Barclays' Middle Eastern fundraising under fire | Business | guardian.co.uk.
Vince Cable has inadvertently revealed just how little the Liberal Democrats are entitled to the first part of their name. Barclays has managed to stay independent. It has not resorted to taxpayers' money. Its shares have risen 10% on the news. And Comrade Cable thinks that's a bad thing.
Gordon Brown's terror claims for ID cards are "bunkum" says GCHQ expert - Telegraph.
Don't believe a mere security expert. Why would our beloved politicians lie to us? After all, if..
as this foolish "expert" says, it wouldn't be worth spending our money on it, would it? Besides, citizens, if we have nothing to hide then of course we have nothing to fear! Well apart perhaps from;
I am sure there are a myriad other possibilities. Any suggestions?
She will not forgive me for posting this, but I am so filled with paternal pride at the younger Ms Paine's pumpkin carving that I had to show you. Before more traditional readers accuse us Paines of being un-English, let me explain that it all started when she was at an American School in Eastern Europe as a little girl. I had to carve them for her at first, but she soon surpassed me. I never even aspired to anything like this standard!
To bring it back to current affairs, do check out this site for political devotion expressed in the same field of endeavour. Pumpkin carvings are supposed to be scary, but in this case the thinking of the people carving them is much scarier. Can you imagine someone doing that for Gordon Brown or David Cameron?
More than 10 million 'drinking at hazardous levels’ - Telegraph.
25% of the adult population is drinking at hazardous levels, according to our lords and would-be masters. Personally, I blame them. Consider the following;
We the politicians, not society at large, have the right to define what is "negative social behaviour." And while we don't (yet) insist that you should broadcast our propaganda, you shouldn't broadcast anything that contradicts it.
It's enough to drive anyone to drink. Cheers.
Rat infestation threatens UK - Telegraph.
Be careful with the comments, people. I am all for free speech, but I will not tolerate any speciesism.
Financial crisis: Gordon Brown vows to borrow way through recession - Telegraph
Economists condemn Chancellor Alistair Darling's spending plan - Telegraph.
I don't understand how so many of us can obsess about trivia, when the situation in our country is as follows;
I should point out that £37.6bn is not the National Debt. That stood at £632bn immediately after Northern Rock was nationalised (plus unfunded public pension liabilities in excess of £800 billion). No, £37.6 billion is just the annual amount the Government is currently adding to it.
It's not enough apparently. Darling/Brown now want to borrow even more in a Keynesian bid to stimulate recovery. Rather than cut spending and taxes, they want to spend their way out of a recession that should be nothing more than a return to economic reality. Or, more precisely, they want to pretend that's what they are doing, in order to win one more election.
The sensible thing now would be to cut government spending, cut taxes and stop competing with business for such money as is available for investment. But that's not Brown's style at all. In a letter to the Sunday Telegraph today, 16 economists point out the dangers:
I am sure the PM will smile to read that. This bull market could never have run so long in Britain without the government running deficits. Brown blew his chance to manage public finances prudently so that the nation would have reserves in tough times. Now he plans to use this recession just as he has used 9/11 and 7/7 - as an excuse to ramp up state power.
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PS: The estimates of the National Debt above were the best I could find in the MSM. Burning our money's estimate was last updated in February - when it came to £1,847.5bn - without the totally unfunded commitment to pay final salary pensions to public employees, which would bring it to "around £9 trillion. Or £360 grand for every household" That was before Gordon bailed out the banks. Goodness knows what the next update will reveal.
Lord Mandelson admits public were misled over relationship with Russian oligarch - Telegraph.
I have remarked before that, during my brief stint as a criminal lawyer, I noticed that the bad guys are fond of the passive voice. Thus, not "I deceived the public", but "the public were [sic] deceived." My amateur psychological theory is that it disassociates the wrongdoer from his victims to make them appear the subject, not the object, of his sentences. Are there any psychologists among my readers who care to comment?
Sterling plummets on the back of Brown's debt-fuelled economy | Coffee House.
Can someone explain to me why the MSM is entirely focussed on the social lives of a couple of freeloading fools, when -as a nation- we are staring down the barrel of a financial gun? How can Brown's ratings improve when the situation is as Fraser Nelson so eloquently explains it?
Click through to the linked article to read, finally, in a small-circulation mainstream publication, what I have been saying for years. When will we hear it on the BBC?