M F

"In successive budgets, George Osborne has slammed the door on the poor, sometimes trapping their fingers in the process. By cutting the taxes the richest people pay while simultaneously shrinking both benefits and essential social services, he has done more than any chancellor in living memory to prevent the poor from rising and the rich from sinking. That, after all, is the point of this government. It exists to secure and enhance the position of the banks, the corporations and the rich. It exists to support the system of rentier capitalism – and the inherited wealth that arises from it – that made so many members of the cabinet wealthy. This is the plutocratic class that funds the Conservative party, whose air it breathes, whose interests and opinions it shares." - M F

Very good read and excellent idea by George Monbiot, but does Gove have the guts to follow through with his convictions? More importantly, is he even allowed too, which is why he's a great orator, he sounds brilliant on BBCQT when I see him. - Halil

"Exotic warm water marine species such as anchovy, bluefin tuna, stingray, and thresher shark are spreading northwards into British coastal waters, where average sea temperatures are now moving closer to the warmer conditions of southern Europe." - M F

"The official assessment of the risks involved in the government's NHS shakeup will never be published after the cabinet exercised its rare right of veto to keep it secret. The move ends a 19-month campaign by the Labour MP John Healey for publication of the Department of Health's own analysis of the damage its radical NHS overhaul may cause. Healey, a former shadow health secretary, and an array of medical leaders argued during the stormy passage of the health and social care bill that MPs and peers needed to see the details in the transition risk register before they could consider the coalition's NHS plans properly." - M F

This government is just great - M F

"Alan Milburn warned that the Coalition's austerity measures would deepen child poverty rather than reduce it to meet the goals set by the previous Labour Government. The Coalition has signed up to Labour's target to cut the proportion of children living in absolute and relative poverty to 5 and 10 per cent respectively." - M F

. I know there will be a comment there somewhere that if children wear shoes and eat at least once a day they are not poor, while in the good old days children went to work aged 5 and ate twice a week and they behaved, but I can't be bothered to look for it. - M F

Stuff like this just disturbs me - I can't for a minute imagine Osborne and Cameron give a fck :( - Winckel

"Class privilege, and the power it confers, is often conveniently misunderstood by its beneficiaries as the product of their own genius rather than generations of advantage, stoutly defended and faithfully bequeathed. Evidence of such advantages is not freely available. It is not in the powerful's interest for the rest of us to know how their influence is attained or exercised. But every now and then a dam bursts and the facts come flooding forth. The Leveson inquiry has provided one such moment. It was set up last year to look into the specific claims about phone hacking at the News of the World, alleged police corruption and the general culture and ethics of the British media. But every time it probes harder into the Murdoch empire it draws blood from the heart of our body politic, telling us a great deal about how Britain's political class in particular and ruling class in general collude, connive and corrupt both systemically and systematically." - M F

"Official Olympic clothing sold by Next is claimed to have been produced in sweatshop conditions in Sri Lanka. The allegation comes days after the high street chain unveiled the formal outfits that Team GB will wear at the opening ceremony. Workers at the company's factory in Sri Lanka allegedly receive poverty wages and are forced to work excessive overtime and to meet unrealistic, ever-increasing targets. Next denies the claims – which undermine pledges that the 2012 Games will be the most ethical yet – but has launched an investigation into conditions at the factory." - M F

Is there any UK clothes outlet that's ethical? It's getting really hard to decide where to buy clothes these days, has Primark cleared up house or are they still using child labour? :( - Halil

""I don't have anything against anyone who is posh, what I do have though is a problem when arrogance is mixed with privilege and you throw bad manners into the mix, I think that is a pretty dangerous combination."" - M F

That's it now I even agree with Nadine Dorries on something - M F

Daily Mash called it her 'stopped-clock moment - Pete's Got To Go

I dislike Dorries, find her tiresome and stupid, but on Cameron and Osborne, she's absolutely right - Winckel

"A council candidate dressed as a penguin called Professor Pongoo has received more votes than the Liberal Democrats in Edinburgh. Professor Pongoo (real name Mike Ferrigan) was an independent candidate who had pledged to wear the penguin outfit to every council meeting if he was elected." - M F

Lib Dems have done just as abysmally in the last council elections, - Halil

I suspect Professor Pongoo would have more influence in a coalition with the Tories than Nick Clegg has just now. - Son of Groucho

""Hammered by Labour – same as everyone. No surprise, no disgrace", tweeted BNP chairman Nick Griffin as the scale of his party's total obliteration in the local elections became clear. Griffin and the BNP went into these elections hoping to stem its electoral demise, which was triggered by a combination of infighting and the party's failure to break through at the 2010 general election. Today, the party leaves the contest facing the daunting realisation that it is no longer a significant player in British electoral politics. Put simply, the BNP's electoral challenge is over." - M F

I agree with Winckel and the same can be said about Le Pen in France, people are desperately looking for an alternative to the usual centre-left and centre-right dichotomia which has not offered any valid solutions and appears completely out of touch. The BNP is simplistic, populist, addresses basic instincts and appeals to many people who are fed up with the abstract rhetoric of mainstream politicians. - M F

"An aggressive swan nicknamed Mr Asbo has finally been moved from a Cambridge river after his aggressive behaviour had begun to escalate. In the latest of many reported attacks on River Cam rowers, the swan mounted a scull and capsized the boat. Attempts to move him and his mate earlier this year were halted amid concerns they may have started nesting." - M F

LOL at the name! - Spidra Webster

"Channel 4 News speaks to the contract cleaners at the Department for Work and Pensions who demanded a pay rise from the politician at the top, saying they can't live on the minimum wage in London." - M F

"1) He's a laugh, isn't he? 2) He's not Ken. Anyone but Ken. 3) Boris recognises the importance of the City to the capital's economy. Unless you give bankers a break, their wealth will never trickle down to the rest of us. 4) When Boris costs you more, his spending plans add up. When Boris looks at his opponents' spending plans, they clearly don't. 5) Boris isn't afraid to swear at journalists on TV. You've got to f**king respect the man." - M F

"John Peel's record collection is about to go online. Starting on Tuesday, the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts will begin uploading details of the late DJ's cherished vinyl, unveiling 2,600 albums over the next six months. Every week, the Centre will expand the scope of its virtual museum, adding another 100 records, covering everything from Appalachian mountain music to zouk. "It's a very personal look at John's collection," producer Charlie Gauvain said. According to Sheila Ravenscroft, Peel's widow, curators will highlight one artist from each batch, picking through more than 65,000 items in his archive. Peel kept meticulous files about his records: each sleeve was given a typed filing card, with all sorts of information." - M F

"Residents in east London are due to have missiles placed on their roofs this week to protect the Olympic Games from airborne terrorist attacks. Military planners at the Ministry of Defence have decided to fit high-velocity rockets with a range of 5km to several apartment blocks close to the Olympic Park. This weekend they informed the occupants of the Lexington Building apartment complex in Bow that a missile battery would be installed this week." - M F

Missiles + civilian residential area = police state - Nils Sandin

"Jamie Oliver has made a blistering attack on Michael Gove over school food, claiming that some of the education secretary's flagship academies are lowering nutrition levels among pupils and profiteering from junk food vending machines because they have been allowed to ignore national standards." - M F

the guy who does sainsbury adverts but never shops in supermarkets is telling us how to eat better eh? - Halil

I am not a big Jamie Oliver fan, I think what he was trying to say, if true, is a valid point though. It is easy to blame parents for their children's diet but if then they go to school and find vending machines selling junk food everywhere, parents have little control and schools seem to make money selling it. I thought that this problem had been solved but now we seem to go backwards. - M F

I'm also not a big Jamie Oliver fan but I think he's 100% right here. Schools need to set an example to help parents do the right thing - Winckel

"From soft rock to Noughties pop, a look back at the biggest albums of the past 50 years reveals that the tastes of the British public are nothing if not eclectic. Glam rock stalwarts Queen have topped a list of the best-selling albums in British history, fending off stiff competition from Abba and The Beatles. Queen's 1981 Greatest Hits collection has sold 5.8 million copies since its release and will be revealed as the chart-topper in a Radio 2 special presented today by Tony Blackburn. The group sealed their domination of the chart with another entry in the Top 10 – a second hits compilation that came out 10 years later and which has sold 3.8 million." - M F

"Official figures are masking a growing crisis in the labour market, with only half the vacancies advertised in UK jobcentres guaranteeing enough hours to allow jobseekers to qualify for the government's new in-work benefits regime, a Guardian investigation has found. The analysis of 112,000 Jobcentre Plus vacancies shows that only 52% of the positions guarantee enough hours to meet the new government definition of "work" for a typical family. It means that some working families are likely to be far harder hit by the controversial changes to working tax credits than previously feared by being caught in a new working-hours trap, and raises concerns about the quality of jobs being created in the economy." - M F

"But if you cheered, let me ask you two questions. Do you know what he's actually gone to prison for? And do you know what he actually tweeted? All the TV and newspaper reporters, columnists and opiners quoted his first tweet ("LOL f*** Muamba. He's dead. #Haha" – Stacey didn't use asterisks) and referred vaguely to "racist tweets" after that. But what were they? Did the reporters know but choose delicately not to repeat them? Or did they not know? Do the columnists who applaud the sentence know? Or have they – as I suspect – just seen the bowdlerised media, like the rest of us, and are satisfied with the hazy summary?" - M F

Good points in there - justice seems more and more opaque and arbitrary. This time it applies to a guy who sems to have been an unthinking racist and rude asshole, but next time it could be anyone... - Iphigenie

"Meanwhile, evidence from Trussell Trust, which supports food banks that give meals to 120,000 people nationwide, also suggests that the problem is growing. Its executive chairman, Chris Mould, said there had been a "huge increase" in demand in recent months – and among the hungry were 36,000 children. Even though the service is expanding, the charity is discovering more and more people in food poverty, who increasingly rely on the charity sector. "What we have seen suggests there are thousands of people in this country going hungry – making hard choices between, fuel, warmth, transport and food," he said. "The pressure falls hardest on mothers and children."" - M F