Just what are you suggesting?

BBC article on the whole 'Ecstasy should be class-B' thing:

Blah blah blah blah... heard it, nothing new here... etc. etc... oh... wait...

"Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said it called into question the government's choice of advisers."

I would dearly like to know if Mr Grayling is suggesting that you only pick advisors who tell you what you want to hear, rather than - oh, I don't know - the truth?

In this (apparently not-so-enlightened) age, you would think that people might be willing to weigh up the empirical evidence and listen to the opinions of those who have studied a subject in depth, rather than dismiss the issue out of hand simply because you don't like what they're saying.

Sadly, it seems Grayling is little different from Jacqui Smith on this matter - letting ill-informed opinion get in the way of a rational debate.

If you wanted sock-puppets, you should have said so.

The boy who lied

I heartily apologise for the total lack of blogging for the last week or so. My bad, etc.

So, quick recap - Obama got sworn in, Gordy B immediately tried to pin himself to the reflected glory, RBS became even more nationalised than it was already (oh, how the mighty have fallen) and I got thoroughly 'refreshed' at a Burns Dinner one night early. Because having Burns night on a Sunday - and therefore a school night - is just silly.

Anyway, on the notice board at work a co-worker had posted a piece of poetry singing the praises of GB for nationalising RBS in the name of every Scot, thus saving the world. This irritated me on a number of levels, not the least because it involved nationalising, a distinct lack of economic understanding, and because it smacked of nationalism. I therefore spent fifteen minutes of my lunchtime coming up with a suitably withering response, got a bit bored, and came up with this.

The Boy Who Lied
by teh basementcat

Economy in meltdown,
A currency in decline,
A leader who is frightful,
And apparently quite blind.

While mortgaging our future,
Haemorrhaging our cash,
He seems to think we’ll let him,
Spend our money like a rash.

The solution isn’t working,
Simply spending will not save,
When grassroots change is needed,
This man is just not brave.

He will not trust the public,
He curtails our liberty,
He wants their private data,
But he’ll lose it as you’ll see.

A rigid style of leading,
He bullies all his peers,
Decries opponents as ‘do nothing’,
When they are what he fears.

He claimed an end to boom-and-bust,
That he brought a golden age,
While flush he failed to fix the roof,
He’s clearly no great sage.

His work is self protection,
Delusion is his game,
Our fault to perpetrate it,
But, oh, what is his name?

His touch is not like Midas,
This misguided lying clown,
He curses all he touches,
His name is Jonah Brown.

Okay, so it's hardly Whitbred Prize-winning stuff, but it was a suitable outlet for my irritation.

What are you afraid of? Ze Germans?

Actually, Gordon really ought to listen to them. When he dismissed Peer Steinbruck's criticism of Labour's economic policy as 'internal party politics' because of the Grand Democratic Coalition in Germany, he didn't anticipate being contradicted at the source by Steffen Kampeter, Angela Merkel's Chancellor.

Mr Kampeter said: "Peer Steinbruck's comments have nothing whatsoever to do with internal German politics, as Prime Minister Brown has suggested. In questioning the British government's approach, Peer Steinbruck is exactly expressing the views of the German Grand Coalition. After years of lecturing us on how we need to share in the gains of uncontrolled financial markets, the Labour politicians can't now expect us to share in its losses. The tremendous amount of debt being offered by Britain shows a complete failure of Labour policy."

Despite all of this, David Milliband raised his head above the parapet to claim that the Germans backed UK policy.

No David, they don't. They are willing to provide fiscal stimulus, but they are not prepared to borrow vast amounts of money to do so. How about you go back to Gordon and explain to him that since borrowing got us into this mess, maybe trying to borrow our way out of it isn't quite such a good idea.

UPDATE - Quote added.