So everything is fine.........

The increasingly incandescent outrage that has followed the global banking crisis went nuclear this week when left-wing Labour veteran Dennis Skinner, who was undoubtedly speaking for all sides of the House of Commons, profoundly explained that the banking fraternity had been "on a winner" for some time and were no better than Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who caused the collapse of Barings Bank in the 1990s.

He said: "Instead of paying out these vast executive bonuses and Freddie Goodwin's massive £650,000 pension, why not tell them that those of us on these benches will gladly walk through that voting lobby to ensure that all those executive bonuses and all that pension fund for Freddie Goodwin and his mates will be paid for out of the toxic debt when it had been repaid - and that will be never.”

"That's the proposal we ought to put to these bankers, and treat them with the contempt they deserve."

And now we have Harriet Harman, leader of the House of Commons, telling us that Freddie shouldn't get too comfortable with his pension as ‘the court of public opinion’ is going to bite back, with the Government stepping in to cut his ‘entitlement’……I have this nagging feeling that the plan, hatched by John Prescott, to withhold Freddie's monthly cheque may just cost all of us money in the ‘court of law’.

But of course what really ‘got up the snouts’ of our politicians this week was not that Fred was on to a good thing. After all he had been travelling in the luxury of his own ‘virtual financial world’ for many years. A fact recognised when the Government bestowed on him a Knighthood for his services to banking. No, the pain came from the realisation that the ’RBS trough of easy cash’ was considerably deeper than the pitifully small one that they had to share in Westminster.

Poor Jacqui Smith might be the Home Secretary but it hasn’t saved her from scrutiny following the disclosure that her ‘first home’ is in fact the spare room at her sister's. And of course where her children and husband live in Redditch, is her second home.

The tax-free Additional Costs Allowance - worth up to £24,006 a year at present - is claimed by MPs for the costs, such as mortgage interest and fuel bills, of working in both Westminster and a constituency. Conservative leader David Cameron told a news conference in Westminster the arrangement - which enabled Ms Smith to claim £116,000 over a period of years - did not look very good.

You are right Dave….not good.

Now of course Jacqui claims that the parliamentary system approves of her action…..I’m sure it does. But what I want to know is where she keeps her collection of Redditch United FC programmes. Hovering just above the relegation places in the Blue Square North, Redditch are not having a great season……but if Jacqui keeps her collection, that no doubt dates back to 1891/2, in her London ‘box room’ then she is truly ‘innocent’.

But this allowance is pretty pathetic when compared with Freddie’s years of largesse and in 'scrutiny terms' probably only just ranks alongside Gordon Brown’s ‘inadvertent’ sub-letting of his constituency office in Kirkcaldy, which resulted in a criticism from the Standards and Privileges Committee. Now I wonder which bit was ‘inadvertent’?

Getting things right is easy when the mood is positive, the ‘company’ is growing and markets are expanding.

Aldershot Town dined out last season on a menu that was both fresh and dynamic.

The plan was delivered without fear but perhaps, just perhaps, the risk of environmental change was never calculated. A similar failing destroyed RBS, left Sir Fred with a £693,000 headache and the resulting national debt will no doubt have the same half-life as Uranium 238.

It is a criticism of the Aldershot Town management team that the alternative approach necessary to secure League position, when the momentum that ensued from the ‘promotion bubble’ inevitably burst, was never established. As a consequence the recovery action has been unstable, in fact just like the Government’s current 'measured financial plan'.

Without doubt the disastrous sequence of results that we experienced, six defeats and three draws, following the splendid 3v0 win at Barnet on Boxing Day meant that Aldershot Town had to beat Accrington Stanley last Saturday. Yes, even the economists currently working for Gordon Brown would be capable of working out that our Club cannot afford to play in front of crowds that have fallen from 3600 to 2600 in a direct correlation with plummeting performances.

As we entered 2009 crisis followed crisis. Our ability to plan for the future, and respond to injuries became so much more difficult.

Poor form and falling levels of confidence was accentuated when goalkeeper Nikki Bull was injured and subsequently absent for eight weeks ....his replacements were not up to League standard…and the midfield without the energy and drive that was so uplifting last season left a weak defence cruelly exposed at times…..and clearly a ‘personnel issue’ with Lewis Chalmers – from bench warming to Crawley Town – was not part of Gary Waddock’s development plan for the season.

But then Nikki came back on Saturday and so too Lewis….Accrington were poor and Aldershot Town scored three.

So everything is fine….. well at least I will be travelling to Bournemouth on Tuesday evening with an optimism that has been absent for a few weeks..

'Gary Waddock still has time to restore to Aldershot a ‘year of wonder’ consigning the mensis horribilis to a mere footnote in the history of our club.' - 'Life in the Freezer', 5th Feb 2009.