It’s Driving Me Mad
Sometimes things get into your memory and even Google and/or Wikipedia can’t get the reference.
An example is a play, which might have been a Play for Today. It starred, someone like Leo McKern as Sir Harry, a barrister, who was defending someone who was being tried for rape. He doesn’t get on well with the judge and feels that his client is guilty. So Sir Harry mimics the alleged rapist’s modus operadi and clothes and attacks another young lady in her flat. She then gives evidence and Sir Harry’s client is found not guilty. The judge feels that Sir Harry has been up to his old tricks and accuses him of getting his client off by unfair means. Sir Harry then pulls a gun and shoots the judge dead in his courtroom. The last scene is Sir Harry being led away saying that this will be his greatest case. ‘Sir Harry defends Sir Harry’.
So what am I remembering?
So Why Is A Credit Rating Important?
According to this report, there is anger in the EU about the downgrading of the credit rating of France and eight other EU countries.
So is this important for the countries involved?
Look at it on a personal basis!
If you have a good credit rating, you can borrow money a lot cheaper, than if you have a bad one.
It’s just the same really.
The only difference is that the rating agencies seem to have a large number of individual ratings, which are meaningless to the man on the Dalston omnibus, unless he’s a banker going home from the City.
Incidentally, we’re going to borrow £180 billion this year. if we were downgraded, that might cost us around £2 billion or even more.
So the downgrading of France has really dropped them dans le soupe! And President Sarkozy says we’re in a worse state than France, but then our rating hasn’t been cut and their’s has.
I liked this comment on The Times website under a detailed explanation of the downgrading.
Had it been us losing our AAA I can only imagine the very high level of spite, malice and vituperation which would be hurled our way from France. The French would have been having the time of their life! Yet the British government has not made any formal comment at all and the on-line comments have been remarkably restrained although I have to admit to just a modicum of schadenfreude.
We may not have made any official statement, but I suspect quite a few of the great and good are laughing in their beer tonight.
I Thought Germans Obeyed Orders
This German trucker, obviously didn’t, as the signs said he shouldn’t cross the Forth Road road bridge.
Who Drank All the Beer?
Police in North London have arrested several fellons in possession of about 1,000 beer kegs according to this report.
The report doesn’t say whether the kegs were empty or not, but the police are looking for a several overweight men, who are very drunk.
Only In The United States Could Speaking French be a Disadvantage
According to this account on the BBC’s web site, Mitt Romney is being denounced for being able to speak French and actually doing it in public.
I think we have a rather different attitude in Europe, as although we argue with the French many of our politicians have used French when talking publicly in France. Although, we do make a joke of it between us. As two old friends would. Apparently, the French version of Allo Allo deliberately used bad French as a joke, even more than the English version did with Officer Crabtree being a deliberate parody of Edward Heath.
Remember too, the Queen speaks reasonable French, as this article attests.
We now live in a world, where many more people are bilingual, as their parents were immigrants. So the US has a large proportion of Spanish speakers and we have quite a lot of speakers of many other languages.
But go back to 1900 and has anything changed. Yiddish and German would have been heard in many places in London and New York for a start.
But now, only in America would the ability to speak a foreign language be considered to be a handicap for a politician!
Older Footballers
With the return to action of Thierry Henry and Paul Scholes in the last few days, I can remember seeing some older footballers playing at the top level in the 1950s and 1960s.
John Charles – Although he was in the twilight of his career, I must have seen him in 1962 at Tottenham. He would have been in his early thirties at the time.
Stanley Matthews – He played for Stoke in the early 1960s and when I saw him at Tottenham, he must have been nearly 50 and still playing at the top level.
We’ve also had quite a few goalkeepers, who have still be playing at 40.
But to me, the greatest of these older footballers was Danny Blanchflower.
He was an outstanding player and captain, who completely bossed the game. He was also someone blessed with the gift of the Blarney Stone.
His finest moment for Spurs, was probably, when at 36 he lifted the European Cup-Winners Cup in 1962.
If he has a modern counterpart it is David Beckham.
He has been asked to keep himself available for the Olympic football.
It may be wishful thinking, but I don’t rule out Beckham playing in the final. Just like Blanchflower, he has the skill to provide the ammunition and on-field coaching to others, who can do all the hard work.
The Anonymous Widower 