and shops offer and a restriction on the number of fast food outlets in one town. These steps would save the NHS millions of pound and reduce waiting lists.

Child poverty across the UK is costing £40 billion a year - and tax breaks for marriage will do nothing to help

Child poverty in the east midlands alone is costing £2.8 billion a year through increased crime, public spending and lost economic productivity, a TUC conference will be told today (Wednesday 17 October). Without urgent action the Government will miss its pledge to halve the 3.8 million children currently living in poverty by 2010.
Measures in the Comprehensive Spending Review will, according to the Government's own figures, lift only an extra 100,000 children above the poverty threshold. They fall far short of the extra £4 billion that experts agree is needed to halve child poverty by 2010, the conference, coinciding with World Poverty Day will hear. And still they donate to the Labour party, WHY!!!

Big Thanks

What’s the difference between the Olympic celebrations and a BNP rally? There is more people and more people smiling during the Olympic celebrations. Thanks all for putting me 28th in the top 40 Welsh bloggers table.

Some Sport

I’m a self confessed Welsh nationalist not a British nationalist, but I will still appalled the Welsh athletes in China. Whether they won Gold, Silver, and Bronze or didn’t win medals. They might be there as part of team GB but they would have won or lost being apart of a team Wales. If there is going to be a fifth Welsh rugby region then if must contain a full squad of Welsh qualified players no foreign players. It should contain young Welsh talent who can’t get regular games in their region.

thoughts for the day

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
Mahatma Gandhi
Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift, To that of life and an immortal soul! Author: James Thomson (1)Source: Liberty (pt. V, l. 124)
Independence now: and Independence forever. Author: Daniel WebsterSource: Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Martin Luther King, Jr.

First Labour cut the NHS. Now they're cutting the Post Office.

4,000 Post Offices have already closed under Labour – that's a quarter of the country's Post Office network.
A Further 2,500 Post Offices are expected to close by 2009.
As few as 4,000 of Britain's 14,300 Post Offices may survive the decade.
This all means fewer Post Offices, providing fewer services to fewer people.The Plaid’s action plan to save our Post Offices
Give sub-Post Offices more freedom to offer a wider range of business services.
Push for more Post Offices to be "One Stop Shops" – trained staff could then advise on a range of matters including tax returns, pension entitlements, the opening hours of local pharmacies, how to apply for a disabled parking badge etc.
Encourage local Councils to open "Council Counters" in local branches.
Allow the Post Office to work with carriers other than the Royal Mail.
Prevent the Royal Mail taking business away from sub-Post Offices by under cutting the prices they can charge for postage.

Wayne David Labour MP Chief whip voted with the Labour Government with its Post Office closure plans.

Valleys' growing poverty exposed

The harsh realities of poverty in some parts of Wales have been revealed in analysis of the last census. People living in some parts of the south Wales valleys have just one dentist for every 9,000 people.
In former mining communities like Merthyr Tydfil, 11% of people are now classed as disabled or long term sick. The UK has the second highest child poverty rates in the European Union, says a new international study. Italy has the highest rates of children living in below the poverty line at 19.5%, compared to 16.2% in Britain and just 2.4% in Sweden.

Reason not to vote Labour (new or welsh)

Gordon Brown and the Labour party have been in government of over 10 years and enough is enough. Approximately 1.8 million pensioners are living in poverty, the majority of them women. The UK’s basic state pension of £87.30 a week is among the worst in Western Europe. 100 years ago, when the state pension was introduced, it was roughly 25% of average earnings. However, today it is 15% of average earnings, according to the National Pensioners Convention.
The Tories severed the link between earnings and pensions, a link that Labour hasn’t restored. The Labour party would rather means test pensioners before handing over extra benefits. Most pensioners have worked all their lives and have never gone cap in hand to any government, so why start now. Plaid Cymru like most of the unions want the earnings and pension link restored, this would mean an extra £50 per week to every pensioner. Pensioners have a choice Labour handouts or a real Plaid Cymru pension.

Caerphilly MP Shedds Crocodile Tears

Wayne David, the Labour MP for Caerphilly, welcomed the decision of Post Office Ltd to "look again" at the future of Gilfach Post Office in the Rhymney Valley. This is the stark truth. I only wish the Nationalists would put in half as much effort into fighting for local services as they do in attacking Labour MPs". The truth is Wayne you voted with the Labour government to reorganise the post office service and remove governmental services from the post office counter. You could have voted with the nationalist (Plaid Cymru) to stop all closures, but as you are a labour government whip you not only voted with the labour government you forced your labour colleagues to vote the same way. It is you that haven’t have let the people of Gilfach and the rest of your constituency down by the way you voted and the people will get their revenge at the polls.

SNP poll lead over Labour

A new poll by YouGov has recorded the biggest ever poll lead for the SNP with the party establishing a 19% lead over the Labour party in Scottish Parliament constituency voting intentions.
The poll, commissioned by the SNP, is the first since John Mason sensationally won the Glasgow East by-election and shows the SNP on 44% with Labour trailing on 25%. On the basis of these figures all three Labour leadership candidates would lose their seats to the SNP.

New Prison for Wales

One area in Wales will have a new prison which will bring in 1000 jobs and £17m investment into the area. What area can not afford that kind of investment. People are more at risk from the local rouges who haven't got caught than from the ones who got locked. The public wants governments to be tough on crime, with lock em up and give them longer sentencing attitude. But then the NIMBY in us all want it build in other areas.