Hernandez : the new Ole

Dwight Yorke voices the thoughts of more than a few United fans as he tells the mail that Hernandez looks like he could be the new Solskjaer. He needs to work on his link up play, but that can be coached, but the finishing prowess he has shown over the last two games cannot. To be fair when he came on the other night even his link up play was on a different planet to what had gone before. But we shouldn't get too carried away yet claims Yorke he has to do it consistently. That is a fair point, but the answer will lie in him playing regularly, which would probably leave Owen and Macheda out of the equation. Maybe Owen has seen which way the wind is blowing as he tells Sky that if he is released in the summer he may well quit the game instead of trying to find a new club.

After claims that United have been in touch with Barca boss Pepe Guardiola sounding him out about interest about taking the United job when Fergie retires Brian Woolnough looks at the Catalonian's credentials. He would be certainly one of the best candidates if he were interested. My only reservation would be that he would not be able to replicate the Barca tiki taki style of football at United, not straight away.That style has been taught and coached to the youngsters from an early age and whilst United's style of play is also possession based we do like wingers to cross the ball more than you would see in tiki taki. Whoever takes over from Fergie i want him to be commited for at least five years, longer if whom ever it wants it. I know we are almost certainly never going to see another reign as long as Fergie's period at the club but i don't want to see somebody coming in for two or three seasons.

Mick Hume has his say on the Rooney affair, he thinks it's time we realised that footballers are not fans. Some of us aren't taken in by badge kising, the thing that got me when all this hit the press was the amount of United fans that believed the "i want to stay at United for the rest of my career spiel". I always that as long as were competing and he was getting what he was worth that he may very well do. But i never belived he was making a promise or anything. He was a boyhood Everton who came to United to win things, if he thought we going to compete or pay him his "market" value all bets were off.

The papers have started to link us with half of Europe, the Mail claim potential United target Steven Defour has issued a come and get me plea. I haven't seen him, so i don't know whether it would be a good buy or not. I would have thought that if we buy anybody it will be a mix of  young British talent and maybe one big name foreign player such as Schweinsteiger. I can't say i'm holding my breath on any of this, not until next summer anyway.

Not really a big surprise that the Bebe deal saw Portugese agent Jorge Mendes pocketing 30% of the £7.4 million transfer fee for the Gestifute sporting agency.

David Conn profiles FC United the acceptable face of modern football.

Was this the reason City were so keen to take Rooney to City, even though it wouldn't have helped with their wage bill ahead of Uefa's new rules. City are worried about Tevez's homesickness. What a surprise, he was never going to see out that contract. There must be one more deal for him and his owners though, i would have thought.

A couple of pieces looking at the forthcoming ashes series, sees Michael Vaughan give a variant on Viv Richards theory that England would have to target Aussie captain Ricky Ponting. Vaughan's theory is that if England captain Strauss averages over 50 for the series England will retain the urn. But if the opposition can to down to the 20's to 30 the Aussies will be victorious.
Meanwhile the one England player i fancy to average nearer 50 than anybody else is looking forward to the series by denouncing former Aussie coach Buchanan as a nobody. Sounds like he has been talking to his mate Shane Warne, who probably has an even worse opinion of Buchanan.

Three very different appreciations of ex Argentine president Nestor Kirchner who died yesterday. Mark Weisbrot hails him a great independence hero of Latin America who showed the world that you could successfully ingore the IMF. Celina Szusterman thinks he was a control freak who got lucky by the tone of this article. The Economist's America's column sees a return to a political vacuum.

Virgin media is to launch the "ferrari of broadband services" with a 100mb service to be launched in certain parts of the country in December. I notice that the north west isn't one of them. With media city due to open next year i would have thought the north west would be one of the more important regions for the introduction of faster ISP sppeds and new breakthroughs in information technology.Will Virgin be the company that will be best able to challenge BSkyB in the future. A new report claims that the internet now comes second to the city in importance to the British economy.

Johann Hari looks at a new book about Churchill by Richard Toye and weighs up the pros and cons of our great war leader. I read Robert Rhodes James book about Churchill from 1900 to 1939 yaers ago and what that told me was his reputation would have been very different but for the advent of Adolf Hitler. Without the second world war Churchill would have been seen eventually as a failiure who couldn't adapt to the changing world. Where as if the first world war would never have happened it's conceivable Lloyd George would have gone on to even greater success instead of being the man to win the war but split the liberal party and eventually split the left. You can't take them wartime speeches away from him though, up there with the Gettysburg address as some of the greatest speeches defending democracy ever made.


Steve Richards describes why the referendum for the alternative vote is the beginning the real battle for political party.

Bank of England deputy governor admits that the bank didn't see the recession coming but asks who did. Irwin Stelzer thinks the government is heading in broadly the right direction but doesn't really tell us who he thinks is right on the pace of the cuts. David Blanchflower uses his latest new statesman column to claim that despite this weeks more encouraging news it will be downhill from here as we head back to the thirties.

Music

Bill Evans trio - Sunday at the village vanguard: I am not the biggest fan of the piano led jazz trio but this is good. Both versions of Jade versions are absolutely magnificent.

I am Kloot - Sky at night: One of Manchester's finest, this latest album managed to get on the latest Mercury list. Produced by Gy Garvey and Carig Potter, the sound is a little bit more produced showing a few Elbow touches with strings and piano. But it sstill Bramwell's show. As good as anything they have done.

Oceansize - Effloresce: One of the Manchester music scene's less famous names, but just as talented. This was their debut from earlier in the decade. Modern progresive rock at its best.

Rox - Memoirs: A pretty good debut album from this Londoner, not great but decent enough. She can sing and there are a couple of cracking songs on it.

Sharo Jones and the dap kings -I learned the hard way: One of the best, if not, the best funk soul bands around come up with another cracking album.

Them crooked vultures - Them crooked vultures: The rock supergroup of 2009. It's decent enough, but it doesn't really live up to the hype. The playing is great and whilst there are no duff tracks, there isn't really any stand out tracks or at least enough to make it special. I can imagine that they would be great live though.

Manchester United 3-2- Wolves

I suppose it turned into an exciting game for the neutral on the TV but for those of us who shelled out to see the game it just added more credence to Rooney's supposed worries about the squad. The team selected was fairly interesting with Smalling partnering Evans in what could be a glimpse of the future. The goalies shirt was given to local youngster Ben Amos who gave us an encouraging performance. Carrick partnered Gibson in the centre of the park whilst Bebe was handed his first full start on the right. Up front Obertan was picked in the hole in behind Macheda in a partnership that didn't really work with the pair showing no understanding at all. The longer the night went on the more painful it got for Obertan as his confidence dipped and by the end he could braely do anything right. Macheda wasn't as bad but it wasn't that encouraging either, one thing i did notice last night was how comprehensively he was beaten to everything in the air all night.
The first half was a total non event as United played like the set of strangers that they largely were. Wolves were no better and it was weird that it took United scoring to spark them into life. I have noticed the press seem to have given Bebe a good press this morning, that just tells me how bad it was. To me he looked what he is, very very raw, he gets a good cross in now and then, he is fast yes, but how much of a football brain has he got. One big disappointment of the first half was the performance of Park. I'm not his biggest fan but in a team like that he should have been setting an example. He looked like he wasn't interested in that first period, thankfully he improved in the second half because we needed him to.
The second half was far better with both sides creating chances, i wouldn't say the standard of football was that much better, but it was at least entertainment unlike the first half. The first goal took everybody by surprise where i was sitting, nobody could understand how it had ended up in the net. It wasn't until we saw a replay in the Tollgate after the game that we saw the big deflection. I suppose Bebe will be credited with the goal, it was one hell of a fluke though. It didn't take Wolves long to equalise with Elokobi heading home too easily from a header just five minutes later. Park put us back in front with a good finish with twenty minutes to go and it looked like we might be going through. But Gibson capped another poor performance needlesly giving the ball away in the middle of the park which ended with Foley getting an equaliser with quarter of an hour to go.
Both sides continued to create chances but i could see extra time and penalties the way the game was going. Thankfully Fergie brought Hernandez on for Bebe and for the first time on the night we saw some genuine class. His movement, first touch and passing were all comfortably above anything that had preceeded his involvment.The move for the last goal was possibly the best of the night and the way Hernandez took it showed once again what a natural goalscorer we have found ourself. So we are through to the next round and draw permitting nearer to a third consecutive league cup final. I wouldn't mind an FA cup final myself, it's a few years since we have won that.

Ravel Morrison was described as the "most gifted teenager in the country" by Brian Marwood in the telegraph on Saturday. So it was interesting to see him given a squad number and given a brief taste of the big stage last night. I wonder whether he will be sent out on loan next season.

Michael Owen will be out for a few more weeks with another muscle injury. I can't see how he will be retained this summer especially with Welbeck hopefully coming back from a successful loan spell at Sunderland. In fact i wouldn't be waiting until summer i'd let him go in the winter transfer window if anyboldy will come in for him. When Welbeck does come back i would then send Macheda out on loan because he badly needs to be playing regular football.

Rooney is looking to be back for the derby at the boo camp in a couple of weeks time. Will he get in the starting line up though, and if he does, what position will he play. I still think there is a good argument for playing him on the left until he regains his form. Unless it is going to miraculously return straight away. Gill fools nobody as he he toes the party line, declaring that United will not alter the wage structure as they face increasing competition from our oil rich neighbours. David Conn explains why City face big problems on the wages front when Uefa rules due to be enforced from 2001-2012 and also wonders how on earth City could have took Rooney to City without completely ruining their chances of being within those rules. Did Gill and the Glazer's understand that or has Conn got it wrong.
Fergie told the press that it took all his experience for him to be handle last weeks situation and argues it proves that whoever succeeds him will have to be experienced. It is no club for a young manager.

Nobby Stiles will be a happy man as his world cup winners and European cup winners medal has fetched £200,000 after United surprisingly did the right thing in buying the pair.

FC United have hit the big time with a FA cup first round tie live on ESPN against Rochdale next week. That is a magnificent achievement and has come at a pretty aposite time.

Supposedly Keane was under pressure going into last nights cup tie against the giant killers Northampton. It's hard to work out whether he has the makings of a good manager or not. But he does always seem to have problems working with chairman, which unfortunately won't help.

Steve Richards argues that the cuts are ideological just as the were in the eighties,he intriguingly tells us that he told his social democrat colleagues in his party that the social democrat experiment had failed before the election. It has took the coalition government for them to realise that he meant it. I would argue he told them that just when it should have been clear social democracies time should have come again as the neo liberal experiment has just exploded in our faces. It wasn't social democracy that caused the credit crunch, was it. Polly Toynbee warns us of a housing time bomb that the spending review will unleash in the years to come. One unamed tory minister recently described part of the policy as the " Highland clearances"

David Lloyd interviews Andy Flower, the man with a plan to bring the ashes back home from Australia for the first time since 86-87.

Tracey Corrigan explains how business steered us through the storm after yesterdays surprise economic growth figures. Whilst Frasier Nelson explains why living costs are the real threat to the governments economic strategy

Mervyn King gave a speech in New York setting out his version for a future for banking that doesn't imperil the next generation. Robert Peston explains how potentially radical his ideas were. Paul Mason describes his vision as the end of the banking system as we have known it. Have we got the politicians with the radical instincts and political skill to see this through against the howls of outrage that the banking and financial interest will throw up.

David Prosser wonders just how business friendly the coalition government really is as he examines two decisions that at least put a question mark against the business friendly credentials. I suppose that might smack a bit too much of social democracy. Ingrid Smith tries to get to the bottom of the debate between the private sector and liberal left definitions of fairness. Nils Pratley thinks Vince Cable is asking the right questions with his new review on the problems of short termism but argues unless he looks at our present tax system he won't get very far. Rober Skidelsky tries to explain the difference between Keynesian proposals to tackle the debt and the neo liberal spending review approach which so far the coalition is the only major government to be attempting.

Mary Riddell goes against the recent trend by telling Ed Miliband that he can do without a plan but must forensically examine the cuts and their consequences.

Paul Mason examines the end of the American dream as the end of easy credit destroys the end of expensive lifestyles on low wages. This Economist column explores the so called war of elites and concludes by telling us this shows who the real elite are and why they are winning all the arguments. George Monibot wonders when the Tea parties supporters will realise are being taken for a ride by that very same elite and are supporting a cause inimical their own interests.

Stoke City 1-2 Manchester United

Well that was more like it, the real Manchester United turned up at last and got the result i thought our performance deseved. I was a bit non plussed when i saw the team as it looked like O'Shea had been picked in midfield and we were going to see our old problem this season, a lack of balance with nobody on the left hand side. But when the game started it became apparent that O'Shea had been picked to play left back with Evra playing on the left hand side of midfield. I wasn't sure about this either but i have to admit it worked excellently with both players but epecially Evra having good games.
Right from the start United showed they were up for the fight which always has to be shown when you go to Stoke. And United earned the right to play their football. Everything about United's game was better, they seemed more determined, their passing and movement was better and we seemed to be playing more with more cohesion. It wasn't a game with loads of chances but it was a game played at breakneck speed with both sides totally ommited. Th opening goal scored with the back of his head by Hernandez showed what a natural goalscorer we have found in our Mexican starlet. I didn't appreciate just how good a goal it was until i saw the replay, the awareness and the ability to pull off what he was trying to do bodes for good times ahead.
The only down side for United in the first half was Gary Neville's dicing with death as he was lucky not to get a red card for two tackles which weren't very well timed. He may have been slightly unlucky with the first but the second was just bad defending, why did he need to go to ground at all. But we got away with it and Fergie did the sensible thing by replacing him with Wes Brown at half time.
For some reason United seemed to lose their edge in the second half as their passing went downhill and we failed to dominate the possession as much as we had in the first half. Saying that if the penalty had been given for that blatant foul on Evra the last ten minutes of the game may have been that bit more comfortable. Though we were a goal up and Stoke had hardly had a sniff of our goal in the second half it was still only a one goal lead. With ten minutes to go Scholes carelessly gave posession away in the midle of the park, the ball found it's way to Tuncay on the right and he cut in and hit an unstoppable left foot shot. As the ball beat Van Der Sar i had to agree with what Fergie said after the game, that it looked like this might be one of those seasons. But United's response was excellent, going forward passing and probing with a purpose until Evra cut the ball back into the six yard box for Hernandez to do what natural goalscorers do, tap in from close range after being in the right place at the right time. It had been a tough close game but i think we deserved the three points. It wasn't that pleasing on the eye but in terms of winning championships this was our best performance of the season so far.

Gary Neville is pleased with the result, disappointed with his own performance but excited with the potential of Hernandez.

Manchester United reject conspiracy theories that saw them sign Rooney on five year contract in order to get a higher fee for him if he should still go. That has to be at least a part of it, it's what all clubs do, but it's pretty i don't think that was on Fergie's mind when he signed the contract he sees him as vital to the team. Dion Fanning argues that the next six months at Manchester United will be very interesting. Will Fergie retain his power at the club, will Rooney regain his form and fall in love with the game again and will the Glazer's spend big, break their promises or sell up.
Paul Wilson claims that he retention of Rooney after seeing him doubling his money whilst in the worst form of his career at old trafford may prove a hollow victory for Ferguson. Not if it leads to the gimps selling up it can't.
Steve Tongue of the Independent wonders whether the terraces and dresing room will ever be as one again. On the evidence of yesterday the answer would have to be yes, with the proviso, that the man in question wasn't there. As long as he regains his form i think we will be ok, of course there may will be ructions if he is picking up that pay packet increase if he carries on playing as he has been performing this season so far. David Connett looks at the career of Paul Stretford, the villain of the piece, whilst Sam Wallace is glad the the apostophe was not missed off the Market street banner on Friday morning.

Schweinsteiger is the first name to be linked with Manchester United since the news that the Glazers have promised to show some ambition. Well he is a United fan, and a midfield player that we are short of. I'm not sure he is worth £35 million but he is a good player. We'll see. Wesley Sneijder will sign a new contract to keep him out of the hands of United according to Inter president Moratti. Now he is a player i really have time for, and we could have had him for a lot less than whatever he would cost now if we had gone for him at the beginning of last season.
If we really did have the money to go out and buy two players, which i will believe when i see it, the players i would be looking at would be Gareth Bale to replace Giggs and any of Rodwell, Sniejder or maybe Henderson from Sunerland. I can see money being made available for one big signing and then Fergie selling to raise money for one more. I can't see Carrick being here next season and the Hargreaves saga will more than likely end up with him being off the payroll. Gibson must be surplus to requirements and Kuszczak wants to go. If Park didn't sell whatever it is he sells in Korea i think he would be off and away as well, it will be interesting to see what happens to him. If Fergie thinks Carrick has lost his hunger and would be open to offers for him, how does he justify Park's continuation in the squad.

Greg Dyke says the BBC is partly to blame for the decline in its reputation and says he is as much to blame as anyone. The Economist looks at the rise of Sky and concludes by arguing it is no wonder the competition is scared.

Robert Fisk reports on the latest wikileaks revelations and claims that they confirm abuses that a lot of reporters had suspected but hadn't been able to prove. This fits into the scenario put forward by Nick Davies in his book Flat eart news that i have just finished reading, it's a damning indictment of the way our news is put together and then given to us.


William Keegan argues that George Osborne could be the most dangerous chancellor of his lifetime and is the latest to compare to Philip Snowden. Keegan reckons Osborne is trying emulate Geoffrey Howe tenure at the treasury in the early eighties and complains at the bare faced deceit that has been used as justification for this gamble with the nations economy and the unecessary damage it will cause. Another nobel prize winning economist, Christopher Pissarides joins in the argument accusing Osborne of Exaggerating the chances of a sovereign debt crisis hitting Britain.
One of the worlds leading currency traders has branded the governments spending cuts as insane. No pussyfooting around there then. He expects the pound to fall even further. Currency wars anyone? Holidays are going to be dear next year then.
I hadn't expected Jeremy Warner to ceome down as firmly as this on the side of the deficit hawks, but i suppose he does now write for the Torygraph. Fiscal conservative totally lose me, he can have a go at Krugman as out and out liberal Keynesian but what about Martin Wolf and the FT who also think the spending review and the timing of the cuts is at best ill judged. Are they born again trots? Will Hutton writes that the coalition is taking a huge gamble with the economy but looks at the measures the coalition is trying to take to rebalance the economy away from the city and towards the export secre of the economy. He likes a lot of the ideas but warns that they will take time to take seed, and time is what the economy will not have after theis spending review. I presume that this is the kind of thing Hutton has in mind, Cable in push for a Cadbury's law as he launches a major inquiry into short termism. We all know it's the city of London that encourages short termism. Nick Cohen writes that the Rooney affair symbolises the greed that brought the global economy to its knees. But when set against banking Rooney is an honourable man in an honest trade.
John Rentoul thinks that Ed Miliband and the labour party need a plan and quick.

An abridged version of the Carlos the jackal biopic has been released to general acclaim. I read a biography of him many moons ago, so i will have to seek this out but the longer version seems to be the version to look out for. He was a nasty piece of work if my memory sevres me right, of course what terrorists aren't. I'm afraid i don't go along with romantic idolisation of the Che's of this world.

Funkadelic

Wayne's world

In a week when this government announced the harshest spending review since the twenties, that will as usual hit the poorest in society to pay for the mistakes of the richest, Rooney and his agent show their sympathy by doubling his money to not far off 200K a week. And footballers wonder why they aren't liked very much. As Steve Richards says the comparison is grotesque, the saying was love United, hate the club,( hijacked to "love United hate Glazer") it could just as well be love the game, hate everybody involved in it. At least Howard Jacobson gives us a bit of light relief in today's Indie column.
Kevin McCarra explains what this week has conclusively shown, United aren't strong enough to have let Rooney to go. That is on and off the pitch. At any other time in Ferguson's tenure as manager of Manchester United, i am sure as sure can be that Fergie would have said nobody is bigger than the club and said goodbye, you can go but not to City. But he must know that without Rooney, never mind the fact that we would not be competing for trophies, we could well have been in a life and death struggle to come fourth. And that would have been life and death for the ownership of the Glazer's ownership of Manchester United. Which is why yesterday brought out such weird conflicting responses from not just me but plenty of other Manchester United fans. The sporting life report MUST'S correct response to a conclusion to a turbulent week.
Henry Winter thinks everyone's a winner, United, the player and football, he could have gone on to say the owners. This week has shown just how weak their position is when they have been basically faced down by their best player. But has this propped their position up, i have absolutely no idea, but it shows how precarious and ludicrous their "business plan" really is.
Jim White gives an overview of the weeks madness and ends up wondering if the assurances given to Rooney included informing him of the name of the next manager. It's a possibilty that they told him that Maureen was lined up, but assurance, i'm not so sure they could have given him that. I'd like to think that all this was not just about the money, but i can't bring myslef to believe that, unfortunately. Dan Roan of the BBC gives us a timetable of how the deal was sealed.
Daniel Taylor marvels at Ferguson's pragmatism and ability to adapt to the modern world and judge each case on what is best for Manchester United. Well we know his interest in politics and history, which has always meant that his overt support for the Glazer's has annoyed us even more. Sam Wallace attaches that pragmatism to an even keener desire to keep proving the doubters wrong.
The Telegraph give us a little history of the Manchester Education committee or " men in black " as they are named on fans forums.

Pakistan's Mohammed Asif has withdrawn his appeal against his provisional suspension, though the other two have not. Is he going to assist them in their inquiries in exchange for a non life ban, i wonder. The great Sir Viv Richards thinks Australia wil be no pushover and thinks one of the keys for England will be to target Ricky Ponting.

David Blanchflower's bete noire, current MPC member Andrew Sentence assures us that Osborne's cuts will not affect economic recovery, wow, he really is a paid up member of the laissez faire brigade. Paul Krugman hits back for the Keynesian deploring Osborne's budget as the equivalent of a fashion victim, following yesterday's fad. He compares it to the Snowden budget of 1931, i read Skidelsky's book of the 1929-1931 labour government last year, ouch.

Sean Collins looks at currency wars and warns that this will not be the way to get the economy out of its current mess as the group of 20 finance chiefs pledge to avoid weakening currencies. We shall see.
John Merry of Salford council explains the confidence trick that the government delivered to the public about local council cuts.

Peter Oborne writes that in his opinion the consensus that Camron and Osborne are joined at the hip politically is just wrong. He has Osborne down as a true Thatcherite whilst Cameron is much more the one nation tory that most pundits have them both down as being. He is probably the most interesting conservative columnist around. Whether he is right or not, i do not know. But the whole strategy of cutting deep and cutting early is not very one nation, it would seem to me.
Andrew Grice seems to be another political pundit to be coming round to the view that Osborne's spending review may have been too clever by half.

Jason Cowley looks back to an Edwardian Liberal policy, the land tax, whose time may have come again as both the Lib dems and Labour have promised to look anew at the subject in time to prepare for the next election's manifesto

Armando Ianucci sounds like a busy man with a lot of projects on the go during this interview with the guardian. Good news, his plan for the next season of the thick of it sounds interesting. The HBO comedy about the office of the vice president sounds very promising.

I hadn't even heard about this never mind seeing it, before i read about it in Richard Ingrams column this morning. And he was right what a nasty piece of work, born to wealth and above oiks like Jon Snow questioning him obviously. I think that is what might be termed not the way to do it.

Rooney gets a taste

of what life will be like if he goes to City, as men in balaclavas gather outside his Cheshire home to remind him life will not be very comfortable for him if he goes across the city. Martin Samuel wonders just what kind of advice Stretford is actually giving him. As he predics that last night will be the norm from now on if he makes the move to City. I think we have an idea of the advice, make me some money, boy. I wonder sometimes if he has got something over Rooney to use if he doesn't take his advice. As i have said i could understand if he wanted to go to Real, Barca or Milan even. Maybe Chelsea if he wanted to get away from the north west but City, when you have been a United player, Samuel is right he will have no kind of life.
James Lawton is distinctly unimpressed by Rooney's cynical and disloyal posturing and manages to take more than one or two swipes at Keano. Patrice Evra sounds more than a little angry with the comments that came from Rooney's camp in Wednesday's statement. He actually had his best game for ages the other night, maybe this will galvanise him. I know i wasn't alone in wondering how much his heart was still the in the club after recent displays, at least it looks like that was misplaced on my part.

Ian Ladyman looks at Rooney's lack of ambition accusation and acknowledges that whether it was cynical positioning or not it was hard to disagree with the sentiment. Paul Hayward look at the role of City in all this and thinks City are the club that has turned Rooney's ( Stretford's? ) head. Frank Malley of the sporting life thinks Rooney's lack of ambition barb may do the club a favour in the long run if it alerts the Glazer's to the fact that if they want to seel United for a profit they will have to open the purse strings. I aint holding my breath, in fact i would see them selling up first and getting out of something the just do not understand.

Jim White compares Rooney to Whiteside while describing one of the theories going around why Rooney and Stretford want this City move. White thinks Ferguson will want him out of the club after this, i thought that was going to be the case after his post match comments on Wednesday but yesterdays events and rumours don't point conclusively to that. You have to wonder if he has been told or whether he doesn't even have to ask that he would only get part or wouldn't even get any of the money. Going on past form Rooney should have played his last game for the club.

The IFS didn't give the coalition long before it weighed in to demolish their mantra of fair and we are all in this together as it warns that the poorest will be hit hardest. Clegg hits back calling it nonsense, in an interview with the Guardian. Iain Martin points out to Clegg how he is being played brilliantly by Cameron and Osborne and yet he goesalong with it so willingly. Will he go down as the lib dems Ramsey Macdonald?
Faisal Islam of channel4 news looks at the spending review and says the treasury's own tables back the up the stance taken by the IFS. He is also mightily unimpressed by thw hole document.
In the wake of the spending review Jill Tarynor asks the question that nobody else seems to have asked and to me is the nub of everything. How did the banks get off so lightly?

Bach

Manchester United 1-0 Bursapor

Well the future was on show last night and it wasn't pretty, but at least we won. A goal that was far too good to grace this encounter probably ensured that we manage to get enough points to reach the last sixteen. An early goal was just what was needed going off the diaplay for the remainder of the match which was almost as painful to watch as the Rangers game had been. The atmosphere was as weird as i had expected it to be, but i hadn't expected that many empty seats. That was the lowest crowd we have seen for a European game for a long time, there was nowhere near the 72,000 claimed at the attendence. After Rooney's statement was announced a couple of hours before the game, Fergie chose to go with a fair few of the players i would think Rooney had in mind that he obviously doesn't think are up to it. And they couldn't have proved his point much better with a pretty listless performance.
Fergie gave another start to Smalling who looks like he could be the answer to finding Ferdinand's replacement. But i would like to see him get a few outings in the premier league before i am sure about that, there is no way we can judge him in games against a piss poor Rangers and if last night was anything to go by, an even worse Bursapor. Macheda came in to start up front and whilst he wasn't disastrous he didn't show much to reveal why Fergie supposedly thinks so much of him. Anderson came into central midfield to give a slightly better performance than of late but still not good enough to suggest that he is anywhere near good enough for Manchester United. Or should i say good enough for the Manchester united we would like to be seeing. Nani had one of his frustrating games but he was the one player with the ability to hurt the opposition and another goal will do his confidence no harm.
The action virtually finished with the goal which on the coldest night of the season which wasn't ideal. A pretty low key night in a far from low key week in the history of Manchester United football club.

As Paul Wilson observes whatever the true motives for Rooney's desire to up sticks his observation that United lack ambition can't really be faulted. As i said yesterday if he went to Chelsea or Real and came out against the gimps i would keep some respect for him. So it's just where he ends up now that will affect how i will think of him in the future. If we take the red tinged glasses off for a minute, we can't grumble too much. He is a scouse Everton fan who only came to us because he thought we were the biggest stage in the country, he would play alongside great players and would always be competing for honours. We can all see that is not in the Glazer's game plan so to slag him off for upping sticks is tad hypocritical of us. Of course fuck all that if he goes to City, he will be a fat scouse cunt of the highest order.
Jim White writes that Fergie will win the propoganda war but we all know that Rooney has hit hard with home truths about the owners. The comparison between that front six in Moscow and the front six last night just about sums our current situation up.
Jeff Powell despairs of Rooney's ego and thinks this episode will convince Fergie to carry on the fight of rebuilding another great United side. Not with no money he won't.
The Sun, who i had presumed were on Rooney's side dig up the past of Paul Stretford with snippets from Jonh Sweeney's Rooney biography. Not a nice man, but to be fair how many agents are.
Ferguson, Gill and the gimps are in talks as i write this blog on how to put an end to the issue. I read somewhere yesterday that the Glazer's had gave Ferguson a free hand in dealing with the issue, i just laughed. This is disastrous for them, however you look at it, the thought that they wouldn't be involved in it's resolution was comical.

Various players have had their say on the matter, Carrick says they have just got to forget about it and do their stuff on the pitch. Vidic told Sky that this was not good for the players or the team. Darren Fletcher has told the press that United will cope as they did when Keane blew his gasket and was shown the door at old trafford.

Away from United it was the coalition's defining day, the comprehensive spending review, and most commentators seem to think whether it works or not, and most are sceptical, one thing it wasn't was "fair".
Paul Mason tries to find a narrative to yesterday's speech but struggles to find one from either the coalition or the opposition benches and doesn't think we will find an answer soon. Martin Wolf of the FT reports of a spending review fro a diminshed country. As other columnists have observed, just as Cameron regards himslef as Blair's heir, it looks as if Osborne has been studying Gordon Brown in the way he delivered yesterdays speech rushing through the nasty bits. He doesn't agree with the speed of the cuts and warns that we are going to really find out whether pre Keynsian economics really work. Larry Elliott expects Osborne to get the blame when his policy gamble starts to go wrong as his assumptions go up in smoke when we enter that double dip recession.
David Blanchflower, on the same side as Wolf over the timing of the deficit reduction thinks we will find out that they don't and warns that the coalition has just thrown the country over a cliff. A guardian columnist panel all fear the worst for the countries less well off and all think that the middle class and elderly fared comparitively well. Tim Harford also sees a lot of Gordon Brown in Osborne's political approach to the chancellorship. And is another not convinced that these cuts will not harm the recovery. Steve Richards thinks that Osborne has passed his political test though he doesn't buy the arguments for the pace of the cuts. He was not impressed by Jonhson or the oppostion's response and neither was Laurie Penny. Opinion on Johnson seems to be split with others thinking he did a reasonable job. Iain Martin wonders whether Osborne has been and is too clever by half and is yet another to make the comparison to Brown. But he thought that Johnson did a reasonable job in the circumstances
The spectator reports the tory party was happy with the budget  whilst Jeremy Warner argues the country has entered a more conservative fiscal era at government and household level. Well at household level that is a good thing but i doubt we will find the outcome much to our liking at government level.

Earl Hines

Rooney lands ball in Glazer's court

Reports Herny Winter as Rooney's people point out United's lack of ambition as part of his reason for wanting to leave the club. Whilst i believe that to be partly true and i hope he gives us chapter and verse on this topic before he goes what happened to the non existant relationship between player and manager. If he left us, went to Real or even Chelsea at a pinch and aimed that parting blow i would still have some time. Of course everyone knows he's going to the boo camp, so all i can say, if he does do that is fuck you and good riddance.
This sounds like the briefing that Stretford was promising to give the media as Rooney's response to yesterday's press conference. All true of course, but no mention of big pay days all round. Supposedly Stretford has a good relationship with City's Marwood, it makes you wonder if he has as good a relationship with Tevez's owner. The sun go particularly strong on the story. At least it's all fucking terrible PR for our beloved gimps, even if this wasn't totally of their own making.
The briefing has already started, we are in for Torres, Kaka and god knows who else. If Rooney miraculously regains his form once he has left, i don't think that is a total given, but if he does, there is nobody we can afford, available injury free and in form that is available who will replace him. Torres if anything, is in even worse form than Rooney is, he is injury prone and would he really want to leave one sinking ship for another. If Torres leaves the scousers, it's more likely to be for Chelski than us. As to Kaka, he is a good player, but i have never been convinced he is the player he is cracked up to be and his time at the Bernabeu has done no more to convince me on that score. What's more the track record of Brazilian players in Manchester, either United or City for that matter isn't great is it.
Of the players that could be available and we could afford i would be looking at Schneijder, a big if i know and maybe Gareth Bale and then hope Hernandez comes good. At the end of the day it's our midfield that is really below par.

David Conn argues that English football should have listened to Triesman's debt warning. What Scudamore listen to common sense, we are having a laugh, aren't we?

I think everybody knew when Warne, McGrath and co retired Australia wouldn't be the same side but it has really started to hit home for them. The great times never last in sport, always make the most of the good times. I could be talking about United, it all has that end of an era smell to it.

Jonathan Freedland argues that Miliband and Johnson have to find a believable narrative to diasbuse the electorate of the theory that Labour was to blame for the debt, otherwise it will be the opposition benches for more one term. Peter Oborne agrees saying today will show us whether the labour party will matter for the rest of this term. He sounds as if he is not too sure that Alan Johnson is up to it, he did argue that Miliband should have appointed Ed Balls as his chancellor.
Tony Blair's ex political secretary argues the Blairite case for Ed Miliband.

Almost every pundit i have read has thought the armed forces are to going to get off lightly in this spending review. Robert Peston reports on the embarassment of admirals on the need of two super carriers. I agree on the need to keep those skilled workers in jobs because they have the kind of skills that if we are to export our way back to a balanced economy we will need. But let's have them building something we actually need.
Simon Jenkins also wonders how the threats that this country supposedly needs to plan for has been served by the results of the spending review on the armed forces budget.

Joseph Stiglitz wonders where the investment is going to come from to give us the growth the economy is going to need to counter the devastating effects of the cuts to be announced by the chancellor Osborne to day. We need an update on Healey's nickname for Howe's early 80's cuts, sado monetarism.

John Pilger reports on the "other" side of Chile that doesn't make the western new stands. Luis Hernandez Navarro reports on the mixed fortunes of the left in South America, even as it still wins elections. The battle for the progress of the continent is still being waged.

Once a blue?

James Lawton asks how Rooney can question United's current failings when his own form is so poor. Or he could have said how can he have a go at Darron Gibson as it was alleged he did when at the moment he couldn't trap a bag of cement himself.
Henry Winter is another thinking Rooney is making a big mistake, apparently his temperament would not be suited to going overseas and he should think long and hard before deciding to go. I'm afraid that moment seems to have passed, he looks to have made his bed. The very fact that he has let it be known that he would be interested in a move to City means in any media war between Fergie, the club and the people Rooney has spinning for him have already lost. As it seems likely that Fegie is going sanctioning selling him, it will be interesting if he lets him go to City. If he did, it would surely mean that he thinks that we may have seen the best of the player.
I don't know why but our competitors seem to be being very coy at the moment. Mourinho has come out and said he thinks the big man will keep him, and now Wenger has said he thinks that Rooney will end up staying at old trafford. Though Wenger also questions the way United have gone about contract negotiations. Chelsea seem to be acting more honestly as Ancelloti admits that the press would have to ask Abramovitch if his club would be interested in trying to entice him to London.
The Telegraph report that Rooney could buy himself out of his United contract for as little as £5 million during the final year of his contract. I'm not sure any buying club would encourage him to choose that course as it could end up happening to them somewhere down the road.
Jim White reminds us that one of Alex Ferguson's major character traits as a football manager has always been to be a gambler, but he thinks that this will be his biggest gamble yet. And he worries that if he is wrong there is only one way for Manchester United Football Club and that is down. Paul Hayward calls this Fergies biggest challenge and thinks Rooney holds most of the aces. Who is going to carry us as Rooney did last season, we have seen so far this season there is no one at the club anywhere near being able to assume that mantle. Having said that i still think he will sanction Rooney's transfer and i sadly think he will be right to do so.
The big question to me is will the Glazer's back Ferguson's judgement as Mark Ogden describes this a nightmare scenarion for the gimps. I toally agree with his analysis that as much as they would love the money to pay off the debt, they know that they need at least one big name star in the team, for advertsing purposes if not for actually performing on the pitch.
Phil McNulty of the BBC thinks United won't be able to compete without Rooney and need to come to some arrangement. Well he is right about his importance on the pitch last season, but if his relationship with Fergie had broke down to the extent that we get performances like we did on Saturday, never mind all the media circus and possible dressing room problems we may face, it's better to get rid.

David Blanchflower labels Osborne a coward for his handling of the economy and his approach to cutting the deficit. I agree with the Keynesian approach Blanchflower advocates but if he is aiming to change the coalitions minds that may not be the best way of going about it. 
Larry Elliott describes the three different schools of thought on how cutting the deficit should be tackled, and predicts more economists will start to find the inner Keynes in themselves as the coalitions approach to the deficit comes unstuck.
Jeremy Warner asks how draconian will Osborne's cuts be .
The Telegraph report that corporate Britain is buoyed by the news of £1.7 billion worth of takeover deals in a single day. And that's suppose to be good news, unbelievable. Casino capitalism strikes back.

This is an interesting take on chancellor Osborne's long term outlook for the British economy. Well it's heading in the right direction but as the author says current tory policies are very unlikely to get us there.

The Torygraph reports that there may be more than 90,000 people that have "inherited" subsidised council homes who may not have qualified for state help. May is a little word isn't it, so what do we do throw them out. Does the Barclay brother owning rag ever report on tax evasion, offshore tax exiles or any of the people just like the papers owners who cost this country far more money than our so called benefit cheats.

A fascinating column by the Economists Bagehot on Britain's lack of like minded allies on the world stage.
Marin Wolf explains why he thinks Vince Cable should block Murdoch's attempt to buyout the remiander of BSkyB but goes further to explain why he would media onwership rules much stricter. Can't argue with any of that. Murdoch and Fox are on their way to destroying what influence the US has left in the world, first after cheering on the whole disastrous neocon experiment and now by trying to block the much needed economic reform of the country.

More Facebook privacy breaches, inadvertantly though says the company.

Giant drag

Manchester United 2-2 West Brom

This was the most depressing performance and result of the season so far. To be two up after playing reasonably well and then fall to bits in the second half and at the end of the day probably getting the result we deserved was even more confirmation of what i had been worried about, our ongoing decline. I mentioned as i was coming out of the stadium that i was more and more reminded of 2005 and wondered if our squad had really declined already to the lowest point of the last decade. If we are not there yet we surely aren't far away.
The team selection was reasonable, after Rooney's midweek outburst, i fully expected to see him on the bench. So the pairing of Berbatov and Henandez up front was fair enough. With Giggs returning on the left and Nani on the right the team had a reasonable balance. I was glad Carrick started because with our lack of midfield depth we need him fit and we need to give him a run of games to see if he can get some kind of form back. As to Anderson's inclusion, well i suppose if, as the rumour goes, Ferguson's giving him another chance, this was one of the games to give him. Rafael came in for O'Shea at right back and Ferdinand made another back to back appearance.
We couldn't have asked for a better start as Carson could only parry Nani's stinging free kick and Hernandez followed up to show that he is indeed a proper predator putting us a goal up after just five minutes. The good start and West Brom's intention to try and force the game to United meant our forward line got more space than usual and with Berbatov in excellent form again United looked good for another. And after Berbatov and Carrick had gone close, a great move saw Berbatov and Nani combine to put the Portugese wide man through and he made no mistake with the finish.
For me the moment we lost control of the match was when Giggs went off, we then saw Fergie send on Gibson on into central midfield alongside Carrick with Anderson going wide left. That left us with two players across the midfield four who just aren't good enough for Manchester United and our control of the game slowly evaporated. Anderson as i have said before just continually gives the ball away and it was he who lost it and then commited the foul that left to the away team getting a scruffy first goal to put them back into the game and us home fans wondering if we had seen this story before this season.
To be fair we did have a couple of decent chances shortly after that, but when Van Der Sar came up with a howler than was reminiscent of Jim Lighton at his worst i actually feared that there was much chance of us getting beat than actually going on to win. The crowd were now screaming for Rooney to come on when the obvious move to me was to get Scholes on. He promptly bought both on, taking Anderson off and put Rooney wide left which i thought was fair enough the way Rooney has been playing and taking off Carrick for the ginger prince. That i couldn't agree with, i thought Carrick had played reasonably well, but it left us with no real protection in midfield for our defence that looked far from solid.
Gibson should have been took off, i know it would have been embarrassing and might have hurt his confidence, but his contribution to the game after he had come on was there for all to see. He literally has nothing to his game other than his shot. I have noticed before that he can't even defend very well, but when i saw Scholes making more effort to get back to try to protect the back four in the last ten minutes i was actually speechless. We never really looked like getting a winner and if the visitors had shown a bit more composure in the final third during that last ten minutes it could have been even worse.
I had resigned myself after they had equalised that we had probably blown it again, but what i noticed in that period that does not augur well for the rest of the season and indeed for the future was the body language of the players and  a real lack of fight we have come to expect from players in a United shirt. Too many of them just seemed to accept it wasn't going to be our day.
Besides the squad not having the quality we have been accustomed to and what is needed to compete for the trophies come the end of the season, even more worrying is what quality we do still have at the club are either badly out of form or want out, and which of them it is i wouldn't like to say. Rooney obviously falls into that camp, but just what has happened to Evra, yesterday wasn't his worst game but he has been a shell of the player that we have loved for the last four seasons. 
What everybody could see yesterday was that was the kind of form that will see us fighting out to finish in the top four not fighting to make it nineteen. Our transfer policy is beginning to come back to haunt us as was always going to be the case. If a poor season and United finshing outside the top four was the catalyst to getting the Glazer scum out of our club maybe its all for the best.

Well it didn't take long for us to find out what is so wrong at Manchester United football club as Rooney's " people let the press know he will not be singing a new contract. What a fucking mess this is, this is the first time a player has had Ferguson over a barrel, but Rooney or Stretford, take your pick, have well and truly managed it. I have got a raft of conflicting emotions over this and until we have some kind of idea what has brought Rooney to this i won't be rushing to judgement.
But if he is for real, in other words it is not contract negotiations, and he is definitely offski i would send him to the reserves and sell him in the transfer window. Of course with all the politics and financial implications that would entail i don't believe that this is what will happen. Mark Ogden and Ian Herbert both mention Rooney's despair over United's transfer dealings and the fact that he seems to share clued up United's fans view of our much cherished owners as well as not being happy with the way that his contract negotiations have gone. As for his relationship with Fergie, i can't blame Fergie on all the available facts that we know of. Rooney has been crap and didn't deserve to automatically walk into the side.
Richard Williams rightly wonders who will be hurt more by this course of action Rooney or Ferguson as he wonders how Fergie last remaining ambition of a third European triumph can now possibly happen. I would have thought and hoped his one remaining ambition was to make it nineteen.
If he does go, he could do us one last favour and tell the world what the players actually think about all this bullshit about no value in the market, as Mark Ogden said on his twitter page, don't worry we have stll got Bebe. One last thought, as the Indy says this development is very likely to sink the Glazers business plan under the waterline.

United deny Rooney will be sold in January, at the moment it's hard to know what is happening or what is going to happen. The one thing that is blindingly obvious is that United are in turmoil from the Glazer's to Ferguson to our best players and to a squad that is glaringly not good enough. Paul Hayward wonders whether we have seen the best of Rooney, i think that it's reasonable enough to wonder if we have, but unless he has an injury we don't know of, i don't think football has seen the best of Wayne Rooney. The point unfortunately for me is, have Manchester United seen the best of Wayne Rooney, and the odds on that seem to me to be 50 50. I wrote this before the latest news it aint 50 50 anymore.

Just to put the icing on the cake, Giggs withdrawl on Saturday was a recurrance of a hamstring injury and this time he may well be out for longer.

Richard Williams reviews Patrick Barclay's new biography of Ferguson, i still haven't read Michael Crick's which seems to be the best thought of biography of the man from Govan. The fact is the story hasn't finished yet, and his role in the current shambles of our decline under the disastrous ownership of the gimps is not known and true fully rounded appreciation or not as the case may be of his tenure at old trafford can't be made until those full facts are fully known.

Nick Harris on the odd couple who bought Liverpool and the dysfunctional relationship thereafter. He could have added and the fans that bent themselves over to get what they deserved.

India's series victory against the Aussies puts England above Australia in the rankings for the first time since the system was introduced into test cricket, for whatever that is worth.

Peter Oborne is disgusted by the "immoral" attack on the middle class launched by Osborne and Cameron. Meanwhile Andrew Rawnsley doesn't think the Lib dems understand just how much their volte face on tuition is going to tarnish their future. He says rightly, i would think that they will never be able to run as the outsiders against the system.

Will Hutton wonders if the coalition really understand what a mistake they will be making in ignoring the realities of the outside world where arerun of the thirties is an ever more realistic proposition. William Keegan reports on the latest unhappy meeting of the IMF and the risk to the world economy of Sino-US differences.
Iain Martin predicts that if the cuts are fully embarked on and growth fails to materialise, Cameron and Osborne will be facing their own endgame.
Jeremy Warner warns that declaring war on the bankers won't help us get out of the jam we are in. So we do have to let them just get away with their almost criminal pre credit crunch behaviour. Especially when they still keep putting two fingers up at the ploitical establishment.
Robert Peston reports on the banks attempts at trying to reform their relationship to small business. I would have thought they will have to do better than that. Rob Lyons reports on the mess that is the Irish economy.

With the world news reports full of the success of the rescue of the miners from Chile, The MEN goes back in time when coal was still king to report on the worst mining disaster in British history. The Pretoria pit disaster of 1910 that killed 345 men and boys. The piece of the report that struck me most was the figure of 90,000 pit deaths between 1850 and 1914.

Yet another book release to join the ranks of Factory records memorabillia as Tony Wilson's first wife Lindsey Reade releases a memoir. It could be an interesting read, i'll have to look out for some reviews. A new documentary about the life of Alan McGee gets the thums bup in this Indy piece.

With Captain America filming in Manchester Hollywood comes to town and likes what it sees. I suppose with Media city only months away Manchester profile worldwide will only get bigger. It would seem that Manchester council is going to be on the yes side of the AV referendum if this Manchester confidential report is anyhting to go by. After the congestion charge defeat that doesn't seem such a great thing if you wany a vote on favour of AV.

Cocorosie

Trouble at the Rooney mill

Rooney insists he is fully fit despite yet another lacklustre performance, this time in the colours of England. If he is fully fit, there is something badly wrong because he was back to his world cup form on Tuesday. The Telegraph report that he is risking upsetting Ferguson with those statements after Fergie told the reports that he has missed games with a damaged ankle. Oh dear, sounds like something might be going on here, there are rumours that he isn't as keen on his contract talks as United. Are we about to enter another Ronaldo scenario, because that's the last thing United need.
His wasn't the only poor performance and i wouldn't put all the blame on him but when he performs like that he leaves England offering absolutely nothing up front. It was just as bad in midfield and on the flanks, for all Youngs and Johnson's promise they didn't deliver much against a packed defence. Gerrard was alright but nothing more, but to be fair to him it must have been some hindrance having Gareth Barry next to him. He is and never has been anywhere near international standard.
Kevin Garside doesn't think Capello's tactics did much to help Rooney to play his way back into goals and form. Capello's tactics are definitely part of the probelm but that lets the players of the hook too much, because the players are obviously not good enough.

Dr Richard Steadman, the knee surgeon who has been guiding Owen Hargreaves comeback tries to give our erstwhile midfielder a lift by telling the press that Hargreaves will play some part on Saturday. I will think he is back when he plays two or three games together or maybe even three games in six. I'm not holding my breath.

Wigam manager Martinez wants Wigan to enjoy every moment that Cleverley spends at Wigan as he predicts that is not if but when Cleverley is playing at the very top level for United. Amen.

The Swiss ramble football business blog takes an in depth look at the finances of United and basically comes to same conclusion as Andersred that United won't go bust any time soon but that the interest that United have to pay out for the privelidge of having the gimps as owners is a very big long term worry. Another interesting blog that looks at how the Glazer's will leave United from Chris McQuade.

City have joined the list of clubs to reduce United's away ticket allocation. This a bit of a joke, almost all the clubs who reduce United's allocation, have fans who stand up permanently at Old trafford and yet United never seem to reduce their allocations.

Real Madrid and Barca are urged to finish their sole TV rights and follow England and the Italians who reverted to a collective seria A rights package a couple of seasons ago. They are told in the long term they will have as much to gain as the rest of Spanish football. It is obviously the right thing to do, but will they see it that way.

The spectator reports on the holy alliance of media organsiations that have clubbed together to sign a letter to business secretary Vince Cable to ask him to stop Murdoch's buyout of BSkyB.
Ex tory minister Norman Fowler agrees with that view and goes further by saying that the goverment must examine the plurality of media ownership and must look at how the ownership thatwe now have affect the information we currently receive. He is right that is what is absolutely needed, but it would be terrible if it took the goverment to do that.
When Murdoch tries to tell us that he is a responsible owner, we just have to look at his past record in our country or in his native Australia and his current record in the States with Fox news which is just an extension of the republican or even tea party and his malign influence on politicians who seem to lick his boots.
Robert Peston wonders whether the conspiracy theorists will see the alliance of organisations who have signed the letter as having come together to the rescue of Vince Cable.
Peter Oborne's dispatches on Murdoch's influence in this country aired last week and was excellent but as with all the latest reports we have seen recently there was nos smoking gun.
John Simpson has a bit of a go at Mark Thompson over his statement that BBC was left wing in its new coverage during the eighties. He also goes onto say that he is nowhere near as confident about the future of the BBC as Thompson seemingly is.

I have followed the response to the Browne report and the fallout for the lib dems and more importantly the future for educating the coming generations. But i can't see that there is much difference between the graduate tax and the subsidised loans proposed by the government. I suppose i believe that sending the most gifted students to university should be a countries own investment in his future.
From what i have read the Labour party is in a bit of a mess itself on this subject, but thankfully for them they don't have to make the decisions, well that is until they have to decide how they respond to the coalitons proposals.
But the problems have been created by the crazy taget of sending 50% of youngsters to higher education on mickey mouse courses that don't stretch them intellectually or even properly equip them for a future in free market workforce. It must be one of the first times i have agreed with Simon Heffer on anything. How was it earlier in the decade that London had a mania for Polish plumbers, that the south east couldn't supply enough of its own plumbers and other tradesman was a pretty big indictment of our education system. Craig Murray gives a stirring attack on the whole debate.

Matthew Norman wonders what on earth Philp Green can really understand about government spending and what that knowledge can really bring to the report he has just delivered to the government. Move everything offshore, i suppose.

The consensus seems to be that Ed Miliband did well at PMQ time, surprisingly to some it would seem. I wouldn't say i was surprised i wasn't sure what to expect but it's good news for the democratic process. The last thing the country needed was a hapless opposition leader if the coalition really are going to try to introduce these cuts and then try to reform the NHS and welfare system at the same time.
And with more labour MP's behind him that had voted for his brother it was a pretty big test in front of his own party as much as the watching country and media.

Music
Arcade fire - The suburbs: I like the Canadian oufit without ever really buying into the hype that they were the next big thing. This kind of carries that on for me, it's good, but more pretty good than very good Less overblown than their last effort but better for it.

Boards of Canada - Music has the right to children:  One of the first works from the Scotish electronica outfit. It's reasonably good, though it doesn't scale any heights.

Jaga Jazzist -  One armed bandit: The latest album from one of the original bands to emerge from the Scandanavian new jazz scene. Now this is excellent, for some reason i see similarities with Dungen even though Dungen are guitar based. I will have to go and check out their back catalogue.

Klaxons - Surfing the void: This is the difficult second album. The story is their record company sent their first effort packing and told them go into the studio to try again. It is a good album, maybe not quite as good as the first, but not much in it ot be honest. But they are in danger of becoming one dimensional, if they tried to go in a completely different direction, then i can see why.

The Coral - Butterfly house: A number of reviews described this a return to form, which lost me. When did their form ever dip. They have been consistently good since their first album to me. This is as good as ever but sounds a bit smoother, more commercial than previous efforts. I don't know if that is down to the loss of guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones or down to producer John Leckie.

Tweak bird - Tweak bird: On first thoughts this sounded too straight ahead heavy rock for my tastes nowadays but i saw more nuances after a few listens. So whilst i don't think it's anything special it is a record easy to get into.