Interest rates on savings are at an all-time low and the Chinese economy appears to be grinding to a halt.

Prison inmates are at an all-time high and the European Central Bank wants it’s £356billion back.

Criminals steal for money, scams are at an all-time high as the desperation of struggling citizens mounts as they try to secure jobs or find somewhere to live.

Truly, money is a major disaster for all. Some have too much while many have too little. Of course, the richest just get a little less rich and still have too little sense to use their money wisely in many cases.

Pity we can’t just abolish money and rid ourselves of crime, a financial sector that preys on consumers and ‘snout in the trough’ politicians at a stroke.

Not sure what would replace it but could it be any worse?

The difference in 2010 is that many people have had to put up with an unprecedented level of belt-tightening and, I believe, will not support these left-wing troublemakers.

There’s a feeling of ‘so what, we’ll do it ourselves, we don’t need you’ as it becomes possible to set up your own schools and many people have discovered a whole range of things they can do for themselves without interfering Public Sector jobsworths.

They should heed the message, we are heartily sick and tired of your whining.

So, either dig in and help or get lost.

Hiding behind a picture of Robert Patterson, this might be a very innocent and deluded deception but can you afford to take that chance?

All I can do is urge parents everywhere to make sure they know what their kids are up to on the Internet. It’s no good pointing the finger at Facebook and squeaking “They should have put on a panic button” because that’s crap. A panic button only works if someone presses it – in this case no-one will.

It’s down to you. Look out for them the same way you would if they were outside.

Getting the deficit down is essential, obviously, but building for the future is equally as important. For example, those businesses that come through the recession will do so for very specific reasons, one of which is diversity, the Country should take note. How can you apply that statement to a country? Take a touch of isolationism for a start.

ALL countries should have control of their own basic resources such as utilities. It should NOT be possible for another country to run utilities here. The majority of food production should be local and everyone should support local manufacturing. I’ve heard all the statements, I know it’s cheaper to manufacture in China, but it’s a short-term fix being bad for the individual countries and bad for the environment.

I have no problem with importing products we can’t manufacture locally (although that’s pretty much anything these days) but we should be able to manufacture basic products ourselves. And, to make it competitive, we’d use local labour who we currently pay through the benefits system so the costs would be minimised. I would also subtly tax foreign products that were sold where local equivalents were available.

I’ve heard all the arguments against that idea too. In my opinion, we in the UK are too soft, too willing to ‘go with the flow’ and too ready to put our faith in risky products such as financial services. The growing economies are doing so because they make things, the contracting economies buy too much from someone else, it’s that simple.

We place far too much emphasis on the esoteric and much too little on the practical but at the end of the day someone has to be able to use a hammer if you want the nail knocked in!

David Laws may have been trying to hide his homosexual relationship but at the end of the day he STOLE £40,000.

That’s the problem, not the fact he’s been ‘outed’.

Get the message you IDIOTS – don’t STEAL.

David Laws was right to resign but there’s absolutely no need to resign as an MP too. Take the slap and move on!

Next time I’m caught out – not that I have the energy to be caught out these days – I’ll just say I was very, very drunk at the time and it will be okay!

I can just see the missus saying “Oh well, that’s okay then”

And if you believe that you’ll believe anything…

So what’s changed my mind?

I was speaking to someone I know who runs an agency recruiting medical staff and she told me that they ALWAYS study CVs, do a minimum of a telephone interview and ALWAYS quiz the candidates on related experience so they can put them forward to the best matches.

Do they do that in IT recruitment? Rarely, in my experience. More likely you’ll apply for a role and some muppet will tick boxes based on what’s on your CV. They usually have NO idea what’s relevant and what’s not or, indeed, whether experience of related technologies can make you a good candidate. They don’t even ask – it’s not on their ‘tick form’.

‘Do you have commercial experience of versions five and six?’, they’ll ask.

‘No, but I do have extensive experience of versions four & six, five is very similar’, I’ll answer.

‘Oh, they’ll say, we can’t put you forward then’

As I said, muppets. Maybe the other candidates are lying and winging it on the job? Maybe I should do that? However, I do have SOME pride left…

Another reason I thought ageism was at work was that so many younger candidates got through. Reality, I believe, is that they’ll take lower salaries; bosses will take a chance that the experience they lack will not be called into play and they’re easier to keep under control.

In other words older employees won’t take any crap and want a bit of time off now and again.

Effectively, I’m retired at 56 by the look, despite having loads of valuable knowledge, skills and experience that any number of organisations could make use of.

Now, I’m not so bothered about being retired because there’s loads of stuff I’m interested in and I can do it now without work interrupting. However, I have a few years still to go on my mortgage so I’ll have to earn a few quid here and there.

Guess I’ll just have to apply myself to other areas…

…maybe I’ll start an IT Recruitment agency, after all, I can’t be any worse than the shower I’ve dealt with!

Nowadays it’s difficult to trust a single word you read.

Why is that? Well, for one reason, access has become far, far too easy. Any ‘Tim nice but dim’ with access to a computer can access the Internet and make a so-called ‘contribution’.

Wikis were supposed to provide the ultimate on-line encyclopaedia, but, if anyone can contribute and the entries are not verified, it simply spreads rumour and gossip and urban myth around the globe.

It’s getting so that you can’t even figure out who the good guys are any more when there’s more spin than a politician trying to flip his dog kennel between London and the holiday villa in wherever.

Try a search for something important and you have to do as much off-line research as on-line – I might as well pull a book from the local library. At least I can call the author and call them an idiot.

Trouble with the Internet is, half the time at least, you can’t even identify the author; they usually have some ulterior motive and any message they may have is hidden underneath all the ‘monetisation’ garbage.

Then there’s SEO.

Well, that’s an excellent way of obscuring the truth and peddling bullshit to millions.

If I didn’t think I knew better I’d suggest it was just a big conspiracy to stop people from finding out just how shit everything was and why so many undeserving pillocks have way too much money…

What about the people watching? The SNP have long campaigned for an independent Scotland and the only reason for their presence in Westminster is to secure that goal. The same can be said for Plaid Cymru.

Fact of the matter is neither party will be in any position of power in England and I’m not terribly interested in what either of them have to say.

The first clash between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg produced some interesting results and I’m looking forward to the next round.

Do I want the water muddied by bit-part players?

No, I do not!

Or, does the unsolicited e-mail to NHS  doctors and consultants pressurising them to support Labour not count?

Whatever it is, its a damn good reason to keep your details to yourself if even your Government will use them for it’s own ends.

Now, had it been me I would have been locked up so fast it would be just a blur…