Tony Bliar.........

I only managed to catch snippets of Bliar's questioning at the Chilcott Enquiry yesterday but in the evening the news channels dedicated hours to a de-construction of his evidence.

Undoubtedly, Bliar is a phenomenally intelligent man. Unfortunately for him he's a also a complete egomaniac.

Quite obviously he fails to see any wrong whatsoever in the Iraq war. He batted out half-truth after half-truth, twisting evidence laughably claiming that George W Bush's motive of regime change in Iraq was the same as his (apparent and claimed) motive of stopping Saddam Hussein and his WMDs, just said a bit differently.

Well hang on a minute. A million people in Britain marched against this war. The EU was against this war. NATO was against this war. The UN was against this war. All of the Foreign Office lawyers said that a sojourn in Iraq was illegal. Even Lord Goldsmith (who had been created a lifelong peer by Bliar in 1999) the Attorney General, who was a close friend of Bliar, was against it before he inexplicably changed his mind. Members of his cabinet like Clare Short and Robin Cook who stood up to Bliar were boxed into a corner and forced out.

And this dictatorial type of behaviour was all done in the name of bringing so-called democracy to Iraq!

Bliar is a complete disgrace. He had an opportunity, at the end of the day, to express regret for the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq, many of whom had friends and relatives watching him give his evidence, and he failed to take it. Indeed, he rubbed salt in their wounds by stating he would do exactly the same again.

I just hope that one day Bliar is truly held to account and responsible for his actions. If he had been a President of Venezuela, North Korea or Iran and done what he did he would either be in the Hague now or buried 6 feet under with rope burns on his broken neck..........

Rangers and Celtic in the Premier League

I had a very good (and drunken) night in Glasgow on Saturday which was preceded by a trip to Ibrox to watch Rangers play Hearts.

Quite simply, the standard of football was appalling. Not having seen much of the Old Firm this season, I was genuinely looking forward to this game. I was shocked by the whole experience. The game was dull, the standard low and quite how Rangers can justify claiming a place in the English Premier League I'll never know....

The Glazers, Ferguson & David Gill

All over the sports pages over the last few days have been the reports that Manchester United are in serious financial trouble after the takeover of the club by Malcolm Glazer (pictured above) and his odious little clan which was completed in 2005.

Now, I'm far from an economics expert (in fact I know sweet FA about economics). But I do know that if you can't afford something, you can't buy it. It's as simple as that. Maybe I'm too conservative, but I just don't think that racking up lots of debt is a good thing because you never know what's just around the corner.

The Glazers couldn't afford to buy Manchester United outright (or if they could they didn't want to) and so what did they do? They borrowed somewhere in the region of £650MILLION, secured it against the club and thus they were the new 'owners'. Now, since United were taken over they have won a hat-trick of Premier League titles, thus ensuring they've been guaranteed places in the group stages of the Champions League and all the money that that brings. They've won the Champions League and also come runners-up in the same competition, this done in consecutive seasons. They've even made profit on their transfer dealings. And yet, in the last financial year they only made a profit thanks to the sale of Ronaldo to Madrid for £80Million, having made a loss in excess of £40Million in the year before.

Now there are reports that the Glazers could take out up to £130Million from the club next year, and anything up to £500Million by 2017!!

This is an absolute disgrace. United were previously a well-run profitable club with no debts. So how can it be allowed to happen that an American with no interest in the game whatsoever is allowed to borrow a truckload of cash, take over and then place the debt on the club? We are now looking at the possible prospect of not only selling off Carrington, but Old Trafford as well. Which we then lease back!

And I'm amazed how lightly David Gill appears to have got off. I still remember him saying, when the takeover was in its early days and doubts were being raised about the financial implications of such a takeover, that he would never entertain the idea if it wasn't in the best interests of the club.

And just 4.5 years later, where are we?

And as for Alex Ferguson, he's let the fans down just as badly as anyone. In fact considering how long he's been with the club and how well he OUGHT to know the history of the club, you could almost argue he's been the worst of the lot. From the start he's been a Glazer sychophant, quick to praise and never to criticise. Even now he laughably claims that everything is 'ok' and he still has the Ronaldo money to spend on players.

Yet it's strange how, having spent £30Million on Berbatov, £28.1Million on Veron and an inflated £30Million on Ferdinand, he only now starts worrying about 'value in the market'............ And his arrogant, condescending attitude towards the club set up in response to Glazer, FC United of MAnchester, just goes to show how much in bed with the Glazers Ferguson really is.

All in all, we're in a right mess. Part of me hopes that the whole thing does go pop and we do a Leeds. At least then we'll see who the real fans are and we can put this whole debacle behind us......

Are the wheels falling off for the BNP?

Interesting developments within the BNP.

It appears 3 senior members of the party, Mike Easter, Chris Jackson and Kevin Bryan, have urged supporters of the BNP not to give money to the party any more as there are serious doubts as to where the money actually goes.

The BNP's accounts still haven't been given to the Electoral Commission, as required by law, resulting in a fine. This is a repeat of last year when the BNP were again late in producing their accounts for 2007 and when they finally released them they were deemed to be unsatisfactory by the Electoral Commission audit office.

One of the three, Chris Jackson, actually stood against Nick Griffin for the party leadership a couple of years ago. However, in elections that would have made Robert Mugabe squirm with embarrassment, Griffin unsurprisingly retained leadership of the party.

Now these 3 are breaking away from the BNP and are looking to resurrect the National Front as the chosen party for Britain's far-right brigade. Amid rumblings of discontent within the BNP as to the direction that Fuhrer Nick is taking them, is this the beginning of the end of the BNP in its present form...............?

Christmas Number 1

This was a victory for all of us who appreciate proper music, written by proper musicians who can actually use instruments to perform their music. You might not like RATM but at least they wrote and can perform it.

The charts have been decimated for far too long by mass-produced, suger-coated pap that is so mediocre it's untrue.

Groups (and that's what they are, despite the likes of Louis Walsh calling them bands) like Westlife, Boyzone and the like are created purely to appeal to teenage girls and bored housewives and they just churn out cover after cover after cover.

Proper bands rarely get a look-in anymore.

And although there is a certain irony in a song that encourages people to think for themselves and do what they want being promoted as a rival to Simon Cowell for the Christmas Number 1, something had to be chosen, and although on the face of it the way the song has been promoted would appear to go against the ethos of the song, maybe we should look a little deeper.

Millions of people tuned into watch X Factor every week for 12/13 weeks. Every week they were spoon-fed by Simon Cowell and his sychophants sat next to him.

We had Cheryl's pained face which made her look like she needed considerably more fibre in her diet than she was actually getting, as she had to make a choice of who to send home-almost as if this was a surprise event to her every week.

We had Dannii Minogue's face that didn't move at all.

We had Louis Walsh comparing everyone, every week to a 'young Ronan Keating' or a 'young Westlife'.

Then we had the pantomime villain, Simon Cowell. Have people already forgotten the completely over-the-top gushing of praise he gave Cheryl Cole after her less-than-inspiring performance of her new single? And why was this? Purely to get the millions of sheep watching to go and buy it.

The X Factor was a cosy little arrangement for Simon Cowell, whereby he hijacked Saturday night TV and used it to make millions of pounds for himself and he arrogantly automatically assumed he would be guaranteed the Christmas Number 1 slot every year.

Well, this is a wake up call for him. And I'm looking forward to seeing which song gets selected to be the anti-X-Factor song next Christmas!

BA Cabin Crew

So the results are in and British Airways cabin crew (pictured left) have overwhelmingly voted to go on strike.

Over 80% of the membership voted with 92% voting in favour of strike action. Which begs the question: What the fook are they thinking?

I have every sympathy with workers who feel that the only way they can make their managers hear their voices is by going on strike. However, this is madness and I wouldn't mind betting a hefty sum that many of those who voted in favour of strike action will, asa result, be out of a job this time next year as BA make savage cuts or, even worse, collapse completely.

This is a company that lost over £400Million last year. They lost almost £150Million in the first 3 months of this year alone. They have a pension deficit of over £3Billion. So what do these idiots who claim to love the company they work for do? Vote to strike for 12 days during one of the most important times, financially, for BA.

Whenever a frontline service worker strikes, whether it's in the public or the private sector, it's going to annoy members of the public. The trick is to try and garner support and/or sympathy from the public. The unions representing BA have failed spectacularly by deciding to strike over the Christmas and New Year period when hundreds of thousands of people have chosen to fly BA to visit loved ones. These passengeers now have 3 choices. 1. Sit tight and hope that the disputes are settled so that their flights will still go. 2. Get their money back and cancel their Christmas trip. or 3. Get their money back and pay hugely over-the-odds to one of BAs many competitors who are now cashing in.

By all means strike. But why strike at a time that will cause maximum chaos for the innocent members of the public? Why not strike for 12 days early in the New Year?

Sadly, if this strike goes ahead, we could well be looking at the beginning of the end of British Airways in their present form. I wonder how the BA cabin crew who cheered so excitedly in the video below will feel working for a new start-up to replace BA on significantly inferior T's & C's compared to what they presently enjoy. Or even worse, unemployed.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v5zQ3PpjgM

WORLD CUP DRAW TODAY!

Finally! The big day has arrived and in 12 hours time we'll know who'll be in England's group for World Cup 2010!

We've been seeded so theoretically we should have an 'easier' path to the second round, but there is still the potential for a 'Group of Death'!

What do you think would be the most ideal draw for England and which do you think will be the most difficult? One from each pot and the pots are as follows:

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia


Personally, I reckon the best group for England would be:

England

New Zealand

Chile

Slovakia



And the one to avoid would be:



England

Mexico

Ivory Coast

Portugal