Doom...

It's going to be tough to stay cheerful today. At lunchtime, we're going to be told what's being cut, how much national insurance is going to go up, how much more tax we're all going to pay and how much higher VAT will rise.  If we believe everything we've been told, this is all because of Bank incompetence - or should that read 'Rank incompetence? -  and we're dealing with them by saving their companies and reducing their bonuses.  A little, anyway.

Naturally, we can expect all the Tories and most of the LibDems to say that what the government is doing is wrong, and we will all end up in the alms house by Easter, if we're lucky. Of course, the real problem started many moons ago, when a certain Mrs Thatcher listened to the now-discredited ramblings of one Milton Friedman, whose gospel of free market enterprise and competitive economies set the stage for everything fiscal that's happened in the UK - and US - since. It is - after all - the 'free' market that's got us into this unholy mess and you have to wonder whether by tinkering at the edges Mr Darling can do very much.

There was another interesting snippet today, however;  Farmers in North Wales are starting to feed their cows with garlic, apparently because it 'reduces flatulence'. Now, although it's tempting to assume this is all part of a plan to enhance the social standing of cattle among the well-bred denizens on the average farm, it seems that Cattle produce 4% of the world methane output, simply by burping.  Presumably, they produce a lot more by, er...well, you get the picture. Methane, apart from being a greenhouse gas, is inflammable, so it would seem to make sense to fit all the cows with very large plastic nappies connected to interminable lengths of tubing through which the evacuated methane can be reclaimed and used for providing the farm's electricity.

Of course, since the plastic takes a lot of CO2 to manufacture, this doesn't really solve a lot of problems, but the principle of waste recycling on this scale could be extended to Parliament which - if hermetically sealed - might provide enough hot air and gas to power half of London.  And one bonus is that if they continued to irritate us, we could simply forget to feed in the fresh air.