Plaintive
The Glasgow East hyperbole takes flight.
It’s bad for Labour but it follows many recent precedents. It was a swing against the Government of 22%. The Christchurch by-election of 1993 had a swing against the Major Government of 35%. David Cameron’s plaintive plea for Gordon Brown to call a General Election will be as successful as Labour’s call for John Major to resign in 1993. He waited until the last possible moment in 1997. The word was that no Government could ever win a by-election again.
Labour has been bumping along at rock bottom for six months. I recall similar fatuous calls for resignations that we made after the Christchurch result. Governments are elected for five years. Yesterday’s result ensures that there will not be a General Election until 2010.
David Cameron’s time would be better spent finding out why a badger cull has never worked and will never work. His backing for the Welsh badger slaughter was a cheap way of buttering up the rural lobby yesterday.
The country gave Labour a very comfortable majority in 2005 that by-elections will not chip away in two years. Traditional Labour voters kicked the Government for the credit crunch consequences, that are not our fault, and the 10p tax change that was entirely our fault.
The opinion polls were wildly wrong in this constituency or there was a sudden swing from Labour in the final days. There were some murky charges about expenses on Newsnight that might have had an effect. On the basis of every similar anti-government by-election result in recent years, the seat will almost certainly revert to Labour at the next election. We and the Tories have been here before.
There are many far more important news stories today.
French rip-off
Our future energy policies are being handed over to the French Governmnet in the shape of EDF. In order to make the sale of our nuclear stations attractive, clean renewables are being undermined.
(translation: 'This is the price of a nuclear power station' 'We always round it up to the higher million')
Greenpeace says the Government has been caught "red-handed" undermining clean energy. It wants to change the phrasing from "shall" to "may" for renewables to get priority on the grid.
BERR's argument is that you cannot give total priority to renewables because new gas plants will be needed to back up wind farms when the wind is not blowing. This is crap. Wind farms work for 80% of the time. Nuclear operates for only 80% of the time. Marine power can operate at 95%.
The Government has been bewitched by the Pied Piper of nuclear power in spite of its abysmal record on prices and delays.
John Sauven, of Greenpeace, said: "We've always said there was a danger that going for nuclear power would squeeze out renewables, but ministers denied it.
Greenpeace have a honourable record. In 2000 they opposed Thorp. It's now limping along at a cost of £3billion a year to the taxpayer. The pro-nuclear delusions of all three major parties are crippling our progress to clean good value energy.
Corrupt Karzai
Truth comes from an unexpected source on the lie of our drugs policy in Afghanistan.
Politicians posture and strut. They say they want to eliminate drug cultivation. The British military refused to cooperate on the sensible grounds that they want their soldiers to stay alive.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is obstructing efforts to tackle his country's drugs problem, a former US counter-narcotics official has said.
Thomas Schweich said Mr Karzai had protected drug lords for political reasons and tolerated "a certain level of corruption" rather than lose power. He said the former attorney general had told him the president had prevented the prosecution of some 20 officials.
The president said his government had eradicated or greatly reduced drug production in more than half of the country's provinces.
But Mr Schweich, who until June was the US state department's co-coordinator for counter-narcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan, said such claims "ignore reality".
"The poppy cultivation right now is up and around 200,000 hectares - that's the biggest narco-crop in history," Nato and US commanders had been reluctant to get involved in fighting drugs, fearing that destroying farmers' crops would alienate tribesmen in the south and increase support for the insurgents.
"Some of our Nato allies have resisted the anti-opium offensive, as has our own Defense Department, which tends to see counter-narcotics as other people's business to be settled once the war-fighting is over,"
Today the 112th British soldier died in Afghanistan. That’s six short of those killed in another futile disaster, the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Someone will say that the latest victim died in a ‘noble cause.’ The truth is that the victims are dying in an impossible cause in the service of a weak and corrupt Afghan Government that profits from drug-dealing and Western generosity.
How long before we acknowledge the awful truth?
I agree Paul, Gordon didn't issue millions of sub-prime mortgages in the USA. However he did allow UK banks (the so-called banks, generally converted building societies) to issue loads of sub-prime mortgages over here. If they hadn't done then there'd be no problem; lending gets scaled back because of the lack of money in the market, everyone keeps paying their existing mortgages and before you know it the banks find they've got lots of money in their vaults again.
11 years of unprecedented stability and prosperity? Not exactly. Government policy has danced more and more to the tune of home 'owners' who have been borrowing absurd amounts against the supposed value of their properties; it is that money pumping into the economy that has produced the illusion of prosperity. Sustaining that illusion has required that banks lend ever increasing amounts and that's why they have been borrowing themselves, taking money from the US sub-prime market (secured against their own prime mortgages), since they long since ran out of real money of their own.
Northern Rock is a good example of the foolishness of not applying some sort of regulatory brake to all this absurd lending years ago. It's not even clear who actually owns their mortgage book, only that they long since ceased to. So vast quantities of public money that could have been put to good use elsewhere has been poured into a failed bank with little prospect of it ever being seen again. It would have been far more sensible if the Government had simply liquidated Northern Rock, and ensured that the small savers got first call on the proceeds when the assets were sold. It would have sent a useful message to the other banks and their shareholders that they should act more responsibly. Then there's the secondary issue of Granite and all the other 'charitable trusts' the banks are using for their wheeling and dealing scam out in the Channel Islands. There's been more than enough of time since that flagrant abuse was exposed for the Government to have acted. Has it? Of course not.
Either you believe that the Government through the Chancellor of the Exchequer has a responsibility to regulate the banking sector (in which case Gordon has a lot to answer for) or you don't (in which case he has a lot of other things to answer for, starting with his decision to abolish the 10p tax rate in his final budget). His decision all those years ago to raid the pension funds all those years ago looked bad at the time; it's long term consequences are likely to be catastrophic.
It is difficult to imagine that Gordon is someone who would ever consciously encourage the growth of a debt-laden society, but that has been the consequence of his economic 'prudence'. He is now reduced to uttering meaningless clichés ('vision', 'hard-working families' 'British jobs for British workers' etc) but no-one has a clue what his vision is, beyond a new generation of nuclear power stations and a replacement for Trident while he's about it. His time is up.
I dislike the policies espoused by the Daily Mail with a vengeance and I despise a Government that is so taken of them.
Harriet? Well lets face it she's a pretty little thing (although she's put on a pound or two recently that'll need to come back off if she's to stand any realistic chance of winning the next election). She'd be surprisingly voter friendly - she's right at the posh end of middle class and she's obviously got a bob or two, that always goes down well. She's a woman, female voters like that. And she has just enough of that schoolmistress-come-dominatrix persona that seems to attract the British male.
But I didn't come back here to sing the praises of the lovely Harriet, rather to keep track of your economic views. At this point in time, you've disappointed I fear. Did the Government apply the appropriate level of regulation to the banking sector or not? What do you say?
Posted by: Stephen | August 03, 2008 at 11:21 PM
Oh Come on, Stephen. The 'credit crunch' was hardly Gordon's fault. He did not issue millions of sub-prime mortgages in the USA to people who could not afford them.
While agreeing with many of your other conclusions, the present world financial prospects cannot be blamed on Gordon. We have had 11 years of unprecedented stability and prosperity. All trade cycles go down as well as up. Yes debt is too high. But it's an international fashion.
We have also had a sustained period of stealth socialism with redistributive measures. Don't tell anyone. The Daily Mail might hear about us and hammer us again.
I have checked on your blog. You are a fan of Harriet. Hmmmmmmh.....
Posted by: Paul Flynn | August 03, 2008 at 12:08 PM
I don't know how you can say that the credit crunch consequences are 'not our fault'. Of course they are, a very direct result of the policies pursued by that bloke who used to be Chancellor of the Exchequer until not so long ago. If you run a 'booming' economy based on no more than ever increasing indebtedness and inflating property prices then inevitably you reach a point where there's the crash.
What we need right now is a sustained period of high interest rates, the higher the better. This would encourage the return of the once seen as a virtue habit of saving, rather than building an entire economic model around debt as Labour have done over the last ten years.
There's only one positive to be taken from our current economic woes; there's a good chance that property prices will actually plummet so far that Gordon will be able to deliver on one of those very vague commitments he keeps spouting 'affordable housing'.
It would be nice to see a post from you where you deal with the specifics of the credit crunch; I doubt that I'm alone in wondering exactly who you hold responsible for the present level of personal debt in this country.
Thankfully Harriet already has one foot inside the door of Number 10, she'll sort the lot of you out.
Posted by: Stephen | August 03, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Thank you Valleylad. Some of your comments are fair, many are a bit grudging. It's better than you are prepared to admit.
It's good to talk about real politics instead of the fables, rumours and fiction that fill today's papers.
Posted by: Paul Flynn | July 27, 2008 at 02:39 PM
1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
mainly due to cheap imports, ignoring housing costs, and keeping the wages of normal people historically low.
2. Low mortgage rates.
Deters savers, encourages a debt culture and is only due to 1. (thanks China!)
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
Too low. Why subsidise employers with tax credits. The minimum wage is either a living wage (and doesn't need topping up) or
is a joke.
4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
Less on response where they're needed, probably still less than we need
5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
With falling levels of young males and a strong economy, pretty much what you'd expect.
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
On personal experience, a lie. Most of the 18 year olds I work with in HE I would describe as innumerate and functionally illiterate. They have better A levels every year though, though STEM subjects (aka "proper" A levels) seem very unpopular.
7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
See the answer to 6.
8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
Excellent, but I'd question it's effectiveness.
9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
Depends on how you define unemployment. I haven't seen the figures but would be suprised if it was lower than in say the 1950's.
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
Major advantage for vuture funds.
11. 85,000 more nurses.
12. 32,000 more doctors.
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
11,12,13 - Spending needed to go up massively on the NHS, all of the above are excellent progress, I'm waiting until on both clinical outcomes and per-capita spending we're comparable to France & Germany - a long way off.
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
Unqualified support :)
15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
Inadequate power.
16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
Paid at a maximum of £100 a week. Good idea poorly executed and many people can't afford to take it - I couldn't - I used holiday instead.
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
I'd rather be able to see my GP promptly and conveniently.
18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.
Good idea, but it is other people who give
the money. The sunshine today is lovely but I don't give the govt. credit for that either.
19. Restored city-wide government to London.
As long as London pays for the London Olympics, and doesn't put its fingers in the idiot tax box for grass roots sport etc.
20. Record number of students in higher education.
They either need to be better prepared, take longer degrees, or we need fewer. Personally I'd rather see fewer but properly supported no fees/restore grants.
21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
So has it now kept up with inflation since 1979?
22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
Unqualified support :)
23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Too much pandering to god-botherers already.
24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.
If we had adequate pensions wouldn't be necessary. Likewise I see the MIG as evidence that the govt hasn't the bottle to
raise pensions to an appropriate level.
25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Only due to de-industrialisation which will
be very negative to our balance of payments in the coming recession.
26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
No view.
27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
Quantity != quality.
28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
Unqualified support :)
29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
Not by pensions - and mainly means tested.
30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
Good, but reducing the number of single mothers, and massively reducing the number on benefits would be better.
31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
Means tested.
32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
Unqualified support :)
33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
Too little, too late.
34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
Progress. How do we compare to France & Germany.
35. Banned fox hunting.
As a sop to backbenchers to get the govt out of a fix.
36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
Partially deindustrialisation, the rest paid
for by water rates so no credit to govt.
37. Free TV licences for over-75s.
TV licence is a poll tax and should be scrapped anyway.
38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
We're supposed to have an NHS, making it
start to work is good, but I'll reserve credit until we're at least the equal of our EU neighbours.
40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
Off-peak.
41. New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.
Question its cost-effectiveness but a good idea.
42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
Partially means-tested, but a good idea.
43. Free eye test for over 60s.
Eyecare should be provided free to all by the NHS.
44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
These have been taken on by the govt?
45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.
Unqualified support :)
46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
My socialism stops at the Severn bridge. I'd stop overseas aid until every child in Wales had a playstation.
47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
Too little, too slow.
48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
I'd question the stats.
49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
2 hours a day? How is that supposed to fit a working family? If it was full-time nursery provision it would be good.
50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
Excellent idea, but has junk been banned from all schools yet?
Posted by: valleylad | July 27, 2008 at 11:40 AM
I can't think of anything this govt has done in the last decade that deserves unqualified support.'valleylad'
Do you support any of the following?
1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
2. Low mortgage rates.
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
11. 85,000 more nurses.
12. 32,000 more doctors.
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.
19. Restored city-wide government to London.
20. Record number of students in higher education.
21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.
25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
35. Banned fox hunting.
36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
37. Free TV licences for over-75s.
38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
41. New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.
42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
43. Free eye test for over 60s.
44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.
46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
Posted by: Patrick | July 27, 2008 at 09:10 AM
The "on-message" comment referred to blaming the "credit crunch". I haven't noticed any change other than banks reverting to sane lending policies. Obviously if you've let manufacturing die, and built an economy of smoke & mirrors funded by ever obscenely increasing house prices then you may well be heading for trouble.
There is no difference between Peoples Voice and Real Labour I agree, much like there is no difference between the brain-dead vegetables on either front-bench. However if labour want my support, they've got to speak and act as the labour party. I can't think of anything this govt has done in the last decade that deserves unqualified support.
BTW, DNA from convicted criminals fine, from those arrested and not even charged no. I doubt very much that DNA collection has any crime reduction benefit, although it obviously makes it easier to identify suspects after a crime has been comitted.
Posted by: valleylad | July 26, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Thanks Will S. Yes I think the media may get fed up with bashing Labour and ignoring the faults of the Tories, and ask David Cameron what his policies are.
Polly Toynbee asked a pertinent question n Glasgow East. " What has Labour done for a place like this? Unemployed claimants have been halved; hundreds more have left incapacity benefit to take jobs; of 11 new schools, five are rated "excellent"; apprenticeships have soared, and tax credits make a vast difference to people's lives."
There are many other things that couldbe added, including he minimum wage and high child benefits. 24% is thought to be our core level of support. Even in Glasgow east we polled nearly 11,000 votes. A far better result than the Tories had under Major's by-election in Christchurch.
It will get better.
Posted by: paulflynn | July 26, 2008 at 09:28 AM
Thanks Will S. Yes I think the media may get fed up with bashing Labour and ignoring the faults of the Tories, and ask David Cameron what his policies are.
Polly Toynbee asked a pertinent question n Glasgow East. " What has Labour done for a place like this? Unemployed claimants have been halved; hundreds more have left incapacity benefit to take jobs; of 11 new schools, five are rated "excellent"; apprenticeships have soared, and tax credits make a vast difference to people's lives."
There are many other things that couldbe added, including he minimum wage and high child benefits. 24% is thought to be our core level of support. Even in Glasgow east we polled nearly 11,000 votes. A far better result than the Tories had under Major's by-election in Christchurch.
It will get better.
Posted by: paulflynn | July 26, 2008 at 09:27 AM
Thanks you John. You would be surprised to know how close your views are to many of my close friends in the Commons. There is an alienation between people like your MPs and incurable idealists on the backbenches. Did you read about the clash that Gordon Prentice and I had with Richard Caborn about the revolving doors from minister to paid advocate of Mega=greed PLC.
I am hope for an improvement with Obama in the States because of the great influence that the US has on the world.
The media have written off Labour and the it's very difficult to get any message across above th 'noise' of the denigration of the party. This is the theme and the media do not ask Cameron about his alternative policies. but there is still 22 months to go. That's a long time in politics.
Posted by: paulflynn | July 26, 2008 at 09:19 AM
Although I won't vote Labour at the next general election being represented by Richard Caborn doesn't help but Labour lost me with the War, its stupid approach to drug policy starting with putting Magic Mushrooms into class A along with heroin and crack woke me up to the stupidity and political posturing around drug policy and a few other things but nevertheless I do recognise the positives that Labour has achieved.
As someone who remembers the Thatcher years and the Tories of old our citizens have short memories. I have yet to hear one Labour MP remind us how bad it was under the Tories I guess they don't want to admit "it might be bad now but it would get a lot worse under Cameron" that really is a message that needs to be heard by those labour voters moving away from the party.
The saddest part is how sidelined the Lib/Dems are over this it is a sad case that we really are only a 2 party system. It seems the media only ever gives the impression that its either Labour or Tory. I look at those on the front bench of both Tory and Labour and do really dispair (with one or two exceptions) yet I see many commited intelligent ones in the Lib/Dems yet they are for all intents and purposes invisible. Give me Clegg anyday over Cameron and dare I see it over Brown too.
Maybe it is now that Gordon Brown should move to getting PR back on the agenda as it looks like Scotland will now desert Labour and go SNP meaning we in England will be under the Tories for the forseeble future. A frightening prospect. PR could be the only way Labour could get a chance at power again?
Posted by: John | July 26, 2008 at 08:49 AM
Could I ask you one question? Do you sincerely believe that you have already reached the worst point in your party's fortunes?
Because, frankly, I suspect that there will be far worse around the corner between now and 2010.
Posted by: Will S | July 26, 2008 at 12:22 AM
Where have you been Valleylad? I and many other Welsh MPs have never called ourselves New Labour or been on message. Dai Davies usually votes with Labour. I have not noticed any new policies coming from that direction. It was a spat in the Wales Labour Party about selections. They had an all male shortlist for the Assembly in Blaenau Gwent but rebelled against an all-women one for the General election. There is little difference that I can see between traditional Labour and People's Voice.
In 96, I said we would win the election and lose the party. We have not lost it but it has been hollowed out. In the past month two members who left the Newport est party over Iraq have rejoined. It's time to rebuild Post Blair. Not easy in the middle of a Credit Crunch.
I would agree with your priorities except for DNA. It's a great scientific tools for reducing crime. All criminals started out as innocents.
There are many other issues, renewables, Trident, fair trade, Helamnd, animal welfare, global warming, mad drugs laws, the threat to the NHS, etc.etc.
Posted by: paulflynn | July 26, 2008 at 12:13 AM
You're sounding remarkably on message Paul, it spoils the fun. Blaenau Gwent hasn't reverted back to nu-labour yet. It would be wonderful to see a byelection in the valleys. I would bet on nu-labour to lose.
Having surrendered their principles and moved as far to the right as possible, the nu-labour project is over. The fair-weather friends in the south have gone back to the Tory party. The core vote are looking for anyone worth voting for having had this govt demonstrate to them that labour is not their party any more.
Hopefully the unions will now have the PM by the proverbials and will keep tugging till we get some sane policies rather than the tory-lite nonesense this govt has given us.
There's loads the govt could do:
enhance liberty e.g. scrap DNA database ID cards, 42 day detention for no reason etc.
reduce the gap between the richest & poorest 10% in the UK, through a seriously progressive tax system.
Repeal anti-union legislation.
I could go on...
Nu-labour has ignored their core vote for a decade, we're fighting back!
Posted by: valleylad | July 25, 2008 at 09:48 PM
Thanks Tony. I do not want to carry the comparison too far with John Major. But the media is full of idiotic demands for Brown to go and for a General Election to be called. No Government has ever gone to the country in circumstances like these.
If things do not improve in the next twelve, months there could then be consideration of who should lead Labour. But it is not wise to drop the captain just as the ship of state is negotiating choppy waters.
Everyone should calm down and cheer up. Obama is coming. He will have a profound influence for good in world politics. It's a pity Europe does not have a vote in that election.
Posted by: Paul Flynn | July 25, 2008 at 04:33 PM
Arthurs? Did you finish your comment? Have I missed something?
The doom-mongers have forgotten that we have been here before with disastrous by-election results. In 1993 it was said that if the Christchurch result was repeated across the country the Tories would have get only two MPs elected- M icahel Mates and William Hague. In fact it was 200odd in the next General Election. The same nonsense is being repeated today about a Scottish wipe-out.
A year ago today David Cameron was the most unpopular party leader and Gordon Brown was riding high. The election will be in the late summer of 2010.
Two years is a long time in politics.
Posted by: Paul Flynn | July 25, 2008 at 04:27 PM
I meant Tories - not Rories (now that's a Freudian slip..)
Posted by: Tony | July 25, 2008 at 04:19 PM
I agree there are other important news stories but this is a quite important in that it sets a tone or trend. If you take your analogy of John Major he went to the wire in 1997 - by which time he and the party he led has zero credibility with the electorate and the Rories have since been thumped at the polls three times in general elections. Is that what is the future for Labour - 13 years on office and a minimum of 10 out of it ? I don;t say that removing GB is the answer but I think the question should be asked ...
Posted by: Tony | July 25, 2008 at 04:18 PM
"It’s bad for Labour but it follows many recent precedents. It was a swing against the Government of 22%. The Christchurch by-election of 1993 had a swing against the Major Government of 35%....There are many far more important news stories today."
You are living in cloud-cuckoo land.
Posted by: Oliver Arthurs | July 25, 2008 at 03:17 PM