A weekend where people at the top are disgraced

Images such as this one must be alarming for governments across the world during the economic crisis

Another busy week has passed by and many have hoped for a quiet, laid back weekend, putting your feet up and watching some entertainment on the television. Some may have achieved this but not me as two stories have bothered me and one of them has been a continuing problem I have been moaning about since I started writing on this blog over a year ago.

The protests have resumed again - this time not on our doorsteps similar to those which haunted us back last August but instead, they're happening all over the world as places like London, Tokyo and Rome have witnessed people demonstrating their anger about those meddling government cuts, the rise in capitalism and the financial crisis effecting not just the public themselves, but the places they work for.

They were intended to be a peaceful protests. In some cases such as the English capital, they stayed peaceful, however in places such as Rome, they've been burning cars and many arrested for attacking police officers. It's not the type of scenes people would want to be seeing on the news but since it's happening more frequent now, we have to accept that it's the done thing when many people are unhappy.

The financial situation in the world is a mess - nobody can disagree with that. It is extremely depressing to see the much-anticipated Eurozone go from fantastico in 1999 to the slums in 2011. To get from one extreme to another in the space of twelve years is something not many could manage - and people are understandably frustrated. Not just the Euro, but Wall Street is slowly rotting away too, as the worst recession since The Great Depression before World War II is upon us.

I don't have a great deal of knowledge on the Japanese or Italian financial situations compared to the British and American's but as far as Cameron and his Conservative government are concerned, they have a new problem every week. They have been in the papers for the wrong reasons again this week, for the dramatic resignation of Dr. Liam Fox as Defence Minister after secretly hiring his close friend Adam Werritty in the Ministry. In political terms, it's a scandal but nonetheless, Fox has left and the cabinet has been altered slightly as Philip Hammond is the new Defence Minister, moving from his Transport Minister. Four days ago, websites such as This is London released the story of the "Occupy" marches in London after organisers were inspired by the New York protests earlier this month. The Conservative government, again were powerless and allowed these protests to go-ahead and still has done nothing to reassure us about the economy and instead of blaming themselves for the unnecessary cuts they've announced last year - they simply blame it on the previous government.

The Labour government has made mistakes and never recovered since spending a shed load of money during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars but the Conservative government convinced us that the economy crisis before they were elected would be a thing of the past - well, obviously not. My suggestion is to stop pointing fingers, take responsibility and focus on economy growth, and not economy panic. Don't look to the future, but on the present. It may not look pretty but we have to be realistic. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have until 2015 to sort it all out before I sense more demonstrations and violence scenes to come.

Warburton's challenge on Clerc resulting in red

From politics to sport and it's more doom and gloom in the news as far as Britain is concerned. Wales, the British nation closest to reach the 2011 Rugby World Cup final showdown were dashed by France. 9-8 seemed to be a close match, and indeed it was but the match was heavily over-shadowed by the sending off of Welsh captain Sam Warburton. Today, it was announced he will miss the next three weeks of rugby action for both club and country over this incident which got him to breakdown into tears while leaving the field.

There are two factors to this sending off. The first is, was the foul "malicious"? I have seen the replay over-and-over-again and I have to say, if I was the referee for that match, after watching all those replays I would have shown Warburton red however it happened so fast, yet the referee was quick to react. It was bizarre however, I felt Warburton lifted the French rugby player Vincent Clerc, realising his mistake and dropped him with the Frenchman crash-landing on the back of his neck. It was a clumsy challenge but I might agree with the critics who say a yellow card was more reasonable. It was the turning point however, other aspects of the game tarnished Wales hopes of being in a historic final such as missing four penalties of five while the French scored three of three.

The second factor to the sending off was the choice of referee. In football, it is forbidden for a referee of the same nationality to be in charge of the game. However, in rugby union, there are no rules to suggest this so according to the rule book, Rolland who has French parents, was legally permitted to referee the semi-final. Ironically, he is representing Ireland, a nation Wales knocked out in the quarter finals the week before. Bad referee choice, you would say so. Despite this, Australia could feel let-down by the International Rugby Board (IRB) after they appointed South African Craig Joubert as the man in charge against New Zealand on Sunday morning. Australia lost 20-6 but they beat the Springboks in the quarter-final stage this year, like Wales v Ireland. Now, imagine if both of these referees switched matches? Would have been more ideal and fair, couldn't it? The IRB have to revise their rules and appoint the appropriate referees for each match as, I can speak for every Welshman, I feel cheated.

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