OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Ch Ch Ch Changes

Well, one day to go and Obama feels as though the goal is in sight. God knows why you would want to take the Presidential helm as the recession starts to bite but I guess the Democrats understand what they're in for and are prepared for the flack.

I reckon McCain is twitching at the thought of sneaking through and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. I bet there'll be no 'hanging chad' controversies this time round, they'll just hand state after state to Barak, breathe sigh of relief and hunker down until 2012.

There can't be any other reason for choosing Palin as running mate can there? Surely that was the act of a Party hell bent on losing the election? From the minute she opened her mouth any reasonably intelligent person would've recognised an 'unfit for office' personality shining through. Surely?

The Republican election machine would have avoided her like the plague had they wanted to win on Tuesday. What must be worrying them now is that the pollsters have been lied to and when it comes down to the wire the colour of Obama`s skin will sentence McCain and the Republicans to at least four years of attempting to guide the economy through the mother of all recessions while simultaneously trying to extract the forces from Afghanistan and Iraq while pretending to have won both wars. And all with a thoroughly discredited and exhausted ideology. More of the same.

The present incumbents are also worried that a shock McCain victory will result in widespread civil unrest. The National Guard, local law enforcement and even the army are reportedly on high alert if the unthinkable should happen on Tuesday.

It's going to be interesting. In the meantime the World waits....

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I’ve not been one bit surprised by the furore coming out of the tabloids and the mouths of politicians about ‘Manuelgate’ this past week or so. Personally I found it puerile, witless and sadly typical of Ross and Brand’s approach to broadcasting. But what annoys me even more about the pair of pricks is that once again we now have the vested interests behind the politicians and tabloids attempting to stir up the old ‘BBC is a disgrace’ farrago. ‘It’s license fee payers who are shoring up this left-wing monopoly’ is the overt exclamation from the rabid right and their fellow travelers while the sub-text (and, indeed, sub-plot) is that it should be sold off, privatized if you will, and who better to buy it than Murdoch or some other rapacious arsehole who would reduce this fine institution (for all its faults) to a pale shadow of its former self.

So, thanks a lot you pair of preening poseurs, with a bit of luck Dave channel might start to look like a decent career choice for you in the not too distant future. And I don’t for one minute regret that my attitude to the ‘joke’ marks me down as old-fashioned or whatever, if that’s comedy then we’re all going to hell in a handcart.

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Manchester City? What is it about this footbball club that constantly coaxes the phrase "typical City" from the throats of its supporters? We're now supposedly the richest club on the planet and we can't beat Bolton, Newcastle, Wigan or Middlesborough. And that tag "Richest Club on the Planet" is now being used to either take the piss (the richest club in the world still couldn't overcome lowly Bolton, Wigan, Middlesborough) or damn us with faint praise (City hammered Portsmouth 6 - 0 but so they should, because they are the richest club on the planet.)

Well let's just hope we can buy ourselves out of a relegation battle as apparently easily as we can buy ourselves into a top four finish.


Quay West building, Salford Quays


Bridge over the quay