Chiswickite - formerly The Croydonian

Just for a fraction of a heartbeat it looked as though Hold the Front Page had quite a scoop. OK, the details looked iffy, but reading the headline something leapt out at me:

"Journalist Gordon Brown dies aged 71".

Ah well. My condolences to the family of the original Gordon Brown, who sounds as though he was a decent sort.

And with thought, I am shutting down until some time on Monday as I have a wedding in Spain to attend. Moderation is on, but I plan to authorise comments at least once a day.

Labels: The Worst Prime Minister Since Goderich

The main event of 2008, more eagerly awaited than the State Opening of Parliament, the EastEnders Christmas special, the FA Cup etc is upon us - the annual unpaid parking fines by embassy hitlist. Here's the story from 2006.

Drumroll please.

And rising to the lead from seventh is Sudan, with £75,100 in unpaid fines. An outstanding advance from the measly £15,620 in 2006. Well, the law - moral, divine or black letter - has rarely stood in the way of the Desert Hawks.

The United Arab Emirates shows itself to lack the big match temperament, losing the lead and dropping to fifth. Its due fines have near halved from £42,950 to £24,670.

'Our friends the Saudis', the perennial nearly men (stress men) of parking fines move up to second from third, with an increase from £24 k to nearly £39 k. Well, it is a funny old game, but if the Riyadh lads up their work rate and commitment and give it 110% on the park (Lane...) next year they could be in for some silverware.

This year's dark horses are the Kazakhs, storming in from the steppes of ninth to a Champions league spot at third. Unpaid fines haver nearly tripled to £28,180.

The Chinese managed to grind out the results and sneaked fourth place, up from fifth.

Last year's semi-finalists, Germany could not keep up the pace needed to compete with the big boys and tumbled to a lowly 37th. Despite what the pundits say, no team is too good to go down.

Sneaking into a UEFA spot are the French, rising from ninth to fifth. Back of the net!

The International Maritime Organisation managed a highly creditable £2,010 in unpaid fines. Unpaid mooring fees have yet to be made public....

Labels: Law and order, sport

...in Japan.

Passengers receiving tips from taxi drivers? Yup, "The government said Wednesday that 1,402 government employees accepted cash, beer and other favors from tax drivers while returning home on taxpayers' money and 151 of them have been punished".

Given that state paid for taxis only kick in at 12.30 AM, one might say that the Japanese take a rather harsher line than is taken in these parts. I also at something of loss to work out what the taxi drivers were hoping to achieve. Repeat business? String pulling?

I might tell the next cab I hail that I'm a civil servant and see what happens. Probably a lengthy rant.

(Ahem, edited to remove Freudian slips)

Labels: Japan, they do things differently in....

Her Maj's press secretary speaks:

State Visit to Slovenia and Slovakia

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will pay State Visits to: Slovenia, at the invitation of President Dr Danilo Tuerk; and Slovakia, at the invitation of President Ivan Gasparovic, during this Autumn.

Without the detail, a cynic might think that she had been invited somewhere beginning Slov... but could not remember which.

Meanwhile, I am in pain having discovered that whereas the tax rake as a percentage of GDP has risen 2.4 percentage points (35.0-37.4) under the Brown Terror (1996-date) , those lucky Slovaks have seen it fall ten points, from 39.4 to 29.3.

Labels: facetiousness, Tax

The first picture is to be found at the UK EU Presidency 2005 website (I will explain what I was doing there shortly), and the second is Charles Laughton as Quasimodo in the 1939 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'. Another possible match to that picture of Brown is Ephialtes in Snyder's '300', but all the image matches make him look rather prettier than Brown.

It is not just Brown who has had a less than flattering photo employed at the site, consider these:

An out of focus almost mongoloid looking Blair:


John 'Hypnotoad' Hutton:


And Hillary 'what have I sat on?' Armstrong:


This site, note, was presumably designed to make the UK look great, rather than to hold up its leaders for ridicule. There are some other fairly grim photos, but I reckon I have shown the pick of the bunch.

Anyway, I was rooting around on the site in search of anything memorable having happened during the UK presidency, inspired by a survey commissioned by a French supermarket on attitudes to the forthcoming French presidency.

Asked 'Will the French Presidency have good, bad or no consequences?' 39% think it will be good for France, 18% bad, and a rather more worldly 24%, no consequences at all. Just under a fifth were too stupid to have an opinion.

Labels: EU fun and games, France

From Le Figaro, reviewing PMQs:

"Each week the bags under his eyes look ever deeper and his skin more grey. His nervous tics betray the rage he tries to suppress in the face of the jabs from Conservative leader David Cameron. Whereas [Cameron] appears confident and relaxed, Gordon Brown answers stiffly and often stutters. His defence is limited to a tedious repetition of the achievements in eleven years of New Labour".

(Our French chums have one word - 'cernes' - for bags under the eyes. Very economical).

Labels: France, Media, The Worst Prime Minister Since Goderich

Labels: crime and punishment, just shoot me now, war on terror

As revealed by a question in Parliament.

Labels: furry creatures and similar, Parliament

Am I missing something here?

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to give more Free help to persons with a learning disability at University".

And the detail:

"This is to help those struggling with finances and learning disabilities to further their education through university and to provide a cheaper easier way for those who have a learning difficulty to progress in a world in the ability to read and write are the two Most important factors in any career and life".

Labels: just shoot me now, petitions

Even die-hard monarchists must (surely) concede that GSTQ is the most awful dirge, so a petition suggesting a new anthem sent me scurrying off to find the lyrics, melody etc. The suggested anthem is, ahem, 'The Red, White and Blue' by rockers Judas Priest.

Can't say that 70's hard rock (except early Zepp, AC/DC etc) is generally my thing, but I was not expecting the song in question to be even more of a dirge than GSTQ. Judge for yourselves:


Read Red, White & Blue lyrics


Can't say the lyrics are all that either:

"When I'm far away
And I can't get through
Wherever I roam
Keeps bringing me back to you
Holding on to hope
There's no need to fear
Wherever I roam
This piece of home
Keeps telling you that I'm near

etc etc.

Now if it had been Take on the World, at least that rocks out.

Labels: petitions, popular culture

"Twenty EU members recognize Kosovo, seven do not and need not do it – at least not in the near future. So we cannot request from Serbia to do more than other members are ready to do". Source

Interesting, no?

Non-recognisers look to be Spain, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Romania.

Meanwhile, Liechtenstein refuses to recognise either the Czech Republic or Slovakia, because of the Beneš decrees which expropriated Liechtensteinian crown property.

Labels: Serbia

Labels: language, Norway

Out of the Mad Max-style wreckage that is Somalia has emerged Somaliland - the bit we used to rule. Whereas the former Italian part is at Year Zero, Somaliland has managed to function as a democracy since breaking away from Mogadishu in 1991 and even has a stable currency.

Labels: Africa, Somaliland

Just as we are all enjoying the fact that the deposed Mayor can do nothing more than howl into the void, someone comes up with the, quote, '“Livingstone Mayoralty Memorial Newt Bill”. I am not, repeat not, making this up.

Herewith the details:

"Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby) (Con): I beg to move, that leave be given to bring in a Bill to permit the disturbance of bats and newts for specified purposes; and for connected purposes.
...

I am very fond of bats and newts and it still thrills me when I see them. As a child, I used to catch newts when doing what is now known as “pond dipping”. Like Ken Livingstone, I like newts and, on that basis, I would name this Bill the “Livingstone Mayoralty Memorial Newt Bill”.

Although there may be some amusement here, this is a very serious issue. What links great crested newts and bats is that they are both European protected species—EPS—and that gives strict protection under the European habitats directive".

Mockery to one side, Robathan makes a serious point about the absurd penalties for disturbing newts and the like, and I wish him joy in his endeavour.

Labels: furry creatures and similar, Livingstone, Parliament

Straight from a Eurobarometer survey:

• 22% - Because I do not know enough about the treaty and would not want to vote for something I am not familiar with
• 12% - To protect Irish identity
• 6% - To safeguard Irish neutrality in security and defence matters
• 6% - I do not trust our politicians
• 6% - We will lose our right to have an Irish Commissioner in every Commission
• 6% - To protect our tax system
• 5% - I am against a united Europe
• 4% - To protest against the government's policies
• 4% - To avoid that the EU speaks with one voice on global matters
• 4% - Because large states decide on EU matters

Etc etc. 14% other, 3% don't know why they voted no.

And as for the yes camp:

• 32% - It was in the best interest of Ireland
• 19% - Ireland gets a lot of benefit from the EU
• 9% - It keeps Ireland fully engaged in Europe
• 9% - It will help the Irish economy
• 5% - It gives the EU a more effective way of making decisions
• 4% - It makes the EU more effective on the world stage

Etc etc. 11% other, 2% don't knows.

Labels: EU fun and games, Republic of Ireland

Labels: Belgium, the media

Labels: France, Law and order

From Der Spiegel:

SPIEGEL: This Monday your book "The Security Service and Lech Walesa" comes out. It has already sparked an intense debate. In it, you and your co-author Piotr Gontarczyk claim that the hero of the Polish reform movement collaborated with the secret police in the 1970s. Do you have proof?

Cenckiewicz: We provide clear evidence in our book including registration cards, notations, notes from the secret police and reports from the so-called informant "Bolek." There's positive proof that Lech Walesa was registered with the secret police under that code name between 1970 and 1976.

Much more of this in the interview linked above.

Labels: Poland

Labels: maps, petitions

Our lucky neighbours on the other side of the Channel / North Sea are about to see one of their high speed trains decorated with, gulp, 'the logo of European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 (EYID)'. Pretty exciting, eh?

However, not really worth blogging about, except on a slow day.

However, compare and contrast this statement from Ján Figeľ (he does have that apostrophe, honest) :

"Thalys trains link the capitals and cities of four EU member states"

with this map:


Paris - check. Brussels - check. Netherlands - Amsterdam - check.

And the fourth capital city? It does sat 'the capitals', not 'capitals' of 'four EU member states'. Aachen was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire (insert the old joke here) of the German Nation, but a reborn Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation would rather cancel out Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam...

The other possibilities are that Cologne is a free city again, that the Archbishop thereof has resumed his role as a prince elector or Figel' knows something about the breakup of Belgium that the rest of us do not.

Extra special pedantic point, The Hague is not a capital of the Netherlands, although it is the seat of government.

Labels: EU fun and games, pedantry

And here it is, from Hansard:

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the future prospects for the bingo industry; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Sutcliffe: I hope to make a statement to the House on this and related matters shortly.

Crikey.

Meanwhile, I have unearthed another bee obsessive in Parliament:

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the UK's balance of trade in bees and bee products was in each year since 1997 in standard prices; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Thomas: The following table gives HMRC overseas trade statistics for the value of trade in honey and wax. Data for trade in live bees cannot be separated from trade in other animals.

Perhaps they have run out of stingers to inflict on DEFRA and are now droning on at what was the DTI. Lombard Street to a rotten orange it will be Health next - how many people were stung in Lymeswold East last year etc etc.

Labels: bees, facetiousness, furry creatures and similar, The arts

That is the Bolivian state motto, but a fat lot of good it seems to be doing President Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism party (I'd love to be able to vote for a Movement Away From Socialism party) in that provinces making up around three quarters of the national territory have either declared autonomy after plebiscites or are on strike against the centre. More here.

Much of this has to do with ethnic conflict and Morales seeking to lavish the spoils of the more successful parts of the economy on his client voters in the west of the country. Depending upon how one looks at it, it is though the Shetlands or London sought autonomy from Westminster, as it were.

Wholly unconnected to this, but most amusingly, landlocked Bolivia has a naval flag.

Labels: Bolivia, the Left

Labels: EU fun and games, free trade, Taxes

Labels: Hong Kong, the media

Labels: 'People's Republic' of China, Art of not 'getting' it, Common sense? What's that?, Tibet

Our ashtray on a motorbike of a prime minister has the confidence of the majority of both Americans and Nigerians, as a survey by WorldPublicopinion.org shows.

Those two nations see 59% having a lot / some confidence in Broon doing the right thing in world affairs, narrowly ahead of South Korea at 57%, China at 50% and - the shame of it - my fellow citizens at 48%.

Our neighbours are fairly unimpressed - 35% of the French rate him, as do 22% of Spaniards.

At the other end of the scale, the Jordanians show their usual good sense with 72% having little or no confidence, likewise 90% of 'Palestinians'.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians impress by having 99% able to decide one way or the other, whereas only 43% of Ukrainians can. I guess Broon's books are not big sellers in Kiev.

Labels: surveys, The Worst Prime Minister Since Goderich

Labels: Finland, the media

And it is a winner:

"There will be no Armageddon".

The denial of the End of Days comes from Yury Zaitsev writing for Russian news agency Novosti, although at the end it notes 'The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti'.

So, truly the apocalypse is, or is not, upon us.

(The item is actually about the launching of a Large Hadron Collider at CERN)

Just thought I'd add this, from those nice people at xkcd, who have a creative commons licence for their stuff:

Labels: Media, Truly the Apocalypse is upon us

From EUPravda:

"More EU action needed to prevent and react to natural disasters say MEPs".

Is there no limit to the EU's abilities?

Labels: EU fun and games

From Hansard:

Mr. Steen: May I first compliment the Solicitor-General on her new pixie look?

The Solicitor-General: First, let me respond to the hon. Gentleman’s effusive personal compliment to me, which I take in very good heart. I am more frequently likened to a goblin than a pixie, but I am doing my best.

And who is the SG? It is Vera Baird, who looks like this:


And for those not up to snuff on mythical humanoids, the first relevant google image hits for a pixie and for a goblin:



Far be it for me to be gallant, but I think pixie is a closer match.

Labels: facetiousness, fact checking, Parliament

Labels: EU fun and games, France, Southern Ireland

Ms Rosie Winterton: The temporary absence of bus stops on the western side of Parliament street has been due to extensive street works associated with the Whitehall Streetscape Improvement project....Westminster city council has consulted Transport for London and London Buses at all stages of the project. Work on the western side of Parliament street is now almost complete and buses are once again stopping in the are".

How could TfL etc not have consulted the member for Manchester Gorton? It must be said he is getting on as bit now - 77 - so presumably has had a free bus pass for years.

Labels: London, Parliament, Transport

A brace of Danes: "One couple thoroughly tested the limits of the approved name process, wanting to call their baby 'Rhododendron Bush'. Their application was rejected".

Presumably it was the Bush bit that did for their application.

Labels: Denmark, idiots

Tony Blair (remember him?) has just been referred to as 'a statesman' in a Russian newspaper.

I am feeling quite nauseous.

Labels: Mr Tony

I have a terrible weakness for westerns, so on the off chance any readers also like them, here is the American Film Institute's newly unveiled top ten:

 WESTERN

1   THE SEARCHERS                                               1956
2   HIGH NOON                                                   1952
3   SHANE                                                       1953
4   UNFORGIVEN                                                  1992
5   RED RIVER                                                   1948
6   THE WILD BUNCH                                              1969
7   BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID                          1969
8   McCABE & MRS. MILLER                                        1971
9   STAGECOACH                                                  1939
10  CAT BALLOU                                                  1965

No spaghetti westerns as films are supposed to be 'English-language film with significant creative and/or production elements from the United States'. And wot, no Sierra Madre or Magnificent Seven?

Labels: pointless lists, popular culture

Labels: Boris the Great, Cant, London, Unions

At the Department of 'Justice':

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many copies of the Morning Star (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies procures on subscription each week; and at what cost.

Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice receives two copies of the Morning Star every day (Monday to Friday) at a cost of £6 per week.

If not at the Treasury:

Angela Eagle: The Treasury and each of its agencies do not subscribe to the Morning Star publication. (Nice grammar, Ange)

Or at No. 10: "...how many copies of the Morning Star (a) the Cabinet Office and (b) 10 Downing Street purchase each day".

Mr. Watson: None.

So, which of the DoJ squad are engaged in bet hedging, for when the revolution comes? Perm any two from Straw, Maria Eagle or the deeply obscure David Hanson, Michael Wills, 'Lord' Hunt or Bridget Prentice?

Labels: Extreme Left, Law and order, the media

Another bee obsessive in the House:

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions he has had with his German counterpart on (a) the suspension of the registration of eight insecticidal seed treatment products manufactured by Bayer and (b) the collapse in bee populations in Baden-Wurttemberg.

And, *just fancy*.....

Jonathan Shaw: There have been no ministerial discussions on this issue. However officials in the UK Pesticides Safety Directorate are in close contact with relevant officials in Germany.

I'm on the verge of pitying Shaw for all the bee obsessives he has to deal with, it is enough to make one break out in hives. Still, he is a cast iron cert to lose his seat at the next election.

Labels: bees, furry creatures and similar, Parliament

Labels: Cant, EU fun and games

Labels: surveys, travel, United States

Shamlessly borrowed from West Ham fan site, Knees Up Mother Brown, a screengrab of how Stevenage Borough FC are plugging their new kit:

Go on, click through. I am not making this up.

Labels: Common sense? What's that?, sport

Labels: 'People's Republic' of China, Australia, Cant, WLOSAF

Labels: Greenland, Parliament

Labels: fun with statistics, matters military, Parliament

Hansard has details of research 'on the effects of [the Department of Transport's] policies on different groups in society' and what a great use of our money it would appear to have
been.

Like this - 'Understanding travel aspirations, needs and behaviour of young adults'. A mere £110 thousand.

Somewhat curiously oldsters were cheaper, or not deemed as worth as much money at £100,819 - 'Understanding travel needs, behaviour and aspirations of people in later life'.

I suppose no-one came up with a euphemism for the middle aged, so my demographic has gone unresearched.

Or this - 'The role of the car'. A snip, no doubt, at £98,834

Labels: Transport, Where your money goes

Labels: EU fun and games, matters military

I am pleased with what our friends in the Republic of Ireland have done, and there is not much else to add on that score.

However, given the usual 'some countries are more equal than others' shenanigans that generally ensues from the government not of laws, but of men, what about this for the lead story at the EU press room:


Not the last word in visibility, but feel free to click for a more viewable version.

Those prepared to take my word for it, note the headline:

"Europe's mental health in the spotlight". Yes. Really.

Labels: EU fun and games

As in Amman, the capital of Jordan. Pew Global has asked the world's citizenry which candidate it has the greater confidence in, and McCain wins in Jordan. Obama would win everywhere else, with France and Tanzania the most enthused by the Illinois senator. That Obama would not have un flocon's chance in Hell of winning any elected office in France seems to have passed France by, but never mind....

In other findings, the French and the Japanese are the most likely to think granting the Olympics to Beijing a bad thing (55%) . Rather disgustingly, we Britons think it a good thing, by 50% to 38%. The mouth-breathing 12% presumably did not know what the question meant.

Labels: opinion polls, United States

Let's hear it for the good people of Sierra Leone, and in particular their UN rep, Rupert Davies.

And for why? Because the Falkland Islands are being debated again, and in among the usual blizzard of nonsense came this statement:

"Rupert Davies ( Sierra Leone) said it was in the spirit of General Assembly resolution 637 -- which reaffirmed its recognition of self-determination as a prerequisite for the realization of all fundamental human rights -- that his delegation had repeatedly maintained that the rights of the islanders who had lived on the Territory for 175 years should be paramount in any negotiated settlement. Subjecting people to alien domination constituted a violation of their right to freely determine their political status and pursue development. There was no dispute that the people were the holders of the right to self-determination".

Meanwhile, the self-determination issue is sidestepped by calling on this: 6. Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

As an aside, what about this for a bizarre job title?: Jorge Enrique Taiana, Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of Argentina. Sounds like idolatry to me.

Labels: Falklands, United Nations

Labels: David Davis, the media

Absolutely magnificent. Brown, Smith and the rest of that rabble should die of shame.

A re-elected Davis would have a higher level of moral authority than any MP in living memory.

From the one, the only Muammar Gadhafi:

"Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi said on Wednesday that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's expressed support for Israel stems from his fear that the Mossad would assassinate him, just as it did President John F. Kennedy.

"We suspect he may fear being killed by Israeli agents and meet the same fate as Kennedy when he promised to look into Israel's nuclear program," Gadhafi said". Source.

Labels: idiots, Libya

From Hansard (again):

"Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans he has for the funding and operation of the Park for Women in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province in the next 12 months.

Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Government of Iraq has responsibility for the funding and operation of the Bolan Park in Lashkar Gah".

I would imagine that the Iraqi government has quite enough on its plate without worrying about gender-specific initiatives on the other side of the Hindu Kush, and therefore I think that wee Dougie has got his quagmires mixed up. So much for his degree in politics and modern history.

Labels: Afghanistan, idiots, Iraq

From Hansard:

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to what events held in Israel to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of that State, (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials have been invited; what invitations have been (i) accepted and (ii) declined; and if he will make a statement.

Dr. Howells: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary [the boy Miliband] did not receive any invitations to go to Israel to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel.

Labels: Israel, Miliband

Labels: EU fun and games, Sane economics, The Worst Prime Minister Since Goderich

Labels: East Timor, the badness of government

Professor M.L. Gupta of Punjab Engineering College, quoted at the Commonwealth Secretariat site:

"Most people are poor because they do not have money".

I bet his lectures and tutorials are popular.

I have a large collection of obvious lurking in a cupboard, and I am hoping the professor will come round and point it out for me.

Labels: academia, India

From the J Post:

Labels: Israel

News from across the Atlantic of stationery cupboard pillaging and the like:

"Nearly one in five (19 percent) workers report they have taken office supplies for personal use in the past year...Of those who admit to having stolen office supplies, only 22 percent felt guilty or regretted the act, despite 74 percent of workers feeling it is wrong to do so". I would think that there can be precious few people in these parts who do not have the odd biro that they picked up at the ranch and 'forgot' to take back.

So far so fairly hum-drum , but here's the more arresting bit:

"eight percent of workers admit to having taken higher priced items such as laptops, PDAs or cell phones, an increase from three percent last year". If employers do not notice laptops walking out of the door, one might reckon that they almost deserve inflated insurance premiums.

Labels: United States, Workplace

Pity Ségolène Royal: this time in 2006 she was rated the sixth sexiest woman in the entire world by the 'readers' of FHM's (Should be PLI, surely?) French edition.

Labels: France, surveys

Labels: Cant, furry creatures and similar, United Nations, United States

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 5 June 2008]: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Labels: crime and punishment, Parliament, pedantry, synthetic outrage

Labels: Indiia, matters military, Pakistan

Labels: Canada

From Russian nationalist Alexander Belov, leader of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, or DPNI:

"Those who shout 'Heil Hitler' must be gradually isolated".

Shades of that quote from Saint Augustine.

Labels: idiots, Mother Russia

As anyone who has spent time in France will know, Parisian cars carry the mark of the beast - by way of the number 75 on their numberplates.

However, the simple pleasure of identifying (and hissing at?) Parigots when in La France Profonde is about to be taken away from the French people, and those sad individuals like myself who know far more departmental numbers than is even remotely healthy.

Anyway, this sort of thing is on its way, photo borrowed from AFP:

Meanwhile, France's MPs - a spectacularly supine breed in general - have risen en masse to damn this prospect, so a rather feeble compromise will allow regional identifiers to be added to the plate, if one likes that sort of thing.

I hope the Germans are not intent on messing with their plates - note that Volkswagens often have WÖB for Wölfsburg, Audis In for Ingolstadt etc. More prosaically, German plates starting with one letter - F, H, B, D - identify the larger cities.

I know, I should get out more, and once there ignore number plates.

Labels: France, Germany, Transport

Labels: Italy, Parliament

"Sarah Vine is married to a Tory MP".

Labels: pedantry

From Hansard:

Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.

The national health service in London is currently working with both the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Delivery Authority to assess the sexual health needs up to, during and after the games. Lessons learned from previous games in host cities such as Sydney and Athens are also being considered as part of the planning process.

Lucky old Gidders in Romsey and Dim Prawn in Brizzle will be far away from the Typhoid Marys and Martins that are Ruritanian pentathletes and Absurdistani synchronised swimmers, but pity east London.....

Labels: Health and inefficiency, WLOSAF

Labels: Common sense? What's that?, EU fun and games, idiots