All Is Well At Bloomfield Road

Yesterday, I attempted to complain to my MP, Henry Smith, about bank remuneration packages and bonuses and asked that he bring all pressure to bear on the coalition government to stand by the statements they made in opposition. He replied quite quickly but did no more than send me a bit of spin from Tory Central Office. So I complained again. I await his reply. All the senior members of this coalition government, from the PM down, have made statements about the unacceptable bonuses and pay of bankers. But in office, they have backed away, further and further from doing anything about it. So the conditions for another bank collapse remain and these arrogant, thick-skinned, over-paid robber barons carry on as before paying themselves ten time as much as the rest of the country - indeed, ten times as much as the rest of the world. I expect that Mr Smith will again give me a standard reply and that is what really upsets me. Everyone in the country is furious about the banks and, in particular, the pay of investment bankers. Yet, not only is the government doing nothing about pay and regulation, they have become apologists for the banks. One problem that niggles at the back of my mind is that yet again the rich who always run the country - including Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, et al - are protecting their own. Each of those leaders is worth a few million and they are not suffering too much as the rest of us pay to bail out the banks.

One bright spot yesterday was that Blackpool FC defeated Liverpool for the second time this season - something that they have not done since 1946. Liverpool are now operating under the management of Kenny Dalglish - he has been in charge for 5 days - and he has lost his first two games. Kenny thinks that they lack self-belief. Perhaps they are not paid enough? An extra £50,000 each week for every player could give their self-belief a real boost. After all, if there is anyone daft enough to pay them a lot of extra money they must be much better than they seem to be. Rather like the American critic who suggested, mysteriously, that Richard Wagner's music was much better than it sounded. Blackpool are now 9th in the table with a game in hand. Did anyone - was there ever anyone so optimistic - who would have suggested at the start of the season that such a thing could happen? Good luck to Ian Holloway and the lads at Bloomfield Road. As a manager he has been so successful that he has a good chance of keeping his job, at least until the end of the season - and there are not many Premier League managers who can say that!!!!

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