Governmentitus

Dan the man at Wikio has granted Football Banter the sneak peak on the Sports Blog rankings... In case you are interested.

1. David Cameron will be the UK’s next Prime Minister

2. The UK General Election will be on Thursday 6th May 2010

3. Economic recovery in not be achieved in Q1 2010

4. Guantánamo Bay will not be closed in 2010, though it will continue to gradually reduce it’s inmate population

5. The key political and economic concern in Q3 and Q4 2010 will be Inflation… “Hyper Inflation” will be the prophesised buzz words of concern in the media and blogosphere

6. At least two Labour MP’s will be exposed in the tabloids as having affairs in the lead up to the General Election

7. David Miliband will secure the backing of Peter Mandelson and become the next leader of the Labour Party

8. Vince Cable will become Liberal Democrat leader in 2010 with the backing of Charles Kennedy and Ming Campbell.

9. Nigel Farage will unseat John Bercow

10. Here is my very early attempt at some serious Nostradamus forecasting as I predict the GE result in terms of Parliamentary seats.

Conservative Party / UUP – 349 Seats
Labour Party – 212 Seats
Liberal Democrats – 49 Seats
SNP – 12 Seats
DUP – 8 Seats
Sinn Fein – 6 Seats
Independent – 5 Seats
Plaid Cymru – 3 Seats
Social Democratic and Labour Party – 3 Seats
UKIP – 2 Seats
Respect – 1 Seat

Here is a special mention for my top 10 referrers of the year for 2009

1. Letters from a Tory

2. Unenlightened Commentary

3. Daily Referendum

4. The Voice of the Resistance

5. SNP Tactical Voting

6. Scunnert Nation

7. An All Seeing Eye

8. EU Referendum

9. Subrosa

10. John M Ward

Thanks to everybody for linking here, it is very much appreciated. Without the traffic you send my little efforts would not be worth it. I like to acknowledge those who keep the traffic coming and say thanks to you all.

Here's hoping for a blogging good 2010!

Here is the list for December's Top 10 Referrals to this blog from elsewhere in the blogosphere, with the movement from last month's position in the brackets.

1. (+2)  The Voice of the Resistance

2. (+5)  An All Seeing Eye

3. (+4)  EU Referendum

4. (-3)  Muffled Vociferaction

5. (NE)  Corrugated Soundbite

6. (NE) The Anger of a Quiet Man

7. (-2) SNP Tactical Voting

8. (+3) Subrosa

9. (+7) Cato Says

10. (-9)  Letters from a Tory

11. Unenlightened Commentary, 12. My Own Doubts, 13. Mark Wadsworth, 14. Britishblogs.co.uk, =15. Guido, =15. Barking Spider, =17. Calling England,  =17 Daily Referendum, =19. Rantin Rab, =19. Scunnert Nation, =19. It Wasn't Me.

Thanks to you all!

A long and tough year-end at work is about to come to an unexpectedly early finish (thank goodness) thanks to the excellent sales team I am currently working with... I am minutes from the door and not more than 50 minutes from a bottle of Grouse.

Happy New Year to you all, no matter who you are and what you do it is important to stop sometimes and enjoy the moments that life throws up and remember and enjoy the small things that can make you smile.

Here is one of the things that never fails to bring a smile for me.




Happy New Year to you all! I am looking forward to normal blogging service resuming next week!

I just want to wish everybody a (belated) Merry Christmas!!

The last week-and-a-half has been manic and the poor weather conditions have not helped free up any time.

Christmas was a good one this year, with the only let down being the late cancellation of Oxford vs Rushden.  I am optimistic that 2010 will be a year of better news and prospects for all of us.

I am still busy with work, with our business year-end coinciding with calendar year end, but am jotting down a few predictions for 2010 which I hope to share soon.

Take care y'ol!

It has taken three hours to get home on a route that would take about twenty-five minutes in low traffic, and it was like driving on an ice rink the whole way.  I understand colleagues who left over an hour before me to do a longer journey have still not made it home.

I hope everyone is safe and anyone who has had to trek in this weather is OK.

I guess I will be working from home tomorrow now!...  Thank God for laptops and modern technology.

Christmas is coming, and work is picking up for year end, so my opportunities to blog may become a bit limited over the next few weeks.  There are a few end of year posts I wanted to do, and this is the first.  Here, very simply is a bit of link-love to my past self over the last year and a bit... Dan's best bits so to speak (calm down ladies).

If your new to my blog, here's what has spewed forth over the past year and a bit, which will maybe give you an idea of what I am about, or, for those who visit a little more regularly provide a nice trip down memory lane.

December 2008
Should We Try Something A Little Different
National Anthems

January 2009
Worried about civil liberties in the UK? Got 6 minutes...
Is your number plate illegal?
Whatcha gonna do?

February 2009
The Home Secretary is ripping off Tax Payers
If the system is broke, why don't we fix it?
Are you an alcoholic?

March 2009
Who will pay for the EU?
Job cuts to end by Easter?
Letter to a Tory
Whips
An Invitation to Jury Team
Hannan bitch-slaps Brown in EU Parliament
Left wing PM poll closes

April 2009
Queen to step down as Monarch
G20 result - in my humble opinion
The voice of the Prime Minister
Observation
What is the greatest human invention of all time?

May 2009
Retirement age to be moved to 70?
MP's expenses, once again
Honour amongst thieves
Constitutional Mischief
Should we seperate the Executive from Parliament?

June 2009
Could Parliament vote to dissolve itself?
Should we look to have an elected upper house - part 1
Labour - wrong again
The Wet Parliament
Chicken soup for The Devil, A Tory and The King

July 2009
The phantom street light caller-inner
Did CNN capture Michael Jacksons ghost on camera?

August 2009
Female Genital Mutilation

September 2009
David Cameron speech on reducing the cost of government.
We are not paedophiles!
Did David Cameron do wrong, or did he act just like the rest of us?
The problem(s) with the Liberal Democrats
Voting = bad, terrorism = good... got that?

October 2009
An open letter to the people of Ireland
Writing strategy for Dave... Not!
Northern Ireland Assembly votes in favour of referendum on Lisbon.
On the side of Angels

November 2009
Cameron, Conservatives and The EU
David Camerons new EU policy - my verdict
Pictures from Westminster
An interesting thought
My Agenda

December 2009
Climategate: Caught green handed - Monckton report
A few receipts that stand out

Here is my latest recommended reading list.

Please note, I do not necessarily agree with these posts and articles, however I found them sufficiently interesting to warrant a recommendation:

Shane Greer says James Macintyre is a liar and third rate journalist.

Devils Kitchen says follow the money to see where the funding priorities are in climate research.

Jess The Dog has a guest post from Borat.

The Telegraph says Kate & Gerry McCann have spoken out about their heartbreaking third Christmas without Madeline.

And finally, Subrosa has an excellent example of recycling which fits nicely with the festive season.

Enjoy!

Are less people wearing watches now, than 20 years ago?

My jaw dropped.  No new words needed, here's an extract of what I just read on the Telegraph:

As paramedics attempted to revive her son Bryson after he was found floating face down in a swimming pool, Shellie Ross sent out a message on Twitter , asking her followers: "Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool."

Five hours later, when her son was pronounced dead, she again took to the Twitter site to update her 5,000 followers.

"Remembering my million dollar baby," she wrote.

Moments later, she posted a photo of her son on the site.

Her use of Twitter as her son lay dying provoked outrage among the blogging community in the US.

Police in Florida said they were aware of the "tweets" and would be looking into them as part of their investigation into the drowning....

From Doug Carswell's Blog:

Today I introduce a Bill in the House of Commons that would give the people a direct vote on Britain's membership of the European Union; the European Union Membership (Referendum) Bill.

All three political parties promised us a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Yet it never happened.

For thirty years, it's been left to politicians and diplomats to determine our Euro policy. No one under the age of 53 has had the chance to vote in a referendum on it. I think now it's time to let the people decide.

Prince Charles and Gordon Brown charter seperate flights to Copenhagen.

So to "off set" this 6.4 tons of CO2, which is an additional 5.2 tons than would have been produced if they had taken a scheduled flight they both now need to write a cheque to one of Al Gore's GIM investment Carbon Credit companies.