Good Morning Monday.

For some of you today is that start of a brand new week. For those of you in politics it's just a continuation of the same old grind because politics doesn't stop for weekends it just hides behinds them. In the UK for example last Saturday featured one of the most important announcements the chancellor has made in a number of years. You can tell how important it was because it was neatly hidden behind Gordon Brown's "surprise" visit to Iraq.

Although he didn't phrase it quite like this the message from the first lord of the treasury was quite clear. The UK economy is fucked and there will be no more money for government departments and their pet projects. Some people decided that this was a coded reference to me and my situation. It wasn't, the UK economy is in a dire situation.

You see back in the autumn of last year when the credit crunch started to bite the government had two choices of how to react. They could have gone for shock therapy where there was a short, sharp decline followed by a slow and gradual recovery. Alternatively they could have stuck their heads in the sand and attempted to mitigate the decline in the hope that the problem wasn't as bad as everybody thought.

Brown's government chose the latter meaning that rather then facing a short market correction the UK economy is now facing a long period of economic decline. This policy was not helped by Browns decision to run into an economic downturn screaming "Britain's bad for business, Britain's bad for business!" at the top of his lungs. The government is trying to pin the second mistake on me which is a bit rich because compared to the government's host of other economic errors my contribution was fractional to say the least. Besides I didn't actually do anything other then hold a mirror up to the British government so everybody could see it's true nature. Also I did warn them time and time again that a kicking contest would have consequences yet they kept on kicking.

This crass stupidity means that the UK is now in a situation where it doesn't know how severe the downturn will be or how long it will last. Some people are even seriously worried that it may last so long that it takes the nation up to the point where it's extreme exposure to Browns beloved Public Private Partnerships becomes apparent but hey, ho, at least Sadie's got herself a job.

Alistair Darling has responded to this situation by declaring that government departments should not bother asking for money to fund their policy ideas because he's finally realised that taxation is too high, borrowing is too high and he thinks people won't tolerate spending on an improved NHS. On this final point i have to disagree with him because with less disposable income people are going to be less able to afford private medical treatment making them more dependent on the NHS. What they will not tolerate though is a government spending vast sums of money on plans that don't improve the NHS.

While a ruined economy is never a good thing I am quite pleased that it means government departments will no longer be given funding for their latest crack-pot ideas. I think if we can now actually stop these government departments having policy ideas and releasing green papers we might actually be in with a chance.


In sports news over the weekend Team GB announced who will be replacing Dwain Chambers in the Olympics. Following the pattern that GB's best cricketer is actually a South African and it's teen tennis sensation is really an Australian, Team GB is hoping to recruit a naturalised Chinaman going by the name of Win One Soon.