The Labour Leadership Letter

So Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have co-authored a letter to Labour MPs asking for a secret vote to determine whether Gordon Brown stays labour leader or not.

Forgive me if I don't cheer.

Yes, I want Gordoom out of number 10, but to replace an unelected and unpopular leader with yet another unelected leader is for me, the supreme arrogance. If Labour MPs want a change of leader, then they should call for a vote of no confidence and trigger a general election. Yet again, instead they cast you and me, the voters of the UK aside and declare the unilateral right to impose a leader upon us.

Enough is enough. Labour MPs should stop griping and grow some fucking balls. Do whatever is necessary for your party's sake and the sake of the country. End this pitiful mess, relieve Gordoom from his misery and give us, the people that fucking put you where you are now the chance to say who we want running the show.


Far be it from me to point out this could be another of Mandelson's theatrical specials in motion. Winning a secret ballot of MPs would serve a number of purposes: Gordoom could be promoted as a strong, revitalised leader after winning the backing of his party, it gives a sense that he's been elected (except its only by MPs not by us of course) and given some sort of mandate, MPs can look happy and rally round Gordoom with their rictus grins. The electorate would no doubt fall for the hype, but I do wonder how many times the Gordon Brown brand can be repackaged. I mean, he's been the saviour of the world, he's been getting on with the job, he's promised British Jobs for British Workers..... he's had more makeovers than Madonna.

Weather Chaos: Again!

The wife is a carer for autistic adults and tonight she's working overnight because staff haven't been able to get into work due to the chaos caused by the snow. Its higly likely she'll be working tomorrow as well covering absent staff.
I took her overnight clothes to her work, which is 3 miles away. The 6 mile round trip took me 2 hours!!

Now, I must say this, at no point on my journey did I feel that conditions were bad. In fact, I could have happily done the journey in a quarter of the time, except for the poor driving skills of others. It really does seem that Southern drivers don't have the faintest idea how to drive in slippery conditions.

Twice, in my journey, I passed cars that were failing to get up the slightest of inclines, wheels spinning. One one occasion, a car I was following slithered to a halt, front wheels spinning away, after losing grip. After waiting for the driver to realise, ease off the power and regain grip, I indicated, pulled out and overtook the car. My son in the passenger seat noticed the driver was open mouthed as I overtook them where they had failed.

The thing is, it wasn't isolated instances. Time after time, I saw drivers losing grip and instead of backing off the power, they were pressing the accelerator and just increasing the problem.

Southern drivers, please take note: you don't need a 4x4 to get around in this weather, its still within the capabilities of 2 wheel drive vehicles. All you have to remember, is that grip is extremely reduced, so the amount of throttle available to use before the wheels spin up is minimal. So, feather foot the throttle, pull away with minimal throttle; idling if necessary. If the wheels do lose grip, then back off the throttle and control the clutch until the wheels stop spinning and grip is restored. You can drive up icy and snowy hills if you take it easy.

Also remember in icy conditions, you can't rely on ABS brakes. On ice, if the wheels lose grip and the ABS kicks in, it can severely increase your stopping distance. Feather foot the brakes, leave plenty of room to stop, don't go faster than conditions allow you to.

After all of the above, I wonder if I'll get into work in the morning as buses have been cancelled and I don't fancy cycling 4 miles there and back on ice and snow.

The Seismograph Twitches

Its started to happen: the first twitches of the needle indicating the financial landslide into global obscurity for the UK happened today.

UK gilts are about as unwelcome as genital warts in the financial world right now, ever since it became clear that Labour's clever financial plan is to run up a colossal debt and then wait for self-induced inflation to sort out the mess.

Okay, at the end of it, our debt will be manageable again, house prices will be affordable again, but we're going to suffer possibly two decades or more of financial strife to pay for one term of incompetent government. In effect, the lifetime of my children, who are now moving into adulthood, will be wasted paying for the excesses of these monumental fuckups.

Thats the legacy of Labour: a whole generation wasted, who will be too old to enjoy it when we get back to the growth levels of the 90s (if we ever get back there). I hope they never, ever, get in power again.