Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Mar 18, 2010
There is no getting away from the fact, the Prime Minister said three times at the Iraq Enquiry that defence spending had increased in real terms every year under Labour. Well, as we all know from Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, that wasn't ever the case. Infact, for two years, including 2004-05, at the height of the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan, defence spending was cut in real terms.
The humiliating climbdown by Brown at Prime Minister's Questions and also his letter to Sir John Chilcott do not acknowledge the fact that he was simply wrong. Instead, the prime minister is attempting to pass off the simple fact of incorrect information, as a 'clarification'.
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Mar 17, 2010
Imagine if the outcome of the general election is a hung parliament, and the Liberal Democrats go into a coalition with the Conservatives to form a government. Public opinion of the Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne is pretty low to say the least, even the Tories aren't relying to heavily on him for electioneering. In contrast, the public have a high opinion of the Lib Dems treasury spokesman Vince Cable, who is seen by many as a well rounded, confident operator, and someone the public would trust with their tax pounds.
Surely then, one of Nick Cleggs bargaining chips must be that in the event of the tories requiring the support of the Lib Dems to form a government, he could demand that Vince Cable be installed as Chancellor of the Exchequer to take control of the ecomonic recovery in the UK. This would be something that the public would go for, the City would accept, and parliament would certainly not be objectionable to. The problem that I see with this however, is that the tories would not be at all keen at having a Lib Dem in the treasury. Infact, if it came down to it, I'd hedge my bets that the tories would rather go to the people sharpish on the back of a minority government in an attempt to get a full mandate.
Two elections within a year, don't know how well that would go down, its something which just doesn't happen here.
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Mar 16, 2010
Well, it has been six months since i've even thought of posting anything to this blog, but with a general election less than two months away, it is high time I started talking again! The general election is expected to be held on the 6th May, which means within weeks, the election campaigns will swing into action. Election time is one of my favourite political events, and something that I certainly enjoy writing about and commentating on.
So, over the coming weeks, both here, and over at http://www.newsonnews.net , I'll be writing probably too much on the rapidly changing political landscape in the UK.
There is also a lot more for me to write and comment about, which I will do in due course, including the British Airways cabin crew strike threat, the BBC cuts, the new Baseball season, my six month old daughter, and lots more!
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Sep 11, 2009
Baby Erin Isobella Coy arrived at 20:35 on the 10th September 2009 weighing in at around 7-1/2 pounds....
Mother and baby are doing fine.
I'll post more soon :-)
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Aug 19, 2009
My latest trip to the supermarket, which I do monthly, cost considerably more than normal, the reciept from the checkout was considerably longer than normal, and the number of bags considerably more than normal. Baby wipes, nappies and baby clothes making up the bulk. The mailman no longer turns up with model trains, books, and DVD's, he brings more baby clothes from friends, family and ebay (that's Rachael's fault).
Rachael also seems to be hanging around the house alot more than usual these days. Then it dawns on me. Its only two weeks to go until Baby Coy arrives.
Still no name yet. I'm sure we'll think of something in time. Nursery is finished though, and I'm more broke now than I was when I was young, single and fancy free. I'm still fairly young mind you!
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Aug 07, 2009
It has subsequently been announced since my initial post regarding the launch of ESPN in the United Kingdom, as pointed out by comments left by Michael in that entry, that ESPN America remains available to customers alongside the new channel, which now resides on the Sky Guide channel where ESPN America used to be. Thankfully, that channel has moved to a new place on the guide, and so the British baseball fan need not worry. Baseball is still here!
Now, how about that baseball in widescreen?
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Jul 29, 2009
ESPN's new UK channel, which will replace ESPN America in the United Kingdom from August 3rd is set to alienate its MLB audience, by broadcasting a substantial amount of European football, and games from the MLS in the US, substantially cutting into time available for baseball on the channel. Since the plans came to light about ESPN replacing its american sports channel in the UK with a dedicated sports offering to host its new Premier League contract following the collapse of Setanta Sports, ESPN said that it would show the same level of live american sport, including MLB on the channel. This clearly cannot happen now with the news that they have won European and Russian football rights, which will certainly eat into the time that live american sport would normally be on air.
This is another bitter blow to UK baseball fans, especially considering that Sunday & Wednesday night baseball has disappeared from terrestrial channel, Five for this season, and the failure of the BBC to take up MLB's offer of free terrestrial UK rights to show the games.
More and more, UK baseball fans are being forced to subscribe to MLB.tv, which itself is a pretty shoddy offering at the time of writing, and causes many problems (click here for more on mlb.tv's problems). I'll update you with the latest right here as I get it.
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Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Jul 17, 2009
Something I've talked about a few times in the past, and is now causing me more concern than ever is the fact that I'm in the UK, sat watching the TV, and trying to follow the latest business news in the Asia-Pacific region to see how the markets there react to the previous trading in the US and Europe. Indeed, the European markets in the morning will be paying close attention to the Asian trade tonight for direction when they open up. So, I tune to CNBC Europe, and I find that there is a three hour block of poker. No Asian market coverage. I tune to Bloomberg, and there I find LIVE asian market coverage. So, anyone wanting to watch whats happening will obviously be tuning to Bloomberg over CNBC in Europe!
Granted, at 3am, programming switches from poker to live market coverage, but that is too little too late. Once tuned to a channel showing coverage, people are not going to flick back to CNBC just because they are now swinging into action.
Once again, I'm disappointed in this complete disregard that CNBC in Europe are showing to their viewers, by showing programming that I'm sure they are getting paid handsomely for, but is not what anyone wants to see! Why would any investor be interested in watching six blokes playing poker six months ago, when they want to know whats going on with their money??
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Jun 17, 2009
Just before the start of the baseball season for 2009, I went through the usual weighing up of which services I will be purchasing to enjoy baseball this year. Normally, I would subscribe to what used to be NASN (North American Sports Network), which has been rebranded to ESPN America to watch the odd Yankee's game, and then subscribe MLB's Gameday Audio package, so that I could listen to any of the games that aren't on ESPN America. This season seemed different, MLB were making noises about an affordable high definition video product which would allow me to watch every Yankee's game in the same quality as if I was watching it through my Satelite TV subscription. This, strapped to the fact that Gameday Audio is only streamed at 20kbps, which even for a speech only mono audio stream is awful, I thought why not, and signed up to a season of non-stop baseball, effectively widowing my partner for 8 months. Big mistake. Awfully big mistake.
Posted by: Kevin Coy
on Apr 27, 2009
Gordon Brown looks set for yet another bout of embarassment following his plans for a vote in the common's on scrapping MP's second homes allowance are dropped. Since his announcement, via Youtube, that a vote would come this week on the motion, it became increasingly clear that there would not be the votes needed to pass the bill.
Instead, the Prime Minister has requested that the Parliament Standards Watchdog bring forward its review of expenses to July, saying that "swift reform" was still needed. The Tories said that the government's planner were "decended into farce", which clearly seems to be the case, especially following an embarassing week for the government last week, which centred on the treasury and its budget.
It is becomming increasingly apparent that this government is falling apart, and is quite literally becoming a laughing stock. The Tory leader, David Cameron, hit the nail firmly on the head last week when he said that Labour Governments always end up in a mess and running out of money. Oh how true.
