The Greed Tube

It appears that Bob Crow and the RMT are holding London at ransom again. They earn more than nurses, paramedics, teachers and dentists to sit on their backside and drive a train, but want 5% more (well above inflation) and a guarantee against redundancies.

Number one, if you take a pay rise there's less chance there won't be redundancies for obvious reasons. As well as that, we're in a recession and if demand falls, there will be redundancies, simple as.

£37k to drive a train around? They should be taking a pay cut. Privatise the Tube, see what they feel about things then. We need some Thatcherite power and conviction to beat the remaining militant unionism.

Conservatives win in Wales!

By 145,193 votes to 138,852, the Tories have indeed topped the poll in Wales for the first time since 1918; even better, they'd take my constituency of Newport West.

This is a huge surprise, and is quicker than the other results that are taking ages to arrive. The whole political landscape of Wales is changing.

Even more surprising was the UKIP MEP in Wales - Wales has been generally less Eurosceptic than the rest of Britain. I remember the UKIP Wales office down the road from me, and the election poster on Chepstow Road, but otherwise I haven't noticed them that much.

Either way, the future looks different, and I look forward to it.

Gordon's fired

Lord Alan Sugar, the way it should be.

And breathe

Today has been thoroughly enthralling in fact. So much has happened - we now have Lord Sugar, Deputy PM Mandelson and another Kinnock back on the Labour frontbench, but obviously sitting in the Lords (well, she couldn't win the Norwich North by-election, let's be honest). Otherwise not much to say about the reshuffle, which is practically moving the deckchairs on the Titanic - nothing will get much better.

And the county council map looks incredibly blue. It's blue, I accept, because people are unhappy with Gordon Brown. The local elections would, however, have been about local issues if the centralisation and constitutional vandalism (these unitary authorities irritate me - power to the lowest level? No, they certainly aren't), and the small matter of a general election. Might have increased turnout from 18% too.

Lord Sugar

Alan Sugar is the sort of person we need in the Lords - real world, business experience. However I can't understand why any right-minded person would take up a position in Gordon Brown's government.

MAXIMUM wage?

Via Dizzy, apparently an MP has called for a maximum wage.

Higher incomes means more income tax, yes?

Offshore banking never looked so good.

National Democratic Renewal Council

Gordon Brown's new MP regulatory quango. It sounds more like what you get when a military junta takes over in a banana republic for the transition to democracy than in a supposedly democratic nation.

Democratic renewal? It's ever so simple - call an election! You cannot reform politics without giving the people power.

How ironic that his solution to a problem of democracy is an UNDEMOCRATIC body chaired by an UNELECTED prime minister? The voters are the regulation; they just haven't been given the chance to regulate.

Gordon Brown has lost all authority

His cabinet is falling apart, it looks like we may have a Chancellor named Balls (and I joked about him when he was a possible in 2007) and he's leading the country into our largest budget deficit ever. He doesn't seem to like elections, or any types of vote (EU referendums?) - so since the EU Parliament is a bit of a joke, those of you who can vote (since I'm not quite yet of voting age) need to send out a message - he has no mandate.