Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged

This is the new name for the majority owner of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, not going to be seeing it on the High Street any time soon though; this is the vehicle that holds the stake H.M. Govt. has taken in RBS Group. It has an interesting role, and maybe an uncomfortable one, in that it will, in essence, dictate business policy without political involvement. Say what! Our government has just coughed up £20bn to bail it out and there’s going to be no political agenda enacted in running this business? A business that has been shown to be operating some highly questionable practices is going to be allowed to continue largely unabated? The only remit for UK Financial Investments being to ensure taxpayer value? This is a complete abrogation of responsibility and a wasted opportunity to impose some, much needed, ethical direction to a business sector that’s virtually feral. Now, I’m not some old Trot looking for a fully nationalised banking industry but I would like to see a closer, day-to-day involvement below boardroom level and examination of the business practices all the way down to the branch network, I’m not looking for a witch hunt but a better way of doing business, a way that is more responsive to all stakeholders in the business and not just the shareholders. It can be done, but not if UK Financial Investments are looking to just obtain taxpayer value and enable the business to go back to the headlong pursuit of profit so that it can buy itself out of the penury of the government stake at the very earliest moment. A long term commitment to ownership would enable the creation of a bank that has ensured long term stability stemming from it’s fundamentally sound business practices, with profit generated from a domestic business base that operates equitably with it’s customers and not reliant on playing the international markets in obscure financial instruments. Nothing too radical there I think? The other banks may not like it too much if RBS starts taking their customers, citing government subsidisation, but if the long term commitment were made now and no one squeals then if there is no further funding requirement to put this program in place in the future then it’s not an accusation that will stand up and the other banks will have a choice between squeezing their customers until their pips squeak and then watching them walk or start operating along the lines of the model that RBS would be using.

Well it looks like we’ve been screwed over by the meteorology fraternity crying wolf yet again, yes there is something frozen falling from the sky but it’s not snow. Could be hail, sleet or frozen rain, but it’s not snow. I like snow, which I understand is a selfish point of view as it inconveniences many people, but there it is, I’m still just a big kid. I admit I’m not looking to emigrate to Scandinavia or Canada in order to spend a considerable portion of each year under feet of the stuff as opposed to here where sometimes we get a few millimetres of it. But I do love what a good fall of snow does to a familiar landscape, how everything can be made to look so different in as little as an hour, how it changes the sound quality when you are outside, I like to watch brief, intense showers of the stuff falling through a low sun, I like the way the headlights pick it out when driving through it at night, though it’s not so much fun on a motorbike. But, as is usually the case, the forecasters, at least for my part of the country, have got it wrong, again.

Just back from seeing Frankie Boyle. Mr Boyle is a very, very bad man, a very bad man indeed, he uses very many bad words very often, he talks about very many bad things in a very bad way. And if he wasn’t so screamingly funny he would have to be shot. So you have to ask why you would sit down the front and admit to currently being a consultant to the banking industry, and prior to that, working for BAE Weapons Systems unless you enjoy having seven shades of shit beaten out of you in the car park afterwards? Or be a 17 year old sitting in the front row, nothing wrong with that you might think? How about sitting there between your parents and having your wanking habits discussed and being informed that your dad wanks as well and that your mum sometimes helps out? Result; one 17 year old, scarred for life, masochist. A small price to pay for my amusement I feel. With this sort of raw material to work with he couldn’t really go wrong, a lot of the material had featured, at one time or another, in Mock the Week which took a little of the edge of some of the routines but there was enough new stuff to justify the £22 ticket price. The first half hour warm up was a guy from Northern Ireland, who’s name I didn’t catch and wasn’t on the publicity, who was very good, 20 minute break and then Frankie Boyle did about 70 minutes.

If you were offended by Brand and Ross and feel the need to be offended again, go and see Mr Boyle.

Did I mention just how bad a man he is?

Must admit that had I found anything else that took my fancy I would have happily passed up this game, which would have been a shame given the performance. Beating a German team should never be belittled, beating them at home is a good habit to get into, yet how much stock should we put in beating the worst technical German team I’ve seen? We certainly got after them and much of their sloppiness could well be attributed to this but they were unrecognisable from the organised and proficient teams of past years, careless with the ball, devoid of cutting edge up front and lacking desire. They had to be handed a goal on a plate otherwise the scorer didn’t look like being troubled had another ninety minutes been played.
Our midfield pressed them well up the field and the back four was more than well enough organised to mop up what remained of the pressure the Germans could bring to bear. All this being said we were in charge, comfortable on the ball, patient, moving the ball with precision for the most part and not intent on headlong aggression, which seemed to leave the Germans at a loss. We looked calm and confident and this seemed to cause a deal of confusion, I hope we can continue to play like this even when we are without the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard etc. Downing had his best game for England and Wright-Phillips was a handful but both struggled to deliver a decisive ball from set pieces or in open play. Exciting as Wright-Phillips may be I wonder if he might be a luxury that Capello feels he can do without unless he delivers with more precision or is going to get his name on the scoresheet on a fairly regular basis. If nothing else Capello has made friendlies more interesting than they’ve been for many years.

I heard about this possibility a few days ago and an email from the A’s suggest that this is now a done deal. Er, why? I’m not a great fan of Holliday, either as a real baseball player or fantasy, in fantasy he goes top 10, I wouldn’t touch him in the first round of a 15 team league and wouldn’t be happy picking him up before late in the second round and now his home is in Oakland, into the third round. But that’s fantasy and doesn’t necessarily reflect true worth in the real world, so let’s have a look at the real world. Holliday is the current definition of a Coors Field warrior, horrible home/road splits, .357 hitter with 84 home runs, a .423 on-base percentage and .645 slugging percentage at Coors and .280 with 44 homers, a .348 on-base percentage and a .455 slugging percentage on the road. Q.E.D. So why would a smart guy like Beane pull the trigger on this deal? Answers on a postcard please because I don’t have one. The Coliseum is where home runs go to die, and fail to make it even to the warning track so the A’s next season will be paying $13.5M for a .280 hitter, maybe 25 homers until he walks at the end of the 2009 season and Scott Boras goes and negotiates a long term deal elsewhere. And Holliday won’t be happy during his A’s tenure if he is struggling to put up his power numbers and can see the value of his next contract diminishing with every deep fly ball out. I didn’t see enough from the end of season roster to believe that the A’s will contend next season, with or without Holliday, so why not come third or fourth without him and keep the $13.5M in a warchest for the move to the new stadium? I wouldn’t quibble about the price, Street, Carlos Gonzales and Greg Smith, if Holliday was going to be a final piece in a puzzle that was going to spell ‘contender’ or if we were getting another year but this looks like it will be just a footnote in both the A’s history and Holliday’s career. It may well be that Street ends up getting flipped by the Rockies so there are deals to be made out there, why not do them directly? The A’s don’t need Holliday and he doesn’t need the A’s, if for no other reason than enlightened self interest I’m sure Holliday will be professional but even if he get’s dealt at the trading deadline it will have already felt like a long season I suspect.

I have the distinct impression that the media believes I should have a warm, fuzzy feeling because one man, three thousand miles away, has defeated another to become president of a country I have never even visited. I hope I’ll be excused if I don’t play. But before I get all dewy eyed perhaps someone would tell me one specific and incontrovertible change that will occur in my life as a result of Obama being in The White House and not McCain? I have managed to avoid much of the campaign but what I have seen and heard leads me to believe that Obama is a consummate politician, how scary is that? Controlled, contained, polished, briefed, rehearsed, an espouser of the right causes, speaker of the right words, glistening with symbolism, all a-quiver reflecting the political zeitgeist. Is this all there is, maybe it’s all that’s needed to win an election but I would suspect that leading the western world may require more substance than I’ve seen evidence for to this point. All I see is a cipher, a political construct but even that has to be a safer option than a klutz such as Bush doesn’t it? Tell me it does.

Surprise, surprise! Troy Bayliss wins race 1 from Portimao exactly as he liked, keeping a lead of about 7 seconds from about lap 5 and it was his choice that it wasn’t twice that. Now the shackles are off he’s showing just why, in the hands of a top WSB rider, the Ducati has a huge advantage over the 1000cc machines. I really believe that the hardest thing Bayliss has done all season is disguise just how much of an advantage the extra 200cc gives the Ducati and I fully expect the same from Haga, who’s picking up the Bayliss ride, next season.
Fortunately when Bayliss cleared off into the distance the director concentrated on the dice for the minor podium places and gave us the opportunity to see what a great addition to the bike racing calendar the Portimao circuit is going to be. Being a new circuit the riders have to try out a few different lines when in the heat of a race for the first time and the great thing is that they made the lines work, even though it is dirty and green off line. I can’t really tell how the circuit works out for the spectators actually at the circuit, I suspect that the elevation changes must limit viewing large parts of the track from many positions but for the viewer on TV it was a tremendous spectacle.