World Cup National Managers Salaries

I might have got it all wrong (see yesterdays blog below)

I suggested Capello may not be worth what he's paid without posting the 'going annual rate' for World Cup National Managers.

To rectify that here's a list, enjoy...

National Managers Salaries

Capello (England) - £6m

Aguirre (Mexico) - £2.7m

Lippi (Italy) - £1.7m

Marwuk (Netherlands) - £1.5m

Parreira (South Africa) - £1.5m

Low (Germany) - £1.3m

Maradona (Argentina) - £830k

Bielsa (Chile) - £588k

Bradley (USA) - £345k

Herbert (New Zealand) - £25k

What do you think?

Because you're worth it...

The weary England squad are back on home soil and wondering if they can pin it all on the foreign johnny with the funny accent. Capello however, has made it perfectly clear that he wants to carry on with the job, who wouldn't, £6m a year to deliver absolutely nothing? Six million pounds a year, it's such an abstract figure, it's less abstract though when you work out it's £25,000 a day, every working day, day-in, day-out, I'm just going to say that again out loud... "twenty-five thousand pounds... a day". Word has it he'll be kept on... Because he's worth it? No, because it'll cost £5m to get rid off him...

England out of World Cup

England have crashed out of the World Cup to the blare of vuvuzulas and cries of despair from fans who had saved for two years to be in South Africa to cheer them on.

A truly abysmal refereeing judgment robbed Frank Lampard of his goal, again raising speculation that goal-line technology should be employed, but even had the goal been allowed it wouldn't have been enough, the young German side totally outclassed and outplayed the lackluster England squad into a humiliating 4-1 defeat, their worst ever World Cup performance.

Capello has vowed to fight for his £6m a year job (no kidding), but last night the only coach the England team were interested in was the 52 seater taking them to the Airport.

Work till you drop...

It makes a great headline, 'work till you drop', invoking as it does, grainy black and white images of elderly folk breaking rocks, lashed by some grinning, brute faced thug. The reality of the matter isn't quite so dreadful, the retirement age for men is being raised in four years from 65 to 66, and the default retirement age at which a company can boot you out the door for a younger, cheaper model is being scrapped.

The fact is we are leading longer, healthier lives and our pension pot can't support it, we have to do something and getting rid of compulsory retirement is a good start. A word of caution though, we need balances and checks to make sure we're not just taking 65 year olds off pensions and putting 18 year olds on benefits.

England-1 Slovenia-0

England win a match at last and come second in their group behind the USA.

A visibly chuffed Fabio Capello said after the match "Theeth eeth thee theem thad I thaw een thee roonob tood thee whurlcub, hi amb berry berry abby!"

Just sixteen teams remain and England seem to have found their confidence in the resounding one-nil defeat of Slovenia (pop 2m).

Germany, the next nation to face the English onslaught must be wondering just what they will have to do to stop these behemoths of the field in their bid for glory. Asked the same question a German fan said "Turn up".

George, saint or sinner...

It's judgement day, and as the dust settles we get a proper chance to take in the facts and figures rolled out in yesterdays emergency budget.

Was it as tough as predicted? The short answer is yes, however the cautious consensus seems to be that it was harsh, but reasonably fair. The fly in the ointment on the fairness front was the VAT hike to 20% due in January 2011. As expected, there was a huge hit on public services, in pension reform and budget reductions of 25% in all departments except overseas aid and the NHS. The mooted capital gains tax rise to 40% was watered down to 28%, not out of compassion, but because that was the optimum return rate for the treasury before people choose to sit on their hands and their assets. There was a robust and targeted benefits shake-up as anticipated.

The £155bn deficit dragon will be with us for a long time to come, but George has made a decent first stab at it.

It may be a while before he's hailed as a Saint though...

The coalition budget...

There has been a lot said about this emergency budget, suggestions that it has been over-egged to blunt whatever nasty medicine George Osborne may be about to pour down our throats now seem unlikely, the truth is that in order to slash Britains £155bn deficit it has to be as tough as they promised it would.

The most controversial measure is likely to be a shake-up of the public sector pension pot, requiring more cash input from the recipient. This will initiate strikes. Hard on the heels of the pension review will be welfare cuts and almost certainly an end to child tax credits for the middle classes. We'll probably see an increase in VAT and capital gains tax, and holiday flights may attract a levy. On the flip side the income tax allowance will be raised from £6.475 to £7,475 taking a million people out of the income tax threshold and there will be a two year freeze on council tax.

I for one am stocking up on cling peaches in the Anderson shelter...

World cup woes...

First I should hold my hand up and say 'I'm Scottish', however I'm not one of those ABTE's (Anyone But The English) Scots. I don't enjoy seeing any of our national teams being humiliated at anything, and as a Brit I get plenty of opportunity to test that ideology to destruction.

I should also hold my hand up and say 'I'm not really a football fan', but again this doesn't stop me cheering any of our home sides on in an international... In reality England's play hasn't provided much to cheer about, but one thing the performance has highlighted for me is their pay packets. Five of the men not scoring goals against Algeria are being payed over £150,000 per week, and even if they were scoring goals that just seems skewed in so many ways,£4,166.00 an hour? They are earning more in a day than a front line soldier serving in Afghanistan could earn in a year. Perhaps Mr Rooney wouldn't be so quick to shout down a camera lens about being booed at for a pisspoor performance if he knew the people booing him were all toting Kalashnikovs and wearing high explosive underwear.

And as for the 'intruder' to the changing rooms, get a grip, he was an England fan looking for a toilet, don't punish him for following his nose and finding a shower...

BP Chief boiled in oil

Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP is a walking PR nightmare. His original attitude to the scale of the Gulf of Mexico disaster hacked-off the American people, his handling of the problem hacked-off the President and now his stonewalling of questions has hacked-off Congress. His whining Facebook statement 'I just want my life back' hacked-off just about everyone else.

This smug, laconic, coiffured and bouffant geologist manages to make Monty Burns (of Simpsons fame) look like a sainted, patrician eco-warrior, even Burns would be unlikely to take time off the disaster management to race his yacht around the Isle of White...

Vuvuzelas Sir, thaaasands of em'

In a far flung corner of what used to be part of 'the Empire', our boys are once again outnumbered and outgunned, moral is strained and resources stretched, however, this time it has nothing to do with a lack of helicopters or body armour, although a shipment of industrial ear-defenders wouldn't go amiss. As the Englishmen stand shoulder to shoulder they face of a wall of noise unprecedented in international football. Calls are afoot to ban the offending culprit, the vuvuzela, a long horn employed, it would seem, by every African fan at the World Cup, but instead perhaps we should just get our 'own' horns out there...

Chancellors choice cuts

As George Osbourne, our shiny new Chancellor gears up for his first crack at a budget, suddenly all the election rhetoric spouted about who would make the biggest cuts and the widest slashes is about to take form, physical and manifest under his hand. He has to cancel the milk and find all the cash that's slipped down the back of our national couch.

And as the body politic struggles under it's huge inherited debt, we the electorate can only hope and pray, wincing through our fingers as the knife bites, that George is a clever surgeon and not a bloody butcher...

Budget responsibility

The Office for Budget Responsibility has come up with it's first set of figures, and they're not good, in fact they're grim. Had we not had this independent review and audit, effectively an economic 'State of the Nation' address, we would still be working on skewed figures and flawed forecast. The knowledge for government that figures can no longer be massaged into a fluffier, more consumer friendly outcome must ultimately be good for the country, but it's going to hurt while we, the British public, get used to being slapped in the face with fiscal kippers.

Iran sanctioned over nuclear threat

The UN has approved it's toughest sanctions yet on Iran, this comes amid fears the country is attempting to make nuclear weapons under the guise of a domestic nuclear programme.

At a Security Council meeting the vote was 12 to two in favour of Resolution 1929. Lebanon abstained, only Brazil and Turkey voted against it. It is aimed at nuclear related activity, ballistic missiles and the Revolutionary Guard.

Iran's President Ahmadinejad said "They are not capable of hurting Iranians". The resolution doesn't include an embargo of oil shipments... that would hurt.

Labour leadership contest

Well it's hat's in the ring time for the labour leadership, and had it not been for a late surge of votes for Diane Abbott the race runners would have all looked very similar, forty-something, white, male and public school educated.

There now follows a 15 week canter over the sticks to decide who should fill Gordon Browns shoes on September 25. Let's hope they have small feet.

The runners are, Abbott's Chance, Burnham Boy, Miliband the Elder, Miliband the Younger and Big Balls.

World Cup Fever

During the World Cup it's expected that an extra 21 million pints of beer will be drunk, which is great news for our ailing pub industry, faced with crippling competition from big chain supermarkets and their 'cheaper than water' offers on alcohol.

Unfortunately beer sales won't be the only figures to go through the roof during England's world cup campaign. Domestic violence spikes by 25%, and it goes up to 30% on the days England are beaten, perhaps 'our boys' should play in black and blue?

Cameron's Cuts

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced that there are going to be drastic cuts to public services in order to reduce the budget deficit. These cuts, he said, are going to affect every man woman and child in the country for years, if not decades to come. The Chancellor, George Osbourne plans to use the same strategy as Canada, which managed to control their massive budget deficit by hacking 20% off their spending over three years.

This will result in nothing short of a public services amputation, brutal and prolonged, but even that is better than the alternative.

BP buys airtime

In an attempt to woo the American public and their President BP is shoveling money into long TV adverts trying to explain why 'it' wasn't their fault...

It won't wash...

President Obama has made it clear that he feels BP haven't done enough to stop the tide of oil heading for his shores and for that he's going to make them pay.

On top of that looms the possibility of criminal proceedings against the BP executive, £44bn is wiped of their share price and they are downgraded from an AA+ company to AA.

The CEO must be ruing the day he went on TV looking nonchalant, suggesting that the environmental impact was going to be very small indeed...

Soon wild birds may not be the only thing struggling to keep their heads above water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gunned boat diplomacy

Israeli commando's attacked an aid flotilla bound for Gaza while in international waters, leaving nine of those aboard dead and many more injured.

As the commandos stormed the ship from helicopters it looked as if they would be overwhelmed, they were mobbed by defenders wielding anything they could find, but eventually, and only with deadly force the ship was taken.

Those who died have done more for their cause than any suicide bomber or rocket launching jihadist ever has. This has been a public relations disaster of monumental proportions for Israel and will undoubtably lead to humanitarian concessions as the glare of international scrutiny focuses on this unhappy region.

Picture this...

I remember the Apple Newton. Launched in 1993 it was the handheld device that was going to change the world. It didn't work, it didn't change the world, and, it actually didn't 'work'. It was rubbish and I knew it was rubbish, but that didn't stop me rushing out to buy one. Now somewhat older, some say wiser, most say tighter, I view the iPad with no less gadget-lust than I did the Newton, but I haven't camped out to get my hands on one, because even though it will work and it probably will change the world, I still want to see it dance before I hand over the cash...