Bank Bailout MkII

I'm continually amazed by the size of the bank bailout and how easily these massive sums of money have passed everyone by.

This link shows that the government has decided to dump another £39.2Bn into a couple of banks. That is a seriously staggering amount of money!

One of my pet habits is referring to large sums of government money in terms of things that are simpler to understand, such as Chinook helicopters, which are desperately needed by our troops in the sandpit. Looking at the recent Canadian deal, they were able to procure 15
brand new Chinooks (including 20+ years of support and maintenance) for $3.4Bn. We could have bought (and supported) 300 heavy lift helicopters for the 'price' of this single bank-bailout. (OK, OK, add on pilot and training costs and you're probably down to 100, but this would be a capability equivalent to anyone in the world).

I remember Brown standing up in the HoC talking about how the number of helicopters has increased by 60% in recent months. This was an increase of Chinooks from 5 to 8. Of this 8, 2 have been shot down recently, putting us nearly back where we started.

I understand fully the need for a liquid and sustainable banking sector, really I do. However, when Brown claims there is nothing more that can be done to help our troops, he has to be lying.


"A penny spent on defence is a penny wasted" - Gordon Brown

Time to put my money where my tusks are...

I have become an extremely angry walrus over the past few years. I've seen the same question come up time and time again across the various tubes of the interweb:

"Why is it that this country just seems to be shit at the moment?"

Well, I'm setting up this blog to try and do two things.

1. Highlight the areas that I feel are particularly leading the country into the shit.
2. Suggest what should be done differently.

If you're reading this, feel free to comment. I'm just one humble walrus, I have a feeling the country is so fucked we're going to need a lot of good ideas how to fix it again.