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pfgpowell

Listed below are comments made by pfgpowell between Wednesday, 23rd April 2008 and Monday, 8th June 2009.

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'A battle of the bodies' 9:52pm on 08 Jun 2009 Well, Brown had better get a move on because who pays for a Chinese meal is riding on it. I have wagered that he will be gone by PMQs on Wednesday, so Nick's report has rather dismayed me.
"I'm sorry the iceberg was there" 7:07pm on 10 Feb 2009 The really galling thing (of a great many galling things) is that for all these apologies, select committee hearings, royal commissions - there is bound to be one of those - and ponderous statements that 'lessons must be learnt', nothing, but nothing will change. Nothing. Nothing at all.

'Sir' Fred Godwin and 'Sir' Tom McKillop and all the other knights of the realm (and why, exactly, were they knighted?) will all make the appropriate noises, take early retirement, then slink off to their place in the Exmoor, or Cornwall or Powys or the Peak District, well padded with a wonderful pension subsidised by 'consultancy work' and running a quango. Others will take their place, accept a knighthood and the whole sorry state of affairs will continue.

We are living in cloud cuckoo land if we think any lessons will be read. The wide boys will continue and the rest of us can get stuffed.

I read today of a pensioner who once had £6,000 of HBOS shares, which were converted into Lloyds TSB shares and are now worth the princely sum of £250. All these nauseating apologies mean nothing to her. And, Nick, you know this is all true.
Confusion on the wildcat strikes 12:50pm on 02 Feb 2009 Above all, what is apparent to me is just how solid the solidarity which is thought to underpin the EU is. There are no wildcat strikes in Britain if a firm in County Durham empliys men from Devon. This is for the simple reason that those in County Durham and those in Devon feel they are from the same country and feel some sort of kinship. Were similarly feeling present as regards the EU - if we all did feel we were 'Europeans' first and foremost - then there would be none of these wildcat strikes. The faultline lies in a rather phoney Europeanism being foistered on us. it is not even skin-deep and, as the strikes show, fails as soon as it is put to the test.
Georgia crisis tests EU 5:57pm on 27 Aug 2008 Not in a million years would I defend or even be thought to be defending those gangsters in the Kremlin the West is partly to blame for this mess by so preciptously recognising Kosovo. After that it is merely a matter of perspective whether or not Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are provocative or merely spell loyalty to Mother Russia. To the man in the street in Russia it will seem to be very much a case of what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The inconvenient truth is that a rather substantial majority in Russia has been doing rather well since the demise of the Soviet Union (after a few early rough years) and is unconvinced that this democracy lark is worth a candle. But they are convinced that, despite US denials, the missiles Washington wants to station in Poland and the various moves to get several former Soviet bloc states into Nato are all at heart intended as threats to Russia. Not so, we cry, we are peace-loving democrats. Honest. Well, we like to think so, but invading Iraq to bring about 'regime change' in the greater interest of humankind and all that sort of guff rather underwhelms your average Russian who is apt to see hypocrisy in the West's every move. As for the EU managing to cobble together a unified strategy which all 27 - 27, for goodness sake - will stick to rigidly, well, I'm not at all sanguine, but for once I hope Brussels will prove me wrong. You see Moscow knows just what a load of bickering idiots inhabit Brussels and seems to be banking on the fact that whatever it does, the EU couldn't organise an orgy in brothel.
Irish No sparks EU crisis 4:23pm on 13 Jun 2008 I can fully accept that having an EU of 27 states is unworkable under present arrangements, but is it not obvious to all the EU wonks that coming up with a change of rules and arrangements which is less ambitious but do command universal acceptance is the answer. But no, they insist on constructing what is, to all intents and purposes - and despite denial a overarching superstate, complete with head of state and standing army. The secret is to take the people with you and I am not aware that there is huge ongoing clamouring for these arrangements. If you impose from the top down you will, sooner or later meet with trouble. Smaller states especially, such as Ireland which has only relatively recently gained true independence. are vulnerable to getting lost among the big boys and girls, so it comes as no surprise to me that the Irish have said 'no'.
Early starts 08:19am on 09 Jun 2008 I mean this is the nicest way possible, but how come the others don't get a blog? Didn't they want one? The other question I have always wanted to ask is, given that working as the Beeb's economics correspondent must have been very interesting, what decided you to switch to presenting Today?
By-election reactions 4:45pm on 23 May 2008 Might I make a prediction? A year or two before the 2025 General Election (it might, at a pinch, be the 2030 General Election, Labour (or whichever party is by then the voice of the caring/radical left) will grab a safe Tory seat with a massive swing. Nick's successor at the BBC will comment that this means the writing is pretty much on the wall for the Tories, who had made such a promising start after their landslide victory in 2010. The Tory leadership will put on a brave face and promise that loads of new policies are being prepared and that it was elected to do a job and, by jingo, the voter expects them to hang on and do that job. Meanwhile, one morning, the sun rises in the East. Or to put it another way, the dogs bark and the caravan moves on.
Labour in-fighting 6:53pm on 12 May 2008 Note to moderators: I have just read the email telling me my posting earlier had been removed. I am baffled. Could you tell me why. And please don't just say it broke house rules, or point me in the direction of the house rules. Please tell me specifically exactly where I went wrong. You allowed it once, then suddenly it's offensive? PP
Labour in-fighting 11:48am on 12 May 2008 This is the fourth time I've got this page. There's a glitch I think. PP
He gets it but will they? 08:47am on 23 Apr 2008 I think what is telling is how the Government has got itself into such a daft situation. In a way it is all part and parcel of the horribly convoluted, inefficient and degrading system of 'tax credits'. What is needed is a complete and thorough rationalisation of the tax system, and for 'rationalisation' read 'simplification'. I personally favour replacing direct taxation with indirect taxation, but whatever principle is chosen, it must become simpler. With computerisation it is now possible to have not only two or three tax band but ten, and it would be far fairer to tax us all progressively than to take money away from us and then get us to apply to the Treasury to get some of it back again. I firmly believe that that the state is there to serve us, not we the state.

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