Goodbye 2008 and hello 2009 the year the West goes bankrupt and the Middle East rules the world....

A happy New Year to everyone and I hope 2009 brings every one of you, good health, success and most important of all happiness.

Will 2009 see the western world become bankrupt? How far can our Governments bail out our banks and car firms, and where do they get the money from. Couldn't they find a few quid to help our favorite high Street shop Woolworths.

Will Brucie ever become Sir Brucie.....If your some unknown in the Civil Service and come up with some crazy idea on how to rescue the World from the financial meltdown then you've no worries about meeting the Queen and her mighty sword. The establishment, the Government...do they really have any clue what is going on in the real world.

I see our rather dull Home Secretary announces new measures for the police tomorrow. Sounds to me like another pathetic gimmick and more paperwork for our already overworked boys in blue. Just let them police the streets not write about them.

Could our news programmes focus more on home news that is relevant to us rather that spend half the programme on what's going on in a country thousands of miles away and does not affect any of us here in Britian. Are you listening BBC and Sky News but then your staff are so full of their own self importance you couldn't care less about the people that actually pay your wages.

Stop me now, I seem to have gone on a bit of a rant and rave tanget. Sorry about that. On a lighter note see you all in the new year and hope to post some more of my opinions, grudges, articles and stories on this wonderful place we call home.

Michael Gibson 2008

Our obession with the high street

Well with 2008 nearly over, what a year it's been. If your reading this and still have your job count yourself lucky. If your reading this and have managed to get through Christmas debt free, count your self even luckier, you must one of three out there.

This wonderful Government of ours thought that before Christmas it would entice the public with a 2.5% reduction in vat. This represents a whopping £2.50 in every £100 that you and I spend. I recently bought a shredder and got 30 pence knocked off the price. Whop pee I think I might save it and put it towards the inevitable tax rises that are inevitably coming our way should Labour win the General Election, when ever it is called in 2009.

What bothers me about the vat reduction is that it encouraged us to go and spend our way out of recession. excuse me, but hasn't spending money we haven't got put us into this financial headache in the first place. Too me the Government has put us onto a reckless course and we are all in for a very rocky ride in 2009 with the mother of all hang overs. Also I believe the Government reduced vat so it has an excuse to raise it an even higher level in a couple of years, my prediction is 18.5% or even a whopping 20%.

We need to end this addiction to the high street, even today I see queues forming to get into the supermarkets, as if they are all going to close for the rest of eternity. We need to get back to a time when we realise the important things in life, like spending time with your family on Boxing day and not rushing out to the sales. We need to stop being sucked in by advertising, once you but a digital camera, as soon as you walk out the shop door it becomes obsolete, only to be superceeded by a far better model that can do exactly the same job but will maybe do it quicker or quietier and will still set you back an extra £50.

Instead of relying on public spending the Government should be investing in manyfacturing, trainning young people into trades, we should be setting up for the future, exporting our best products, inventing world beating gadgets and ground breaking medicine. To allow the high street and the world of finance to drive our econmomy will once again only lead us to bust after a few years of boom. when will we ever learn our lesson.

What's wrong with Britain today !

The Police......They say knife crime is up, but overall crime is down. Little comfort to those whose loved ones have been brutally murdered over the last few years. In my opinion, the police today are too obsessed with chasing petty crimes in order to achieve targets set by the Government. They are too obsessed with chasing after the easy crimes such as those usual law abiding citizens that go a couple of miles over the legal speed limit, yet these people get chased by the full arm of the law.

What about chasing the drug pushers or the thugs that terrorise local neighbourhoods with the same zeal. Get the police away from the desks and out doing real policing, our streets need them and so do the British public.

Credit Crunched

They say that we are in for a 3% shrinkage in the UK economy next year....If these doom merchants are correct why couldn't they predict the credit crunch a couple of years ago so we and the Goverment could maybe have done something to prepare people for the worst.