OneGuyFromBarlick

For Willie Sutton, read EU! Nice one David.

Robert Peston on the Today programme, when asked about the real cause of the problem in Cyprus:
"The Eurozone has been incompetent."
This is getting to the nub of the matter. It's all very well saying the Cypriot government and Cypriot people have allowed their banks to get too big but ultimately the EU has been incompetent in allowing a member of its currency union to get into this bad state and should take the blame.

Asked about the future of the Eurozone, Peston said: "There is no sign of the Eurozone having the structures and systems in place to ensure its survival."

RIP Eurozone

"Britain has dispatched a task force of top civil servants to Cyprus to advise the stricken island on how to pull its banking system back from the brink of collapse."

One of them was an adviser to Gordon Brown. Lucky Cyprus - what could possibly go wrong......

Tiz and David, both posts had me saying "How True". I was listening to Dave telling us how the budget is a fine piece of work and that we are on track for recovery and thought I must remember that! Of course it's been erased completely by the crap sweeper in my brain. As for us advising anyone else....

Just heard a good one. "Pope Francis is a humble man who believes he is infallible". Bit of a conflict there?

Stanley wrote:Just heard a good one. "Pope Francis is a humble man who believes he is infallible". Bit of a conflict there?

I wonder if they meant to say "Pope Francis is a humble man who believes he is fallible"? I'm increasingly seeing, in print, people mistakenly using the opposite word to the one they mean. Either a lack of understanding of the language or failure to check what they write, excusable here but not in newspapers, magazines and respectable web sites.

Tripps, I love your Godron comment...thanks!

Tiz, I think that what was being referred to is the Doctrine of Papal Infallibility. Reinforced as recently as 2005 by Benedict who asserted that in certain situations the Pope is still infallible as he conveys directly God's message. (LINK) Hardly a sign of humility.

Unfortunately this was March last year.
March was the sunniest month since 1929, and the warmest since 1997 according to forecasters. The highest maximum temperature recorded was 23.6 degrees in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, on March 27 which was a new Scottish record for March. There was an average of 187 house of sunshine over England and Wales making it the sunniest March since 1929."

March 1947:

Snow. Some heavy snowstorms occurred during the first half of the month. There was heavy snow over much of England and Wales on the 4th and 5th and in north England and south Scotland on the 12th and 13th. Snow lay 36" (91cm) deep at Lake Vyrnwy, 22" (56cm) at Crickhowell, 21" (53cm) at Wrexham and 16" (41cm) at Birmingham on the 6th. 17.5" (45cm) at Harrogate on the 10th, 34" (86cm) at Ushaw, 28" (71cm) at Chopwellwood and 17" (43cm) at Durham on the 14th. Drifts up to 16ft (4.9metres) occurred in mining towns on high ground near Crickhowell and up to 9ft(2.7metres) at Whipsnade on the 6th. In east, central and south Scotland the heavy snowstorms of the second week were said to the worst in recent years;heavy drifts up to 25ft ((7.6metres) in places isolated farms and villages and road and rail traffic was seriously interrupted.

Dennis Healey aged 95.

“North of the line where olives grow people pay their taxes and control their spending; south of it, they don’t and they get very heavily into debt . . . That division makes federation impossible – inconceivable, in my opinion.”

That's a great truth, Tripps.

On the radio this morning, someone - I think it was classic historian Mary Beard who has suffered awful verbal abuse on the Internet - said they'd found out what Twitter was useful for...creating an instant mob. That sums up Twitter for me.

Couldn't agree more Tiz, the reason why I avoid all 'social networking' sites. They have their uses of course but give the LCD full reign to inflict their dreadful influence protected by anonymity. Poison pen letters were bad enough but slowed down by the speed of delivery!

"Tesco said all wines at £15-plus a bottle have shown record growth of 49 per cent and it now stocks wines at £1,000 a bottle."


Not double/triple dip for everyone then?

Ah well, that's Tesco customers for you!

Heard on Radio 4, Robert Peston talking about the future of the economy:
`Dogs bark, ducks, quack, banks fail.'

Tiz, one man's recession is another man's opportunity]ty. SG 2013.

See this LINK for the memorable occasion when Margaret Thatcher was handbagged by Diana Gould. Hoist with her own petard I think.

Historian Professor Devine was asked in a discussion on Radio 4 to give his view on the future. His answer: "Not my period".

The late Margaret Roberts as was

"a lot of politicians think if they’ve made a speech, something has happened. The only thing that’s happened is they’ve made a speech.”

Stanley wrote:See this LINK for the memorable occasion when Margaret Thatcher was handbagged by Diana Gould. Hoist with her own petard I think.

The link , I feel , needs updating with indeed the evidence of the 30year release of information. Although MT took the acceptance of the action after it occurred ( I think because she thought it generally politically favoured her ) , my understanding is that the attacking commander in the area took the decision , Nelson Style , without specific referral back to Whitehall , using his judgement. At the time I blamed MT for the action and agreed with Diane Gould's assesments , indeed the critism of communication still holds , but I revised my blame of MT to one of taking all the 'glory' for the action, the rights and wrongs of which could be debated elsewhere. On that day , MT was either well briefed or was truly good at political side step, cover up and change subject.

Max Clifford: "Margaret Thatcher was Britain's most important Prime Minster since 1945".
No matter what you think of her that statement has to be true!

"Peace, like air and sunshine, is hardly noticed when people are benefiting from it, but none of us can live without it."
Chinese President Xi Jinping in his opening speech at the BOAO Economic Forum (held in in Bo'ao, Hainan, China).

Noted in this BBC article which is also interesting in its analysis of the deteriorating relationship between China and North Korea:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22062589

Jonny Rotten:

"I was her enemy in life but I won’t be her enemy in death… What kind of politics are they offering me? You dance on another person’s grave? That’s loathsome"

BBC Radio Five Live commentator during London marathon
"I can't see Mo Farah, but I imagine he is pushing on now"

Who He?

From the "In memoriam" in the local rag today.

In loving memory 5th May 2012

A year has passed since you've been gone
And without you it seems funny
But as you predicted before you went
McGrath still owes the money

"Lessons will have to be learned"
D Cameron