When we landed back in the UK on Sunday after a wetter-than-expected but enjoyable trip to Spain, a couple of depressing situations greeted us, apart from the fact that it was raining slightly and the country appeared pretty much flooded. [I must say that since Sunday, the weather has been quite bright and reasonable, if cold.]
The first monumentally disturbing thing we saw was a headline proclaiming that Gordon Brown was on track to win the upcoming general election. This is quite incredible. I cannot believe that Joe Public’s collective memory is so short. This is the man that, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, unilaterally dealt a devastating blow to yours and my pension funds and who sold off a large portion of the country’s gold reserves at rock-bottom prices. If only we had that gold now, now that it is trading at very high prices. Far from being handed the top job, he might rightly have been tried for treason in my opinion. Where is Joe Public’s memory and how on earth have the Conservatives failed to capitalize on his ineptitude and the almost constant sleaze?
The second depressing situation stemmed in part from the first. When we went to Spain we heard about the Greek so-called government’s inability to run a budget. They’ve run up such enormous debts that the EU has to bail them out. It would appear that they’ve been doing their damndest to sink the Euro. Excellent, I thought, with self-interest at heart, this ought to make the Euro sink against the Pound and go some way to restoring half-way realistic exchange rates. What do I see upon my return? Despite Greece’s best efforts at bankruptcy, the Pound had fallen back further against the Euro. Why? Apparently, because Joe Public isn’t giving Gordon Brown the severe kick up the backside that he so richly deserves, the currency market “is concerned about a hung parliament”. Christ! How reasonable is that? The currency market is apparently prepared to take a bankrupt Greek parliament in its stride but at the merest suggestion of a hung British parliament, down we go.
If this isn’t complete political nonsense, I don’t know what is.
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