Wednesday

It's cold, really cold - very heavy frosty on the country park - everything is white and frozen. Is there some kind of ancient deity I can sacrifice a lamb to or something to get this spring kick started???

A poor spring means much poorer harvests, more imported essentials, more expensive food in the 2nd half of the year. It also wrecks high street retailing. The summer collections should be in store by now and spring should already be in discount - but most stores are holding stock back and most of spring will have to go straight into discount as soon as the weather improves  so it will all make a loss and cost money to sell - summer will sell badly again and go straight to discount - nobody has started buying their holiday gear - so the knock-on will effect the high street really badly and probably kill off a few big / medium retailers who have struggled to get through the last few years.

Poor cash sales in spring are a disaster - the money everyone took at Xmas is long gone, taxes, wages and rents have taken that and now the coffers are empty - no real revenue through the till at this time can send you over the edge. Perversely - it's about now that big store groups are buying xmas 2013 - and a poor economic outlook effects how they buy. Expect to see dull, safe, cheap clothes from November onwards - with last years decorations dragged back out for perhaps the third time - not a great way to raise the national mood.

IDS thinks the 300,000+ petition to get him to try and live on £53 pw is a 'stunt' - no - actually, for many people, it's a reality - and the offer came from his own mouth.

A survey on social class divisions on the BBC site insisted that I am 'established middle class' - which is a complete fucking joke. The chap on the radio now trying to explain it is failing really badly.

"Listening to jazz makes you 'high brow' - using facebook means you have emerging cultural capital"... yeah... right.

It's great that we live in a democracy where everyone has the right to their own political and religious beliefs, and the right to express them - but Paolo Di Cannio is still a knob.