How Sez Sees It

Here are the edited highlights of the budget as I see it and my own opinions on some of the topics covered. The Chancellor, MP George Osborne has today laid out his budget, which the Treasury has described as “fiscally neutral”.   Let’s see… The growth forecast is set to be 2.5% in 2012, 2.9% in 2013, 2.9% in 2014 and 2.8% in 2015.   This is all fine but when inflation is currently at over 4% we need to keep a check on this and make sure this doesn’t get totally out of hand. Inflation is set to stay at around 4%-5% this year, 2.5% in 2013 and 2% in 2014.   For savers the high interest can be a good thing but for those who are looking to buy first time it could make things even harder.   Inflation has not been this high for some time and we do not want this to get out of hand.   There are already resonances from the last time the Conservatives were in charge. Borrowing will reach £146 billion this year…wow. 43 tax reliefs will be abolished taking out around ...

So the UN have agreed that Gaddaffi must be stopped.  British, US, French (and others) have been striking key posts in Libya in the hope that Gaddaffi will think twice about the killing of innocent people in his weird quest to cling onto some sort of power.  So far we have heard that Gaddaffi is willing to have some sort of cease power, but I doubt that the rebels will go for that as after many years of living under the tyrant's rule they will want a total change to democracy. The main problem as I see it for our troops is that we do not want them to lose their lives in this conflict after the terrors of Iraq and Afghanistan.  We want our lads safe and sound and yet we do need to stop the slaughter of the innocents.  The other problem of course is the stray fire from our forces, can the accidental killing of innocent people by our troops justify the prevention of killing by Gaddaffi's? As events unfold it will be interesting to see where this leads us.  The ...

Rebecca Black, the 13 year old from America, has become an internet smash hit with what is supposed to be the worst song in the world.  Comments are both positive and negative but the way I see it, it is very clever. Yes the song is bloomin' annoying and the most simplistc song I can remember off the top of my head (unless you count the annoying crazy frog...best forgotten eh?).  Yes the girl looks too sweet and saccarine to be true.  Yes her parents are pushy (they paid Ark Music Factory, THE pop music vid makers in LA, to make the video for her).  But it has all been marketed so well.  Black herself has even said that people either love or hate it.  At the current time I have seen that her video has been watched on YouTube over 26 Million times.  Lyrics and quotes have become internet memes on a variety of sites and national papers (including the brainy ones like i and the Independent) have reported on this.  All of which will encourage more...

So it has been five years since Twitter was first put out in the main internet world.  Happy Birthday to Twitter.  Who would have thought that something so simple as 140 character updates would become so popular.  It is not even just a fun office toy, we have seen Twitter used by journalists, protestors and celebs alike to get a point across and get the world to sit up and take notice.  I was a late bloomer in the world of Twitter, joining nearly two years ago ostensibly to see what all the fuss was about and because I love the words of wisdom that come from the legend that is Stephen Fry.  Since then I have become a slight addict myself.  I use it to catch up on th big news stories as events unfold and most importantly I use it to keep in contact with my friend Cliff who has emigrated to Argentina.  I love Twitter (and Facebook) and I would like to wish the site a very happy birthday indeed.

Today it was announced that with the increase in fees to £6000-£9000 a student can expect to pay back three times as much as they borrowed.  On top of that no universities have yet stated that they will charge the minimum fees with the average being around £7500.  Oxford and Cambridge have plans to help the poorest students out by keeping their fees at the current £3000 but everyone else will have to pay £9000. How could this ever encourage people to take up university places?  We will suffer as a nation as a result.

That is the word of the day.  Other key words are 'ineffectual' and management.  At the risk of losing my job I can really say no more.  Wouldn't the world be a better place if we were just left to get on with things?

BBC Breakfast News Presenter Charlie Stayt today asked Lib Dem MP Danny Alexander about the identity of the party.  He asked Alexander if he could name one thing that he had disagreed with the Tories on and he said that he could not.  Stayt then went on to ask about the vote on NHS reforms they had at the conference yesterday as the vote was an overwhelming 'No!', but even then Alexander fumbled through his answer and tried to turn it around. The Lib Dems still cannot show that they have an identity...no that is wrong.  The MPs responsible for setting up the coalition and who are in the cabinet cannot show their separate identity and this is letting the Party faithful down.  The Lib Dems still look like they are going to tear themselves apart.  All we have to do is watch them self destruct.

Unfortunately for Clegg and co, the international events have not detracted attention from the Party Conference. Protesters could be seen outside chanting 'Shame on you!' to delegates waiting to get inside.  People already affected by the cuts confronted volunteers organising the events to put their point across about losing jobs and benefits.  But what of Clegg himself? Clegg took to the stage to tell his Party that being in power would make them unpopular.  Now, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the point to lead the country in a good way by making decisions the country actually needs?  By doing that you become very popular and win another term in government right?  Clegg appears to be trying to destroy his Party completely and he is going to succeed at this rate. I have just heard that there is a £2 million fence that has been put up around the conference to protect Clegg and co today from protesters.  So this is going to be paid for by who exactly...

So today's thing to read is the excellent article by Johann Hari in today's edition of the i newspaper.  He points out that we are all addicted to oil and need it for everything from getting our shopping in and clothing and travelling to our place of work.  Hari points out that on18 April 1977 President Jimmy Carter warned the world about its reliance on oil and that we should wean ourselves off oil whilst looking for an alternative.  Instead we still rely on this dwindling resource, even starting wars over it.  This is a sad but true fact.  Read this today!

I hope that anyone reading this will join me in sending all our love and support to the Japanese People today.  Earlier today they were hit with a massive 8.9 earthquake which has so far left around 26 people dead and many buried and missing after a 30something foot high Tsunami.  Obviously events will unfold throughout the day so please keep looking out for the news as it comes in and let's think about these poor people today.

Nick Clegg is off to the Lib Dem Spring Conference in Sheffield today.  He has a tough job ahead of him to convince the party that they are doing the right things in coalition.  Dissenters within the Party have said that they feel their political identity has been stripped from them and they want reassurance today from Clegg on this.  They also want to make it clear that they are not happy with reforms on the NHS as they feel too many concessions have been made here.  Whatever the response when Clegg takes the stage, he has a lot to do to convince the voters and Party members that they are still a separate and worthwhile party in central politics.  He has been getting along fine with his new Tory friends until now, but where will that take them? Also, going back to last week...no George...you do not know what it is like for the average family struggling with the rising costs of fuel bills.  You are a multi-millionaire!

So Gadaffi is insisting on staying on in Libya.  He is effectively holding the country to ransom as innocent men, women and children suffer.  He is one of the most dangerously delusional men of our times.  Unfortunately there is an agreement with the rebels that the UN will not provide ground force or peace keepers as they want to do the job themselves.  I can see where they are coming from. Unfortunately there are some casualties that cannot be helped from the media as we insist on 24/7 updates of events in dangerous places.  This time it is Guardian correspondent, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and his travelling companion from a Brazilian paper, Andrei Netto, who have gone missing.  If anyone can help with the finding of these men their friends, families and colleagues will be so happy.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/10/guardian-correspondent-missing-libya

For those of you who are excited by these kind of things and would like to know, you can watch a Dr Who special on Red Nose Day where there are two Amy Ponds.  The episodes are four minutes long each and have interesting consequences of course: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a308191/smith-teases-who-comic-relief-special.html

So this is my first blog for you all.  Just an introduction.  I am quite an opinionated person, I am sure that says something about me, what I cannot tell.  I am not bigoted or rude, but I do have a strong sense of right and wrong. I am a socialist working in local government and these are tough times so I will tell it how I see it.  I guess I should start with what is going on today.  So the plans are to scrap the current LGPS of final salary payments and to replace it with an average salary.  Unfortunately this means that many people will have to pay in a lot more and the government a lot less in order to cover the cost and for people like me to have any hope of a half decent retirement. We get punished for working in local government anyway.  No one really goes into it for the money, you go into it because you cannot stand the thought of working in the private sector for profit at the expense of other people.  However, this means that you h...