Cricket

this comment gives me no pleasure at all but there are allegations in a Sunday newspaper about betting in cricket. If these allegations about bowling no balls then that to me would be the tip of the iceberg. In the first innings of the current test England were on the ropes, just like we were in the Battle of Britain, our backs against the wall, then miraculously England recovered, with a brilliant ninth wicket stand.

Then come these allegations, everything is tarnished, a dropped catch here, a dropped catch there, a misfield, all of a sudden nothing makes any sense. What people have to understand is that in the betting market you can 'buy' runs. For example, if somebody had bought England for £10 when they were 150-7 then England score 300 then the person who bought England would win £1,500, whereas if England had been all out for 200 then the person would owe £1,000 to the other side of the bet. Now this is big money, because we are not talking £10's here, we are talking serious money.

Now my concern is that yet again Pakistan figure in all this, a Pakistan which is meant to be striggling with terrorism, and don't mention the floods. So, there is something seriously going wrong.

There have been problems with betting previously in cricket, but it does not seem to go away, despite some major efforts, and it is sad when one of the greatest sports in the world is brought into disrepute, and it is sad, so very sad, that it would seem that all is not right.

Take an example, a team might well be involved in a match where the game is affected by rain, so the captains agree a run target, with easy bowling, and artificial targets, one team then 'wins' by declarations, and may take some of the honours, but is it fair on the other teams involved, and if betting is involved, or bonuses for success, then there is trouble.

It is no different in Grand Prix racing, we have seen, and heard, that teams may well have their favourite to win, and the second racer may be 'ordered' to allow the other driver to pass. Now this has happened, and again there are problems, because of betting.

These are sad days for those of us brought up on fair play, all illusions are shattered, it is a sign of the times, nobody would seem to be whiter than white. I have said before, and it still stands to this day, money makes pimps and whores of us all, a harsh comment I know, but we all follow orders at some time or another in our lives, and we have to ask, why?

Retail prices Index

firstly, the government must not pass any legislation, or allow, any company to alter the terms of pensions so that pensions can be linked to the Conumer Prices Index rather than the Retial Prices Index. If they do I will be very angry, and at last other serious commentators have understood what I understood as soon as it was announced. This must be dropped as a proposal, and the change to policy must be announced at the party conferences of the government of national unity, otherwise there will not be very much unity at all.

As for government bonds, which are trading at a premium to their redemption price I don't think that many fully understand the problem. Yes the income is there, the governments will probably not default, but there is a catch. Where a bond is above par, when it is redeemed, then the investor will lose their capital. Consider a bond trading at £115 for every £100 of bond, with an interest rate of 8% on the bond, with a rewdemption date of 2015.

Now then my lucky punters, you buy the bond, a hundred pounds, but it costs a hundred and fifteen pounds. For five years you get eight pounds, less tax of course, and then in 2015, you get from the government a huindred pounds, so you have lost fifteen pounds of your capital, gone, all gone. Furthermore, you can't get any relief from Capital Gains Tax on your 'investment' because gilts are exempt from CGT.

So, yes you have some income, yes your bonds are 'guaranteed' but you try this one and I wonder how long you will stay out of jail, especially with Quantitaive easing, and the effect on inflation, so that even the hundred pounds in five years time is not worth the same as the hundred pounds of bond you bought in the first place.

You have to ask yourself why the government does not link Index Linked Gilts to the CPI, rather than the CPI, maybe because they could see the lawyers just waiting for their days in court.

The government must announce that the changes to allow pension funds to change from RPI to CPI must not go forward. They really must not.