Author Archive

Professional Tennis

As Wimbledon strolled to its moribund conclusion we were once again reminded that at the top level men and women are only equal when it comes to prize money. What a nonsense. In a tournament where one match covered 3 days in the men’s draw, the Cynical Eye feels that the 67 minute women’s final didn’t quite deliver fair value. Get real ladies and take a pay cut.

UK Government ‘Spending Cuts’

Only in the eyes of the vast body of civil servants can a cut occur to something that has yet to exist. What nonsense. This is clearly an attempt to exert the rhetoric of the ‘kept classes’ which has been so apparent for the past 13 years. Good riddance.

The World Cup

The world’s most popular sporting event sadly drifted into farce at the final. The Prima Donna ‘sportsman’s’ inability to play football amplified by honed skills in the arena of fouling. What a nonsense. How much do these people have to be paid to be bothered to perform? The clear star of the tournament, Paul the octopus, born in England, giving some hope that Britain can indeed perform at the top level.

En Primeur Bordeaux 2009

The profiteering of the first growth vineyards actively indulged by the wealthy ‘keeping up with the oligarch’ classes is a nonsense. The majority of wine producers around the world bottling good quality wine, struggle financially. Robert Parker doesn’t need to tell us that Margaux is good wine; or that a ‘98 pointer’ is better than a ‘92 pointer’. Thanks but no thanks Robert.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

The attempts of Mr Obama to divert attention from his floundering term in office by dictating terms to a corporation like BP. A UK oil company that had hired local US ‘expertise’ that have since walked away without blame. What nonsense. Is the world’s biggest consumer of oil becoming even more protectionist?  Time for Britain to move on and find another ‘special’ relationship.

The death of a young mother is always sad, but some how the culture of celebrity has allowed the media to turn an irrelevant, uneducated, and foul mouthed individual into some sought of icon. Now that is sad.

As a ‘reality TV star’ Jade Goody’s was a business not of reality, but fantasy. Her final few weeks in the spotlight were spent entirely without dignity to keep the till in the Goody household ringing. All in all a very good final month for her and her crack PR team.

The real pity is that whilst the media perpetuates the notion that reality is the absolute pap they push, deserving people that actually contribute in the real world go unrecognised. The UK also has thousands of terminally ill, but PR agents can’t make any money out of them, so they won’t be appearing in public anytime soon.

As a politician that once forgot to correctly declare his earnings, no one will be surprised by Mr Livingstone’s colourful rhetoric after the embarrassment caused by the recent ‘train ticket malfunction’ when travelling out of London.

TCE can’t help but see the irony alongside millions of other Londoners, who had to put up with Livingstone’s cronyism, deceit, and hypocrisy, during his tenure as Mayor.

This little bit of publicity must be difficult even for a man driven so much by spin and self promotion.

Karl Marx would be truly intrigued by the Labour party, for in government they have succeeded in making things so bad for the average Brit that communism would actually bring some light relief. It is as though the Labour party read Das Capital and decided it would become the basis for a script ‘Britain; the Blair and Brown Years’. 

The past twelve months have seen corporations and private individual’s finances collapse under the burden of excess debt , coinciding with the worst recession in the UK for decades.  This, along with the total mismanagement of the public purse by the Labour government, has created the ideal scenario for furthering communism (as outlined in Karl Marx’s work) in the UK.

However things may not be so clear cut.

TCE felt that when RBS outbid rivals for the very average Dutch bank ABN at the top of the equity market in the latter half of 2007, that the RBS Board, and in particular, Sir Fred Goodwin, had gone completely mad.

The recent media frenzy surrounding the subsequent bailout and the firing of Mr Goodwin has been completely overshadowed by the ‘scandal’ of his pension entitlement. Ms Harman (Labour’s Deputy Leader) during a 1^st March television broadcast implied that steps would be taken to ensure that the former CEO does not take his £650,000 per annum pension even if the retirement deal was valid in law. “The Prime Minister has said that it is not acceptable and therefore it will not be accepted” said Ms Harman on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

The morality of such a payout is perhaps debateable and Fred Goodwin’s legacy is one of arrogance and incompetence. But the message that Gordon Brown sends with such dictatorial statements should normally be of grave concern, however since communism theoretically implies an egalitarian and democratic social structure, communism has absolutely no chance whilst this Labour Party is in power.