OneGuyFromBarlick

Another day another fracking mistake...
"Lord Howell of Guildford has revealed that he meant to suggest gas fracking should take place in the North West, not “desolate areas” of the North East, and described his comments as “a stupid error”."
Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... -East.html
I think he's dug (or drilled) himself into yet another hole: "“What was in my mind was much more the drilling going on off the Lancashire coast", said Howell. Is there `drilling going on off the Lancashire coast'? I thought it was on the Fylde. He continues: "The general story is right – that we want the derricks for fracking to be far away from residences in unloved places that are not environmentally sensitive." So is the Fylde one of those `unloved places that are not environmentally sensitive'?

I'd missed his continued digging! (Dennis Healey springs to mind...) Are his factual errors one more confirmation of incompetence in the higher echelons?
I can't help remembering when a Tory Home Secretary announced he was leaving his wife but unfortunately had omitted to tell her.... If he couldn't get that right, how could he possibly qualify for one of the highest offices of state? Do you ever get the impression that one of the reasons why politicians are so committed to the 'party line' is because it means they don't have to expend time and effort forming an independent opinion?
On another level, it's yet another example of the gulf between the North and the South. If it isn't in the 'Home Counties' but in the 'provinces' it's OK to despoil the land as long as there is advantage in it.

Jacob Rees- Mogg who is currently in a bit of a spot - has just said "The burned fool's finger goes wabbling back to the fire".

I looked it up, and found it's from Kipling - which is good as I'm a fan of his writings. I find it's from a poem called "The Gods of the Copybook Headings " which I don't as yet quite understand, but it looks worth further study.

Wabbling looks to be an interesting word.

From Luisa Zissman - runner up in the last series of The Apprentice.

"Zissman admitted she was "never very good at nouns, verbs and pro-verbs" even though she got an A grade in English at A-level.

Do you think she meant adverbs?

Wikipedia has an entry for pro-verb but I've never heard the word before. Did she mean proverb?

From a showbiz website, following his Edinburgh speech

"Kevin Spacey Warns That The End Is Neigh For Conventional Television"

I presume the last film shown will be "Black Beauty"

In the interests of consistency see here......LINK

Looked up 'pro-verb' in my Quirk.... The explanation is so complicated I didn't bother to read it. I think we can ignore them!

David Cameron
" There will be a clear Government motion and vote on the UK response to chemical weapons attacks.""

Daily Telegraph next day - before the debate.
"A Royal Navy Trafalgar class submarine will join forces with American warships in the Mediterranean to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles in an attack that is likely to begin within days."

To use gunboat diplomacy, one must first deploy the gunboat

Not necessarily...

" the threat is stronger than the execution."

Aron Nimzowitsch Chess legend.

Intervention by an MP in the Syria debate

"War isn't some sort of hokey cokey concept - when you're in you're in"

I think it was Jack Straw on the Today programme this morning who pointed out that Obama's statement that they would `fire a shot across their bows' was very misleading. He said the truth is that Obama won't be simply firing a missile to land harmlessly in the sand somewhere remote in the Syrian desert. Very true.

paraphrased from the debate:

"It wasn't a failure of intelligence in the lead up to the Iraq conflict, it was a failure of political leadership"

"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." - Groucho Marx

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." George Bernard Shaw

Rick Stein -

"The trouble with Italian food is that five or six days later you feel hungry again."

"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance." George Bernard Shaw

"Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together." Ray Charles.

Today programme presenter this morning, referring to the UK economy and quoting someone else (she didn't say who):
"The tide's coming in but it's only the yachts that are floating."

It was Ed Milliband, in his conference speech.
“They used to say: 'A rising tide lifts all boats.’ Now the rising tide just seems to lift yachts.”

"When I disagree with a rational man, I let realty be our final arbiter; If I am right, he will learn, if I am wrong, I will, one of us will win, but both of us will profit" Ayn Rand

"A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years" Lysander Spooner

Wendy and Tiz. Brilliant quote..... Trouble is the poor are shackled to the jetty and the rising tide is engulfing them. Shades of Execution Dock.

"I can see clearly now...."
(Wiki: "I Can See Clearly Now" is a song written and recorded by Johnny Nash. It was a single from the album of the same name and achieved success in the United States and the United Kingdom when it was released in 1972, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was covered by many artists throughout the years, including a 1993 hit version by Jimmy Cliff, who re-recorded it for the motion picture soundtrack of Cool Runnings, where it reached the top 20 at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.)