Brighton and Hove Council got their money out of Iceland as they thought the rates offered were too good to be true. Most sane people would NOT put all their money into an Icelandic Bank unless they were greedy or plain stupid.

Now Iceland's Banks have vanished down the toilet all the UK investors are wailing and praying that the Government will bail them out.

Local Authorities,Health Trusts and even Charities invested in what most sane people would have thought were sources that were not 100% safe.

If I go to Ladbrokes and put my money on the favourite in the 3.30 race at Ascot I wouldn;'t have the bloody cheek to ask the British Taxpayer to make good my losses if the horse lost. It was a risk I decided to take and I lost. TOUGH!

Cn someone please tell me what the difference is?

If a burglar robbed you of £500,000 worth of valuables you wouldn't expect the Courts to make you compensate him for being unable to get the full value of the goods because he had to "fence" them through other criminals.

If you're a bank it would seem that you would have to do just that.

The UK Government are using our money to prop up their failing economic system by partially nationalising some of the country's largest banks.

It wasn't that long ago these same banks were announcing that they had made record profits!

And now Gordon Brown states that the financial problems started in America.

Why is he going to take legal action against the Icelandic Government because some British "investors" thought they could make a nice profit in Icelandic Banks and their gamble failed ?

Iceland has a population of 300,000 !!

If the problem started in America why isn't Brown talking about taking legal action against the American Government ?

Isn't it hilarious? There are the big banks almost demanding that the taxpayer bail them out of their self-created crisis. Billions of Pounds are expected to be shelled out by New Labour's "hard working families" to rescue these money-grabbing bankers.

These arrogant people were quite happy to rip their customers off over the years with inflated penalty fees for going 20p overdrawn. They were quite happy to tell their customers to get lost when they asked for the fees to be removed and only started to take a more flexible attitude when customers threatened legal action.

Now these bast.rds have ythe brass neck to expect the same people they were robbing last year to save their bacon this year.

Simple reply = GET LOST !

Has anybody else noticed the almost total lack of coverage og the 2008 ParOlympics being held now in Beijing ?

A few weeks ago the BBC flew everybody and their uncle over to China to cover the Olympics. All at the licence-payers' expense no doubt. There were sports reporters,commentators,athletes pontificating,etc.,etc. Plus all the political reporters reporting on developments in China generally.

Now the world;'s athletes gather for the ParOlympics and the BBC coverage is - ZERO !!!

No wonder people with disabilities still feel marginalised.

It was no surprise to see the fuel companies now all increasing the price of gas and electricity to us consumers by huge amounts.

Now we hear that the largest of these companies announcing that the dividends to their shareholders last year soared by 19%.

And there they were saying they couldn't cope with a windfall tax as their profits were vital to develop better fuel technology.

What a crock !

And it was also no surprise that Gordon Brown chose to announce that there would not be a windfall tax nor would there be a one-off payment to assist the poorest families with their fuel bills. He announced this news to a group of buissness people.

Gordon Brown announces to business that their profits are safe with New Labour.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair before him never felt comfortable with "ordinary" folk,but,give them a group of wealthy business people and these "blankety blanks" are in their element

You can always tell that it's a Bank Holiday because the railway network collapses.

Families wanting to have a day or the weekend away have to face longer journey times,swapping from train to bus to train to make their journey.

This has been going on for years with no end in sight at the same time these money-grabbing rail companies have the cheek to hike fares up

When rail workers go on strike,which is rarely,they're described as causing "disruption","chaos",or "making travellers' lives a misery".

Funny how the chaos,disruption and misery caused on a REGULAR basis by engineering works are rarely described as such.

Strange too that the "works" only happen at weekends and Bank Holidays - never during the working week.

I have been following the debate about cyclists using pavements in Leamington with interest. As a cyclist for many years and having cycled in Central London,Southampton and Paris,I can safely say that Leamington is the safest place I have ever cycled in.

On many days the Parade is almost like a pedestrian precinct there is so little traffic.

So,why oh why,do morons feel the need to cycle on the pavements when the roads are virtually free of traffic ?

Are cyclists,or a minority of them,so gutless and chicken that they're afraid to go on the road ?

Once I even witnessed a Community Support Officer move aside to allow a pavement cyclist to proceed on his illegal journey.

In Soiuthampton they had a "zero tolerence" policy towards this problem.

Within a few weeks there was no problem.

I get sick and tired of being told to "F*ck Off" when I mention to pavement cyclists that there is a perfectly good road they can ride on instead of the pavement.

I bet a pound to a penny I'm not the only one.

Wake up Wrwick District Council and Warwickshire Constabulary - do something about it !!

Am I the only one who's getting really irritated by business demanding the Government "do something" to help them through the "crisis"?

The latest begger is the Home Buiders Feseration.

All these businesses were only too happy to take the huge profits when times were going their way but ,once thing start going south,they expect the Government and the taxpayer to bail them out.

They all support the "free market",just as do the Labour and Conservative Parties.

But once the market starts to hurt profits they all want state intervention.

What a joke!