New season's football fixtures announced

Chelsea will begin the defence of their Premier League title with a home match against newly promoted West Bromwich Albion on Saturday 14 August.  Heavyweights Liverpool and Arsenal will meet at Anfield on the opening weekend.  Last season's runners-up Manchester United face a mouth-watering home match with top-flight new boys Newcastle.

All Jack needs to do now is decide which team he's batting for

Championship play-off winners Blackpool start at home to Wigan, while Tottenham host Manchester City, who they edged out for fourth place last term.  Elsewhere on the opening day of the 2010/11 season, Aston Villa face West Ham and Everton travel to Blackburn, while Sunderland are at home to Birmingham, Stoke visit Wolves and Bolton welcome Europa League runners-up Fulham.

Opening weekend - Saturday 14 August:
Aston Villa v West Ham
Blackburn v Everton
Blackpool v Wigan
Bolton v Fulham
Chelsea v West Brom
Liverpool v Arsenal
Man Utd v Newcastle
Sunderland v Birmingham
Tottenham v Man City
Wolverhampton v Stoke

Premiership club by club fixtures

Danny Boyle to direct Olympic opening ceremony

Two of Britain's most respected directors, Stephen Daldry and Danny Boyle, were today named as the creative bosses of the London 2012 opening ceremony.  Daldry will be in overall creative charge of ceremonies while Boyle will be artistic director of the opening ceremony itself.  Oscar-winner Boyle said he was honoured. "It's a completely unique opportunity to contribute to what I'm sure are going to be a fantastic games. I'm really excited to be involved."

There will be four executive producers overseeing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and paralympic games. As well as Daldry, Hamish Hamilton, best known for his direction of live TV events, will be executive producer, broadcast; Mark Fisher, who has staged every Rolling Stones show since 1989, will be executive producer, design; and Catherine Ugwu, producer of the 2002 Manchester commonwealth games, will be executive producer, production.

Daldry said: "Myself and my co-executive producers will ensure there is creative continuity across all four ceremonies, that the public have real engagement and that we continue to attract into the key roles the best talent in the world.  I'm delighted to be part of the team."

The Guardian

Israel to ease blockade of Gaza

Israeli cabinet ministers have voted to ease the land blockade of the Gaza Strip and allow more civilian goods to enter the Palestinian territory. The move comes after last month's Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla attempting to break the blockade was widely condemned. Nine Turkish activists died in the attack on the flotilla in international waters. Pressure for an easing of the Gaza blockade intensified after the raid.

BBC News

Is Robert Peston about to head Radio 4?

BBC business editor Robert Peston has emerged as one of the candidates for the job of Radio 4 controller.  The charismatic Peston [that's what it says here] is understood to have been interviewed by the BBC last week in an attempt to whittle down the number of applicants to find a successor to Mark Damazer, who leaves in September.

The news may surprise some as it was thought within the media industry that Peston may succeed political editor Nick Robinson, who has been widely tipped to move to Radio 4's Today programme.  Peston, renowned for his idiosyncratic presenting style, has been the BBC's business editor since 2006 but before that he was both political editor and financial editor of the Financial Times.

The Guardian

The Swiss rain on Spain's parade

Spain's undistinguished record of failure in the World Cup is threatening to strike again after an improbable 1-0 defeat to Switzerland gave the World Cup its first authentic shock.  Spain's manager, Vicente del Bosque, described himself as "very upset" as he reflected on the potential ramifications.

No side has won the competition after losing their first game

"It's not a good omen and it's not a good sign that we have sent out to the other teams and the football world," Del Bosque said. "We have to face the next games and try to win them now. That should be our spirit because we can't drop our heads and think we were unfortunate or that we had bad luck – not when we still have the chance to put it right."

George Osborne unveils sweeping City reforms

Mervyn King became the most powerful governor of the Bank of England in living memory today after George Osborne gave him sweeping powers to curb City excesses and prevent another financial crash.  King emerged as the big winner from the chancellor's shakeup of supervision that will abolish the Financial Services Authority and do away with the tripartite system of regulation introduced by Gordon Brown in 1997.

Used car salesmen to regulate used car salesmen shocker

Despite facing his own critics during the financial crisis of the past three years, King said tonight that the Bank was determined to meet its inflation target and to construct a framework for financial stability to match that for monetary stability. "We need both," King said. "As we have seen, one without the other is not enough. Just as the role of a central bank in monetary policy is to take the punch bowl away just as the party gets going, its role in financial stability should be to turn down the music when the dancing gets a little too wild."

Supervision of individual banks would be carried out by the prudential regulatory authority, a legally separate but subsidiary part of the Bank that will replace the FSA in 2012.  King will chair the authority's board, but it will be run on a day-to-day basis by Hector Sants, the current chief executive of the FSA. The current chairman of the FSA, Lord Turner, was being seen as a possible successor to King when his second five-year term as governor ends in 2013.

Osborne said tonight: "At the heart of the crisis was a rapid and unsustainable increase in debt that our macroeconomic and regulatory system utterly failed to identify let alone prevent.  No one was controlling levels of debt, and when the crunch came no one knew who was in charge."  The government will also establish, what Osborne called a "powerful new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority", which will regulate the conduct of every firm authorised to provide services to the public.  The body will "ensure the integrity of the UK's financial markets in order to preserve their reputation for transparency and efficiency as well as the UK's reputation as one of the world's leading global financial centres," the chancellor said.

King, who will now be in charge of macro-prudential supervision as well as interest rates said tonight: "I welcome these new responsibilities. Monetary stability and financial stability are two sides of the same coin. During the crisis the former was threatened by the failure to secure the latter."  He added that the crisis showed that when banks ran into trouble the Bank of England needed to be fully involved. "The Bank of England cannot effectively perform its role as lender of last resort without first-hand knowledge of the health of the banks to which it might provide support," he said.

The Guardian

MPs angry at the way IPSA operates

ROFLminster

Bloody Sunday

Steve Bell, the Guardian

Hot under the collar

BBC receives 545 vuvuzela complaints

If World Cup organisers reckon that a stadium ban on the plastic horns would be against the traditions of the African football supporter then they won't mind English fans getting pissed and shoving the vuvuzelas right up their arses.

Join the Facebook campaign to ban the bloody things here.

ITV sacks Robbie Earle over misuse of World Cup tickets

ITV has terminated its contract with their World Cup pundit Robbie Earle with immediate effect after discovering he had passed scores of tickets to a third party, in breach of Fifa rules.

It is understood that between 35 and 40 tickets allocated to Earle ended up in the hands of the marketing company said to have orchestrated an ambush marketing effort on behalf of the beer brand Bavaria via a third party.  Thirty-six women in orange mini dresses were ejected from Soccer City during yesterday's match when Fifa officials decreed they were part of an organised ambush marketing scheme.  They were questioned for several hours until after the match had finished. Bavaria denied the women had any links to its campaign.

The debacle comes on top of calls for England matches to be removed from the remit of ITV, despite drawing in more than twenty million viewers for last Saturday's England match.  The post-match coverage was dominated by the blunder at Technicolor's London transmission centre that meant 1.5m ITV HD viewers were treated to a sponsorship trailer instead of Steven Gerrard's opening goal.

World Cup: BBC may offer vuvuzela free matches

The BBC was last night investigating the possibility of transmitting an alternative "vuvuzela free" version of its World Cup coverage as the fierce debate over the buzz of the horn looked set to be heading for football grounds all over Britain.  The BBC has received 220 complaints and, while it is committed to reflecting the atmosphere in the stadiums on its main coverage, it is believed to be looking into providing a so-called "clean" feed that would strip out the majority of crowd noise, via the red button.

Fucking things

South African organisers have hit back encouraging visitors to export them back to their own countries.  Sainsbury's sold 22,000 red vuvuzelas in twelve hours before England's game, that's one every two seconds. The supermarket chain has ordered 25,000 extra horns but thinks it may run out before Friday's game against Algeria.  "Vuvuzelas are here to stay and will never be banned," said Rich Mkhondo, a spokesman for the local World Cup organising committee.  "People love the vuvuzelas around the world.  Only a minority are against vuvuzelas."  

Yes, dear, but I think you will find that in countries outside of South Africa, minorities have a voice?

I am not Obama's enemy, says Hugo Chavez

Venezuela possesses the largest reserves of oil outside the Middle East and supplies more than one-tenth of US oil imports but still the economy has woefully underperformed against others in Latin America in the last two years.  Inflation has leapt to 30% and seems likely to rise further.  The Venezuelan currency has been devalued and is still sinking amongst Caracas's black market money changers.  In the capital's sprawling hillside neighbourhoods, jobs are scarce and President Hugo Chavez's Socialist party is looking electorally vulnerable just three months before National Assembly elections. Chavez intends to inject new urgency into his socialist and anti-imperialist revolution, claiming "capitalism is destroying the world".

In a BBC Hardtalk programme in the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Chavez blamed Venezuela's deepening recession on the irresponsible economic policies of the United States.  He also expressed disappointment with Barack Obama's "very negative signals" towards Latin America.  "In Colombia [the Americans] are building seven military bases; that is one of the very negative signals that Obama sent just after taking office," Chavez said.  "Bush decided to reactivate the US Fourth Fleet to operate in Latin America. Obama, instead of suspending or getting rid of the Fourth Fleet has seven military bases planned in Colombia. What for? Is it to go to war, to dominate the Latin American continent?"

Watch the Hardtalk interview on BBC iPlayer here.

Pickpockets take playwright Alan Bennett's wallet

Playwright Alan Bennett's wallet was stolen by pickpockets during a "distraction" scam in Camden High Street, London.  The thieves stole the writer's wallet, containing £1500, while pretending to clean his coat after spattering ice cream on it.

The theft took place after midday on Friday and the Metropolitan Police are looking for three suspects.  No arrests have been made in the case.  A Met spokesman said: "We can confirm detectives from Camden robbery squad are investigating an allegation of robbery.  The incident occurred on Friday at about 12.15pm in a shop on Camden High Street.  The victim, a tacky, old northern queen man aged in his 70s, was robbed of an amount of money by three suspects."  Bless 'er.

Sarah Brown to pen 'intimate' memoirs

Sarah Brown is to follow her No10 predecessor Cherie Blair in publishing her memoirs on life behind Downing Street's black door.  Her autobiography is to be published to coincide with Mothers' Day next year, Ebury Press has announced, and will reveal "what it is like to be a woman, wife and mother in somewhat exceptional circumstances".

[sniffles]

The market is set to be flooded with New Labour memoirs - Tony Blair's The Journey is out in September, Peter Mandelson is penning his "mixture of autobiography, personal reflection and political history", and former spin doctor Alastair Campbell has updated his account of the explosive feuds at the top of the leadership - but the former first lady appears to be aiming for a different market.

Brown is well poised to exploit a fresh readership. She has attracted more than 1 million followers on Twitter, overtaking the ubiquitous comedian and presenter Stephen Fry to become the most followed Briton on the micro-blogging site.  And it was on Twitter that she revealed the news to her followers, saying: "Just agreed with my publisher Ebury to write a book – working title Behind the Black Door – so chained to laptop from Monday morning."

Nigel Slater's classic poulet sauté recipe

Poulet sauté is the classical French term for a chicken cooked almost entirely in butter and seasoned only with a few herbs. This is the simplest way of cooking a chicken, the bird cut into portions and cooked till golden.

INGREDIENTS

1 chicken

60g butter

olive oil

250ml white wine

250ml chicken stock

2-3 tbsp tarragon

2-3 tbsp parsley

METHOD: Melt 30g of butter in a deep-sided frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add a chicken, jointed into six or eight pieces, brown meat first, and cook skin-side down to a nice, golden, nutty colour. Add the white meat. When the meat is cooked, season all and return to the pan with 30g or so of fresh butter, cover, and cook on a low heat for 25 minutes or so. Remove the chicken to a warm dish then pour 250ml of white wine and the same of chicken stock into the pan. Turn up the heat and let the liquid reduce to half its original volume, scraping at the pan-stickings with a wooden spatula and letting them dissolve into the liquid. Season carefully then add 2 or 3 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley and tarragon, and finally stir in a knob of butter. 

THE TRICK: The sauce is nothing more than the caramelised meat juices from the pan dissolved in wine, so make certain the meat stays in place long enough. The dark meat will take longer to cook than the white, so add the breasts and wings only once the rest of the carcass has started to lightly colour.

THE TWIST: A splash of Marsala instead of white wine will lend a sweet richness, Madeira a nutty quality. My favourite twist is to add a healthy handful of tarragon at the end of cooking, for its soft aniseed notes. Or you could add finely chopped lemon grass and red chillies to the pan and finish with lime juice and a splash of fish sauce instead of wine. 

Tories have misled voters on spending cuts

Martin Rowson, the Guardian

World Cup organiser considers vuvuzela ban after complaints from viewers and broadcasters

Yes, ban the fucking things, for Christ's sake.  They completely smother any atmosphere by drowning out the cheers and applause of supporters, and players have complained that they cannot hear each other's calls let alone the whistle of the referee.  

However, if we could keep a few aside for when Andy Gray is commentating from Premiership grounds, I'd be very grateful.

Germany FTW?!

Warehouse Kitchen and Bar, Southport

If you'd like to thank Stevie G for last night's goal, you could do worse than patronize his restaurant at 30 West Street, Southport (telephone 01704 544 662).  Matthew Norman of the Guardian did just that.  Sworn to not uttering a bad word about Warehouse lest it put Gerrard off his game, Norman and his friend passed on the Footballer's Special - no, not a go on Vanessa Peroncel but a three-course menu comprising [holds sides] prawn cocktail, steak and chips and Black Forest sundae - plumping instead for à la carte.

'The decor is a paean to eclecticism'

"I began with that cocktail, and admired the bold decision to use what the pliant texture suggested were expertly thawed shellfish when Morecambe Bay, home of our finest shrimps, is just up the coast. My friend relished his Southport chowder, dwelling on how the wateriness and indistinct flavouring cleverly allowed the accompanying rasher of salty bacon total dominion. The two oriental starters we shared – seductively flaccid chilli salt squid and delectably flabby spare ribs in a pleasingly feckless honey and star anise sauce – would not have disgraced a Waitrose TV dinner."  

You get the picture.  No?

"I had miso-marinated black cod with a radish salad, and if Walkers crisps could capture that essence in its new range, Gary Lineker would be ecstatic. My friend loved how his Moroccan lamb shank, couscous and smoky aubergine relish nimbly eschewed any depth of lamby flavour that might have clashed with an enticingly bitter marinade. "Brilliant," he said, "how everything gives the impression of good food, in the way Michael McIntyre gives the impression of being funny."  That Black Forest sundae was delicious, and there were no complaints about an apple crumble sundae with calvados. "What I particularly adore," said my friend over the dregs of a refreshingly tart house wine, "is it's the first restaurant I've been to where I haven't the faintest idea what it wants to be. It's wonderfully enigmatic. Perfect."

I believe there was some interruption in your coverage, said Chiles

Some interruption?  SOME interruption?  During ITV's HD coverage of England's first match of World Cup 2010, some bright spark decided it would be a good idea to transmit an advert at exactly the same time as Stephen Gerrard scored his country's opening goal of the tournament.  They didn't transmit the advert at the same time as Rob Green let a ball slip through his hands and into the back of the net for the USA's equalizer, oh no, the whole world had to see that.  No, it had to be during Steven Gerrard's goal.  No mention of this was made by either commentator for the entire match, it was up to Adrian Chiles, irritating at the best of times, to come up with ITV's apology at half time: "Apologies for those watching in HD, I believe there was some interruption in your coverage."

Twitter and ITV.com were immediately deluged with complaints about the coverage, yet even now there is no form of an apology on the ITV website.  The chairman of ITV Michael Grade has however apologised for the "inexcusable glitch".

As for the match, just as South Africa opened their World Cup with a goal that will be remembered forever, so England, as is their wont, contrived to open theirs with a goalkeeping blunder that will never be forgotten. No sooner had Fabio Capello placed his confidence in Rob Green than his judgment was mocked by the sort of bungle no professional footballer can comfortably watch, an unforced error that allowed the United States back into a game on which England appeared to have a comfortable grip after Steven Gerrard's early goal.

England's problems worsened at half-time when King failed to appear for the second half, meaning a second of Capello's judgment calls may have gone wrong. The defender has an abductor problem and will not be fit for Algeria on Friday. At least Capello was brave enough to leave Green on, though at the rate his players were dropping out he probably wished to keep a substitute in reserve. The coach must hardly have been able to watch when Carragher was booked after thirteen minutes on the pitch for catching Findley late, closely followed by Gerrard for a foul on Dempsey.

The best part of the World Cup is always the glorious wave of unifying optimism before a ball is kicked.  Back to reality - England stagger into phase one, part two.

The Blairs's property portfolio reaches £14 million

The family's expanding portfolio now totals seven homes, including four in central London.  The latest addition is a four-storey, Grade II-listed town house just a few streets away from the Blairs' £3.7 million Connaught Square mansion.  Mrs Blair and the couple's son Euan, 26, secured the three-bedroom Edwardian house in Marylebone for £1.3 million.  Land Registry documents revealed they used a mortgage to buy the property together in April.  It was not clear whether the mortgage was taken out by Mrs Blair or her son, who reportedly received a six-figure bonus from investment bank Morgan Stanley this year.  His spacious new town house boasts three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a bespoke designer kitchen, study, dining room and garden.

Friends said Euan had 'outgrown' the two-bedroom basement flat he bought two years ago in Islington, North London.  He has accepted a £500,000 offer for the flat but is staying there while builders refurbish his new home.  The Blairs' architect Simon Templeton has already submitted plans to install a skylight as well as a gate in the railings outside the listed property.  Euan's new home could soon rival his younger brother Nicky's nearby mews house, dubbed the 'ultimate lads's pad'.  Nicky, 24, bought the £1.13 million property with his mother last year, mortgage-free.  Meanwhile the Blairs's daughter Kathryn, 22, is studying law in Strasbourg, where she has an Erasmus scholarship.

Three MPs and peer to face trial as privilege claim dismissed

Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield had argued that they could not be tried in court because of a 300-year-old law exempting MPs and Lords from prosecution over proceedings in parliament.  But Mr Justice Saunders rejected their application, saying there was "no logical, practical, moral or legal justification" for expenses claims being covered by privilege.  

However, the four men have announced they will appeal against the decision, meaning the taxpayer will face a bill running into six figures for another hearing.  The judge granted permission for the men to take their case to the Court of Appeal for a hearing which is likely to take place later in the summer.  If their appeal is unsuccessful they will face juries at Southwark Crown Court in south London on charges of false accounting in separate trials which could begin before the end of this year.  They face a maximum prison sentence of seven years if convicted.  None of the defendants, who deny the charges, was in court to hear the judge's decision.

Darling: Tories have misled voters on spending cuts

Alistair Darling will demand "a very big apology" from David Cameron for deliberately misleading the electorate about the state of the nation's finances if, as Darling expects, government borrowing figures released on Monday are better than forecast.

In an interview with the Guardian, the former chancellor accuses Cameron of deliberately exaggerating the scale of the problems so as to press ahead with pre-arranged plans to raise taxes and cut the size of the state. Cameron's new Office of Budget Responsibility is due to publish a fresh borrowing forecast independent of the Treasury on Monday, and Darling suspects it will be lower than his own forecast in March.

A cautious politician during his three years as chancellor, Darling is personally affronted that he has been accused by the Tories of massaging forecasts and ignoring civil service advice.  He is involved in a battle to defend his and Labour's legacy as responsible economic stewards and is taking a political gamble by raising the issue ahead of Monday.  He said: "If, when we see the borrowing figures on Monday, they turn out to be even better than I forecast in the budget, Cameron will have been found out to have misled people, and that is an extremely serious charge to lay against a prime minister. We will be due a very big apology and I'm going to get it from him."

Read the full Guardian article here.

Bloody Sunday killings to be ruled unlawful

The long-awaited report into the Bloody Sunday massacre will conclude that a number of the fatal shootings of civilians by British soldiers were unlawful killings, the Guardian has learned.  Lord Saville's twelve-year inquiry into the deaths, the longest public inquiry in British legal history, will conclude with a report published next Tuesday, putting severe pressure on the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland to prosecute soldiers.

Lord Trimble, the former leader of the Ulster Unionists and one of the architects of the Good Friday agreement, revealed to the Guardian that when Tony Blair agreed to the inquiry in 1998, he warned the then prime minister that any conclusion that departed 'one millimetre' from the earlier 1972 Widgery report into the killings would lead to 'soldiers in the dock'.  One unionist MP who did not wish to be named described the conclusion of unlawful killings as a 'hand-grenade with the pin pulled out that is about to be tossed into the lap of the PPS' in Northern Ireland.

Thirteen unarmed civilians, all of them male, were shot dead at a civil rights march in the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972.  A 14th man died of his wounds several months later."

The Guardian

Conservative pledge to protect frontline services goes up in smoke

The true nature of the £6.25bn cuts announced by the government last month became clearer today as ministers revealed plans to strip millions from the budgets of local authorities, transport schemes and projects aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy and tackling drug use.  The Conservatives's original promise of making savings by cutting costly IT projects and consultants, while protecting frontline services, appears not to have materialised and the cuts represent a massive slice from across the government's budgets.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission, charged with tackling discrimination and safeguarding human rights, has been ordered to cut 15% from its budget, forcing it to review its staffing, marketing and programme of grants to combat discrimination on the frontline.  Neil Kinghan, its director general, said it was conducting a full review to ensure "the most vulnerable in society do not suffer unfairly as the country grapples with the current economic climate."  

The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, announced where the £1.16bn in cuts to local government budgets would fall this year. Every local authority faces cuts of 1%-2% to its 2010-11 budget.  Ministers have attempted to soften that blow by removing ring-fencing to their education budgets to give local decision-makers more control over their spending.  Local transport schemes have been frozen pending review and grants to councils for schemes aimed at young people have been cut by 24%.  Dame Margaret Eaton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: "We have to recognise that these cuts will be painful to implement this year and will have a significant effect on services and the people who rely on them."

Margaret Hodge named head of public accounts committee

The Blairite former minister Margaret Hodge was today rewarded by MPs of all parties for her comprehensive election defeat of the BNP in her Barking constituency when she was elected as the chair of one of the most powerful Commons committees.  Hodge will head the public accounts committee – responsible for vetting government spending – after winning the job in the first ever select committee elections.  

The committees mirror government departments, conducting inquiries into policies and scrutinising value for money.  After a week of electioneering, the results were announced by the speaker in the Commons today.  Other notable winners included the Conservative Andrew Tyrie, who beat Michael Fallon for the chair of the treasury committee, which will play a vital role as the chancellor tackles the nation's deficit.  Clive Betts, the long-standing Labour Sheffield MP, beat the former communities minister Nick Raynsford for the chair of the communities and local government committee by just three votes.

The elections symbolise a dramatic shift in power from the front benches to the back benches and from the political parties and executive back to parliament.

His name escapes me

but he's sure to be remembered in South Africa long after the World Cup is over.

Oh yeah, and some black guy.

Students 'are a burden on taxpayers', new universities minister believes

David Willetts, the Universities Minister, last night warned that students should consider university fees "more as an obligation to pay higher income tax" than a debt.  Speaking ahead of a speech he is due to give to Oxford Brookes University on Friday, he warned the system was "unsustainable" and in need of "radical change".

In an interview with the Guardian, he warned that the cost of hundreds of thousands of students's degree courses was a "burden on the taxpayer that had to be tackled".  “My view is that it is not a matter of simply changing the fees," he said.  "The system doesn't contain strong incentives for universities to focus on teaching and the student experience, as opposed to research.”

An independent review of the student funding system is currently being led by Lord Browne, the former head of BP.  Under the current system, students can take out loans to cover the cost of fees and living expenses.  Loans are set at a low interest rate and are subsidised by the taxpayer.  Students start paying back loans when they earn at least £15,000 a year or more - at a lower interest rate than the government’s cost of borrowing.  Willetts said students might, for example, study at a local further education college for an external degree from a university.

The Conservatives have refused to rule out supporting a tuition fee rise, but the Liberal Democrats have called for fees to be axed altogether.  Willetts accused the former Labour government of "catastrophically failing" to explain to students how the current system worked.

Bank robber Fred Goodwin buys £3.5m property in Edinburgh

"Sir" Fred Goodwin, the disgraced banker blamed for the near-collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has bought a secluded home that has been described as one of Edinburgh’s finest houses.  The £3.5m property was originally built by Graeme Souness, the former Rangers manager, and has been redesigned and extended since [well yes, you'd think so.]

Unlike his previous home, the banker’s new property is hidden from public view and has a private drive, an electric security gate, extensive grounds, a Japanese garden and a floodlit tennis court [because it's a bugger when you can't finish the set due to poor light].  The move follows an attack by vandals in March last year when three windows were smashed in his detached sandstone villa and a Mercedes S600 in the driveway was damaged.  A vigilante group claimed responsibility at the time and warned “rich bankers” that it was “just the beginning”.

According to the selling agents, the centrepiece of Sir Fred’s new home is the “superb bespoke Clive Christian kitchen, offering a fabulous living space with glazed doors to the garden”.  A description of the property adds: “The ground-floor reception rooms flow seamlessly into one another and create a wonderfully proportioned and flexible space for entertaining” [marvellous].

RBS had to be bailed out by the Government and is now 84pc owned by the taxpayer.  But Sir Fred - nicknamed “Fred the Shred” because of his management style - left with a pension of £700,000 a year and a lump sum of nearly £3m in a deal described by Gordon Brown at the time as “unjustifiable”.  Following a widespread public outcry, he later agreed to reduce his payout by £200,000 a year.

Thousands of RBS staff across Britain have lost their jobs since Sir Fred’s departure as chief executive.

England can win the World Cup, says Joe Cole

Joe Cole has become the first England player to break ranks and state Fabio Capello's side are good enough to win a first World Cup in 44 years. 

You're cute, Joe, but you ain't clever

The midfielder was one of the few players to excel at the finals four years ago. Yet, while 11 of the squad who underachieved in Germany have been retained by Fabio Capello, Cole pointed to genuine reasons for optimism this time around, claiming:

• Capello is tactically the strongest of the three England managers under whom he has played;

• The side go into the tournament with their talismans, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, both fully fit;

• The chilly South African evenings will suit England where baking heat has cost them at previous World Cups;

• The team's meticulous preparations, both in Austria and now in South Africa, have given them the ideal platform upon which to build;

• The squad boasts vital experience having learned from previous mistakes.

Asked what set this side apart from the team that spluttered to the quarter-final four years ago, Cole said: "This squad has got the experience of having been in tournaments before. It's got a fit Wayne Rooney, a fit Steven Gerrard, and everyone is coming to that right age. I believe we can do it, I'm convinced we can. I've got faith in the boys. If we can have that bit of luck you are always going to need, we can go all the way  [Excuse me while I just mop up the piss].  We only have to play one group game here at altitude, and it is the same for our opponents, the USA. What has probably let us down in past tournaments is the weather, playing in the sun, but we are playing night games and it will be quite chilly. That will be a massive difference for us. I think you'll see an England able to play more at the pace of a Premier League game because we won't be in the sun."

On the subject of Capello, Cole said: "He's the best manager I've worked with for England.  He's got an aura about him. Obviously, tactically, it goes without saying - Capello knows his way round a football pitch. Preparation is spot on. And you don't want to let him down. Spain are different class, the most talented team in the tournament, but it is not always the most talented team that wins. There are a lot of other factors: discipline, strength of character, a little bit of luck."  Bless ya.

Coalition cuts will 'push unemployment close to 3m'

Government spending cuts will push UK unemployment up from its current 2.5m to almost 3m, a report has warned.  Deficit reduction would also stall recovery in the jobs market, employment group the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said.  There was little prospect of real wage growth until at least 2015, and public sector workers faced pay cuts, it said.  The chancellor is expected to lay out sweeping cuts to try to trim the £156bn deficit in his budget on 22 June.

The business group the CBI has called for £4 in spending cuts for every £1 in tax hikes.  It warned that public finances should be repaired without damaging growth prospects, calling for a shake-up of public services provision to save money through job cuts and sharing back office functions.  "A radical re-engineering of public services is a must if damaging tax rises are to be avoided. Only an effective cost reduction strategy can safeguard future growth," CBI deputy director-general John Cridland said.

The CIPD had earlier suggested that the jobless total would reach 2.65 million this year.  But chief economic adviser John Philpott said he had now revised up his forecast, saying unemployment would climb to 2.95m in the second half of 2012, and remain close to that level until 2015.  About 500,000 public sector jobs would go in that period, Mr Philpott predicted.

Unemployment is currently 2.51m, according to the latest official figures.

Simon Hughes elected deputy leader of the Lib Dem faction of the Tory party

Simon Hughes has won the contest to be deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.  The Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP saw off a challenge from Tim Farron, taking the votes of most of the party's MPs. 

Just so it's clear from the outset

Mr Hughes replaces Vince Cable, who stood down from the deputy leadership role last month to concentrate on the job of business secretary.  An MP since 1983, Mr Hughes has served as the Lib Dems's president and was energy and climate change spokesman before the general election. Neither he nor Mr Farron was given a job in the coalition government and both have suggested the Lib Dems should have "shadow" ministers for Whitehall departments where their parliamentarians are not represented.

Mr Cable, deputy leader since 2006, resigned last month, saying it was right to "focus wholeheartedly" on his new job as business secretary. He has given his backing to Mr Hughes.  Mr Hughes ran unsuccessfully for the party leadership in 1999 and 2006.

BBC News

London Underground set to stage two 48-hour strikes over pay, jobs and working conditions

The strikes, from Wednesday 23rd June and Wednesday 14th July will affect the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, the RMT has said; but the union warned the whole network could be hit because the unit dealing with urgent repairs is run by the contractor Tube Lines on behalf of the whole of London Underground.

Transport for London (TfL), controlled by London Mayor Boris Johnson, bought out Tube Lines shareholders for 310 million pounds last month, ending a public-private partnership.  It effectively brought London Underground back under state control and ended months of wrangling over upgrade work.  TfL will now take control of maintenance of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly Lines.

The union said TfL had failed to give assurances that "staff won't take the hit for the failure of the doomed privatisation project ... We are already seeing clear signs that maintenance schedules on Tube Lines are being hacked to the bone and that situation will only deteriorate, with dire consequences for the travelling public, if more jobs are axed," RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said in a statement.  A TfL spokesman said in a statement: "This is an existing dispute about pay and conditions and not about the proposed transfer of Tube Lines to TfL.  We strongly urge RMT leadership to call off the threatened strike action and to enter proper dialogue with us after our acquisition of Tube Lines."

Diane Abbott goes through to next Labour leader round

Diane Abbott has gained enough nominations to get onto the Labour leadership ballot paper.  The backbencher managed to reach the threshold after fellow left-winger John McDonnell withdrew from the race.  Ms Abbott wil go up against four former cabinet ministers - Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and David and Ed Miliband.  Labour members, trade unionists, MPs and MEPs will now be balloted and the result announced on 25 September.

"glamour modelling isn't that glamorous"

Ms Abbott, a left winger who entered the race because she wanted to offer an alternative to the male, middle class New Labour field, was helped to reach the thirty-three nominations she needed with the backing of fellow leadership contender David Miliband and acting Labour leader Harriet Harman.  Commenting as nominations closed, Ms Harman said: 'This will be the biggest and most widespread election of any political party or any organisation in this country.  The contest will be open engaging and energising. It will be a chance to invite supporters to join the party to have a vote.'  She said four million people were expected to vote in the contest, which she described as an 'opportunity to take forward the rebuilding for our party for the future challenges ahead'.

Does this mean she won't be coming back to This Week?  God forbid the poisoned dwarf be asked on again.

The top 50 highest paid footballers of last season

And so, the fifty highest paid players in world football are :

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, £11.3million)

2. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, £10.4million)

3. Lionel Messi (Barcelona, £9.1million)

4. Samuel Eto’o (Internazionale, £9.1million)

5. Kaka (Real Madrid, £8.7million)

6. Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, £7.4million)

7. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, £7.4million)

8. Carlos Tevez (Manchester City, £7million)

9. John Terry (Chelsea, £6.5million)

10. Frank Lampard (Chelsea, £6.5million)

11. Thierry Henry (Barcelona, £6.5million)
12. Xavi (Barcelona, £6.5million)
13. Ronaldinho (AC Milan, £6.5million)
14. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, £6.5million)
15. Daniel Alves (Barcelona, £6.1million)
16. Michael Ballack (Chelsea, £5.6million)
17. Raul (Real Madrid, £5.6million)
18. Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, £5.6million)
19. Kolo Toure (Manchester City, £5.6million)
20. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, £5.2million)
21. Robinho (Manchester City, £5.2million)
22. Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, £5.2million)
23. Victor Valdez (Barcelona, £5.2million)
24. Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, £5.2million)
25. Deco (Chelsea, £5.2million)
26. Didier Drogba (Chelsea, £4.8million)
27. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, £4.8million)
28. Francesco Totti (Roma, £4.8million)
29. Luca Toni (Roma, £4.8million)
30. David Villa (Valencia, £4.8million)
31. Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich, £4.8million)
32. Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich, £4.8million)
33. Ashley Cole (Chelsea, £4.8million)
34. Fernando Torres (Liverpool, £4.8million)
35. Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £4.8million)
36. Patrick Vieira (Internazionale, £4.8million)
37. Charles Puyol (Barcelona, £4.3million)
38. Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, £4.3million)
39. Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, £4.3million)
40. Andreas Pirlo (AC Milan, £4.3million)
41. Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich, £4.3million)
42. Frank Ribery (Bayern Munich, £4.3million)
43. David Beckham (AC Milan, £4.3million)
44. Wayne Bridge (Manchester City, £4.3million)
45. Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid, £4.3million)
46. Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United £4.1million)
47. Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal, £4.1million)
48. Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea, £4.1million)
49. Ryan Giggs (Manchester United £4.1million)
50. Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus, £4.1million)

Figures are gross and based on earnings last season.
Compiled by Futebol Finance, Portugal

Osborne prepares us for a good shafting

George Osborne has been explaining how the coalition government will make decisions on reducing public spending over a four-year period from 2011.  He said the new Office for Budgetary Responsibility would produce its first independent assessment of "the growth forecast and other forecasts" next Monday.  The Budget on 22nd June will set out overall spending plans but he outlined plans for further consultation on the best way to make savings over the summer, ahead of the autumn spending review which will set limits for every department.

Steady on, George

Every spending programme would face "probing questions", he said, including whether it was essential, could be done cheaper or could be delivered by the private or voluntary sector.  He pledged to involve people from inside and outside government in a consultation over the summer including think tanks, pressure groups and people working in front line services.  Civil servants as well as head teachers, police officers, nurses and others would be asked to contribute, he said.

"What we want to do is make sure that all political parties, that the brightest and best brains across Whitehall and the public sector, that voluntary groups, think tanks, trade unions that members of the public are all engaged in the debate and discussion about how collectively we deal with the problem - after all it is our collective national debt," Osborne said.  A cabinet committee, dubbed a "star chamber" [see below] is to be set up to oversee the process and would be staffed by ministers with smaller departmental budgets - with others being allowed to join when they had tackled their own allocation of funds.

Meanwhile, in a parliamentary debate, former City minister Lord Myners said he had been frustrated by the "flawed thinking" on the economy among his colleagues in the Labour government.  He argued there was "nothing progressive" about running up huge public debt and urged the coalition to crack down on "considerable waste" in spending.

What is a star chamber?

• The term is used now for an ad hoc group of people given power to rule for or against things - in this case spending
• The term was also used last year to describe the panels parties set up to review their MPs' expenses claims
• The name comes from the room in the old Palace of Westminster in which medieval King's Council met
• The Star Chamber tribunal of privy councillors and judges was a court of law from 1485 until 1641
• It oversaw operation of lower courts and heard direct appeals mostly about property disputes, corruption and public disorder
• Heard cases in private and had freedom to decide on punishments ranging from fines to mutilation.

Former MPs entitled to £10.4m resettlement grants

The 218 MPs who were either defeated or stepped down at the general election were entitled to payouts totalling £10.4m, the BBC has learned.  The figures shown to the BBC by the TaxPayers' Alliance reveal the amount in resettlement grants available in addition to pension and other payments.

It is not known how much of the money has been accepted, but the alliance described the figures as "huge sums".  The grants, nicknamed "golden goodbyes", are paid in addition to any parliamentary pension an MP receives or the winding up payments given to MPs to pay off their staff or the rental on their constituency offices.  The payments are tax free for the first £30,000.

The figures from the TaxPayers' Alliance, a group that campaigns for lower taxes, do not reveal if the former MPs took their entitlements.  Long-serving MPs who are still of working age can receive the equivalent of a year's salary, £64,766, but the payments are reduced when an MP reaches the age of 70.  TaxPayers' Alliance analyst John O'Connell, who compiled the figures, argued that MPs were mistaken if they considered the grants to be similar to redundancy payments.  "It is not redundancy pay, they take the job on a five-year fixed contract and need to be aware it is fixed term," he told File on 4.  Adding that MPs who retire voluntarily also receive the payment, he said: "They get it if they stand down which negates the redundancy argument."  A parliamentary watchdog said it planned to look at future payments.

DID YOU KNOW that former Prime Ministers are allowed £109,000 a year for the rest of their life?  Plus a car and driver for life, if I remember rightly.

Cameron is wrong: the public finances are better than we thought

So writes Edmund Conway, Economics Editor of The Telegraph. Yes, the Budget deficit is dire, he writes, but the Prime Minister is being disingenuous at best in claiming that it is “worse than we thought”, as he has done in Milton Keynes today. If anything, it is actually a bit better than previously thought.

Read the full Telegraph article here.

Gordon Brown cuts his successor's salary

Oh, how we laughed -  but then we're not SamCam whining on about a new kitchen (something that is "her right" according to the Daily Telegraph!).

 Legend

Apparently, on Brown's orders, and it must have been one of the last orders he gave, the Prime Minister's remuneration package was cut from £194,000 to £150,000.  This had been arranged with such stealth that no formal announcement was ever made.  So, Cameron strode into Downing Street blissfully unaware that he would, as Prime Minister, be earning only marginally more than he had as the leader of the Opposition.  How it must have pained him therefore to have to announce a cut of five per cent across the board in ministerial salaries.  Over the course of a five-year parliament, the personal loss to Cameron will be in excess of £250,000, and this is not counting the pension benefits.

My heart bleeds.

Manchester United owner's debts hit £1.1bn

Manchester United's owners are £1.1bn in debt - £400m more than previously known - after borrowing extensively against their shopping mall business. Mortgage documents seen by the BBC show that the Glazers have borrowed £388m ($570m) against shopping malls and £66m ($95m) against their American National Football League team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In addition to their mortgages in the US, a portion of the Glazer family's £700m Manchester United debt will soon see them charged interest at a rate of 16.25%.

Panorama: Man United - Into the Red, Tuesday 8 June, 22.35  BBC1.

Please support Erectile Dysfunction Month

Put a small white flag with a red cross on your car throughout June.  I thank you.

Aaah, Brighton!

On one side of the street there's a demonstration calling for Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza whilst in the park a brass band plays Love is a Many Splendor'd Thing.

I'm seeing an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ...

Jesus Christ, someone has to stop Simon Cowell redefining entertainment to match his own intelligence

This was my first encounter with Britain's Got Talent and it was quite obvious there wasn't much talent on offer. Not what Mama would call talent, Miss Gypsy Rose Lee. Quite sensibly, I had waited until the programme was an hour in before I started watching my recording. This advice had been given to me by someone who knew I wouldn't have lasted the whole programme if I had to endure Amanda Holden's fake orgasm in between each act.  

Spellbound had a certain je ne sais quoi

Considering that my last memory of Saturday evening television was Seaside Special, the bar was already set quite low. I wasn't quite prepared however to have my senses mauled by a fat little runt shrieking Danny Boy at me or some gaga old bint singing a completely random song while the orchestra played Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.  Then there were dancers. And more dancers. And dancers who could stand on top of each other. Somewhere in the midst of all this, apparently, there was a professional entertainer, the name of whom escapes me - it seemed to blend in so well with the rest of the mass hysteria that the television company insisted upon stirring up as a substitute for quality. This was car crash television. At one point I actually wished that Derrick Bird had managed to hold out for just a few more days.

Now, where's my Worzel Gummidge video?

UPDATE 07/06/10 04:55
It would seem I'm alone in my view as Simon Cowell was last night awarded a special outstanding achievement award and a second prize for Britain's Got Talent, which was named best entertainment show, at the BAFTA Television Awards in London. Cowell created the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent formats for ITV and both have been sold around the world. The X Factor is broadcast in twenty-six countries. Both shows have attracted prime-time audiences of up to twenty million for ITV and have launched the singing careers of Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke and Susan Boyle.

Cowell said: "I've had a blast. I've done things I never thought I'd be able to do. To put this into perspective, one of my happiest memories as a kid was when my Dad came home with a colour TV set and all my friends came over.... So for me to be standing here tonight getting an award for making TV shows is the happiest feeling of my life."

I'm thrilled.  Really.

 .

Harold Wilson

BRIAN DUFFY
photographer
1933 - 2010
.
duffyphotography.com
 

Mandy the movie 'withdrawn on the insistence of the subject'

Peter Mandelson yesterday revoked permission for Hannah Rothschild to show her documentary about him at the Hays Festival. The organisers announced that "Hannah Rothschild's film 'The Real PM: A Portrait of the Real Peter Mandelson' has been withdrawn on the insistence of the subject."  The film was said to show, in unflinching detail, both Mandelson's personal life and him at work within the Government from October 2009 up to last month's general election, creating a portrait of the man as the power behind Gordon Brown's throne. 

... and ... cut!

Speculation about the cancellation focused on the Labour peer's writing of his own memoirs,  published this summer by HarperPress and raced out ahead of Tony Blair's autobiography The Journey, which will be published on 2 September. Mandelson's book comprises diary notes he has taken over the past twenty years. The publishers promise that it will be "frank, honest and revealing ... a dramatic first-hand narrative", and that it will "lay bare Peter Mandelson's intimate, complex relationship with Britain's two New Labour prime ministers".  Riveting.

I await news of Mandy the Musical.

Frank Field, Prince of Poverty

Frank Field will today be appointed by David Cameron to lead an independent review into poverty in Britain. Field, who will remain as the Labour MP for Birkenhead, has spent weeks negotiating the terms of reference for his review to avoid a repeat of his experience after Labour's 1997 victory. His period as minister for welfare reform ended in recriminations after just one year following a series of battles with his boss, Harriet Harman, and the then chancellor, Gordon Brown.

Flakey Frank waits for a friend ... and waits ...

Field will examine reform in two areas:

• Whether the current definition of poverty (households with less than 60% of the median income) should be changed. Field and Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, have been critical of the arbitrary nature of this definition. Duncan Smith told the Guardian last month: "You get this constant juddering adjustment with poverty figures going up when, for instance, upper incomes rise."

• How to encourage parents and local services to nurture children. Field says it is time to move away from Labour's academic approach and look at how grassroots groups can transform the lives of children. He cites the example of the Prince's Charities, which run a project in Burnley to give pupils breakfast and make sure they arrive at school washed and on time.

Field says Labour was beginning to realise the limitations of its approach, and had acknowledged the possibility of an absolute definition of poverty that would be linked to prices and not relative income.

David Miliband's blueprint for Nouveau Labour

David Miliband will tomorrow present his blueprint for re-building the Labour party, announcing he is to channel a sizable portion of his campaign funds into re-training a thousand Labour supporters as community organisers over the next three months.

Attempting the first complete overhaul of a British political party with the techniques that helped Barack Obama into the White House, Miliband wants to turn the Labour party into a grassroots "movement for change".

The philosophy of political action, theorised by the American activist Saul Alinsky in the 1930s, and made more famous by Obama, seeks to organise individuals into groups to better help them change their communities. It is aimed at politicians of all stripes as established parties struggle to retain members.

Good luck with that.

Read the full Guardian article here.

Ferdinand out, Dawson in

Splendid.

Any excuse to drag this pic out of the archives  =o)

Cameron abolishes post of Minister for London

The post of "Minister for London" has been quietly abolished by David Cameron as part of a wider move to boost the role of Boris Johnson, the Evening Standard has learned. The Prime Minister has decided that the job is no longer required as it overlaps with the Mayor's responsibilities. The move to axe the ministerial post is part of a trend to cut costs and devolve power to City Hall and comes days after it emerged that the Government Office for London is also to close.

Labour has warned that the move is a retrograde step which will remove a voice for London in Whitehall and mean Londoners have less clout across the Lib-Con Government on issues such as Crossrail and other projects.

Ironically, at the same time as abolishing the post, Mr Cameron has decided to boost other cities across the country with their own "city minister". Senior Downing Street sources confirmed that the Prime Minister had opted to get rid of the Minister for London post because it duplicated some of the functions of the Mayor.