Glazer's : More questions than answers

The news that they are to pay off the £220 million PIK loans raise more questions than answers. As usual, as they won't go public with exactl what they have done, the speculation goes into overdrive. As Paul Kelso writes it is impossible to know the truth. MUST on behalf of all united fans, call on the Glazer's to come clean and tells us the truth. Their number one fan in the club still seems to be happy with them as Fergie continues to tell the press that they are " great owners ". I can't pretend anything other, than i cringe every time i hear him say that. It's bollocks and he must know it.

The red knights make their token " quote off the record " by a " source " regarding the latest turn of events. It's getting harder to take anything that comes out of that grouping seriously, which is a pisser because that was our best hope.

Martin Samuel asks the obvious question, are the John Henry's just double Glazer's. Everything we have seen and heard from before the takeover, never mind since, screamed yes.
Meanwhile the footballing authorities show where their priorites lie, as Andy Anson accuses the BBC of a lack of patriotism over the world cup bid for broadcasting a sensationalist Panorama just before the final vote by FIFA. Isn't the purpose of the press to hold power to account, not do their bidding. FIFA is corrupt and everybody knows it, better to win the rights to host the world cup when Blatter has been removed and the organisation has been cleaned up from top to bottom.

I have no idea why Fergie should be in Qatar fielding a press conference lending support to their bid 2022 world cup when he should be at home trying to get our season kick started. Just as it's scandalous that Gill decides to go to Florida to tell some obscure US radio station that everything is rosy and tell us that United's business model should give us no worry.
Anyway Fergie told his audience that he will be around to build the next United side which will be built around youth, though experienced players will have to be bought when Scholes and Giggs retire. He lays into Paul Stretford big time, telling his audience that Rooney was given bad advice. He also can't miss the chance to have a little pop at City.

It looks like United have identified our next goalie, whether he will be the man to succeed Van Der Sar, who knows. Obviously if he is anywhere near as good as our last Danish goalie, the job will be a goodun. The last paragraph is a killer, Lindergaard whose low value will appeal to United's owners. 

The Telegraph spotlight five young players tipped by Rio as having big futures for England ahead of the French disappointment. I can't disagree with the first four, but i'm not sure about Carroll. He is going to be a very good player as far as the premier league goes, but i'm not sure his style will be suited to international football. It's as much to do with the rest of team as with him, English footballers seem to have an automatic compulsion to hit the ball long when they have a big man up front. We saw it again last night, I wouldn't go overboard about last night though. He is trying to build a new side and blood new players, so England are bound to have nights last night. He is going to perservere with youth though if he is going to change things around.

Irish central bank governor admits he is expecting a bailout worth tens of billions of euros as the first confirmation that the EU and IMF are to try to shore up the Irish banking sector.
Robert Peston asks how much punsihment will British and international banks be made to suffer. British exposure is unsurprisingly big, and these incompetents are still going around awarding themselves huge bonuses. It will be the people that suffer as they already are, if the financial sector is not cut down to size if we ever come out of the repurcushions of the credit crunch, we may as well all the socialist workers party. Because democracy will have malfunctioned in a major way.
Hamish McRae believes soveriegn defaults in the Eurozone are inevitable, if that is really inevitable the question is what will be the German response. Leading German pundit Adam Posener claims that the German governing class knew that something like this was always going to happen. His argument is that they are using this crisis as a weapon to force Europe's peripheral nations into a painful restructuring of their econmies. Ambrsoe Evans-Pritchard comes to the same conclusion from a Eurosecptic stance, but argues that there is nothing democratic about this process, it is totally illegitimate.
Paul Mason also claims that the European project is in crisis and also writes on the lack of democratic oversight and the lack of democracy in the whole process.Whilst in his latest column he describes just what is at stake, taking care to quote British financial worries. I'd feel a lot better without osborne in charge.

Jeremy Warner reports on the Chinese worry, that their economy is overheating, and tells the Chinese that their problems do not stem from the policies of the Fed. He belives it's problems are self inflicted but the solution is in its own hands.
Robert Skidleky argues that world bank president Robert Zoellick's agenda for rebalancing the economy and to spur growth are good idea's that could lead the global economy in the right direction. As with most commentators he belives global economic imblances are at the heart of the problem. He invokes Keynes plans for an international reserve asset rather than a return to a new gold satndard.

John Harris wonders where the labour parties right wing are headed as Johson argues that 50p top rate of tax should be temporary even though it is overwhelmingly backed by the bulk of the population. In the words of Mandelson, according to David Laws (it certainly sounds authentic though), haven't the rich suffered enough. Can anybody seriously argue that right wing of the labour party or just plain new labour ar even vaguely centre left anymore.
For my money they should go off and join the orange book tendency of the lib dems to start a new Eurohile centre right party as an antidote to the Euroscpetic tories.
James Forsyth takes a min look at new Lib dem president Tim Farron, who he sees as a possible future leader of the party if the Lib dems leave government in five years time. That would be the time for Clegg and Laws to cross benches to the Tories, because the party would surely move back to the lfet in those circumstances. Who knows, if labour stick to its muddling path trying to stick to the centre right shadowing the tories a move to the left could put the lib dems back in business after the Clegg debacle.
Simon Jenkins attacks Lib dems for not practising what they preach, they want PR and coalition government and then complain at the consequences. No what they complain is the duplicity from their leaders, claiming that the tories planned cuts at the elction were dangerous and then becoming bigger advocates for the cuts than the tories themselves. The news that they wanted to ditch their plans on student funding before the election. It goes on and on.

As a republican myself it was interesting reading this article from Steve Richards on the news of the new royal wedding. He claims that the last government probably had the biggest number of closet republicans in it than this country has ever seen. He argues that at one point, the prospect was there, of a radical reform of the monarchy along continental lines. I think he may well be right, and it would be yet another example of the lost opportunity of the last thirteen years. Though i don't agree with much the coalition are doing, i do admire the way they are governing to get things done now and not governing to keep everbody happy and hence just running for re-election. There is a big lesson for the left in that. And if we ever get some kind of electoral reform it will be an even more important lesson to take in.
Benedict Brogan argues that the royal wedding is just what the doctor ordered for Cameron. With bad news on the way, what better to keep the plebs happy than a royal wedding.

And now to talk of a real British political giant, one of the most important Englishmen who ever lived and a man who loathed monarchy. But a man who has never really been given the recognition due in either his mother country or in the country who he did as much as anybody to bring about. Brendan O'Neill writes about the reluctance of the US to accept Tom Paine's crucial role in its history and what that says about that country today.

Timothy Garton Ash warns it will be down to its Asian neighbours, where Burma's future lies, after San Suu Kyi's release. It's best hope for an orderly transition to any kind of stable western style human rights based democracy will lie in India's attitude not in lectures from the US and Britain.

I have been loving Steve Coogan's latest comedy the trip co-starring Rob Brydon, but it does seem to have split opinion. David Bowden asks if the show is evidence Coogan has got his mojo back. I'm not sure he ever lost it, he has done good work since Partridge.It just hasn't been as consistently excellent as that masterpiece.
Jay Rayner watches the show with the eye of a food critic and think that it does well to capture the absurdities of his profession, and thinks it captures certaintruths whilst being funny.
Rachel Cooke of the New Statesman doesn't like it, that's a bit strong, i can see some people not finding it funny, but i can't see what's to hate in it.

Media cities website has received 30,000 hits applying for jobs when the BBC finally get up here. It may be the surrounding firms that offer the best long term job prospects. That's if the complex fulfills the hopes in attracting the kind of ancilliary firms to complement the BBC and maybe Granada.
GMP expect to start losing jobs including front line officers as the cuts begin to bite in what is going to be the knid of news we can start to ecpect more and more over the next couple of years. The ctites museums are shocked by the cuts announced that will affect them. I feel sorry for the pump house museum at having to hear this news just after their exetnsion and refurbishment has finished.

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