Prostitution and the Olympics
Caitlin Moran in The Times, writes a controversial article about prostitution today and especially about how brothels are being closed in East London. In her usual way, it is witty and controversial in equal measure, but it misses one big area about prostitution and the Olympics.
Years ago, I was changing planes in Boston, so as I had a few hours and only a small cabin bag, I decided to take a taxi to the City Centre and have a decent lunch.
I’m not sure how it happened, but I found myself sharing a taxi with a hooker looking for a punter. I declined her offer, as I wanted to be on the connecting flight. But she did say she’d have lunch with me to pass the time, as she had things to do later. I said she was on if we split the tab, expecting her to get lost, as although she was rather good looking, I was quite keen to put temptation well out of my way. She chose a not particularly expensive, but good Italian restaurant in a restored area by the waterfront.
We had a good meal and she did pay her part of the bill. Even the tip! She also showed me how to get the ferry to the Airport, to save the taxi fare.
It turned out, she’d worked as a prostitute for about five years, since she had left University. She had a flat in Boston, but rarely lived there, following the big conferences and high class holiday areas as the year progressed. I remember, she said that she used to go to Aspen for the skiing season, but never got on the piste.
Girls like this will see London as the place to be this summer, but they will not be staying in East London by any means. It will be interesting to see the girls waiting in the popular and very expensive hotels. Some say, it has always been thus, as I remember a friend was propositioned in the bar of a five-star hotel a few years ago by an Arab, whilst waiting for her husband.
It Must Be Easy Being A Spanish Fan or Footballer
At least, before a match, as you don’t have to sing the National Anthem. It doesn’t have any words!
Hodgson Speaks Italian at a Press Conference
The BBC seems very surprised that he did this, but he did manage a top club in the country. If they read his Wikipedia entry, it says he speaks eight languages, five of which fluently.
I haven’t seen or heard what he said, but perhaps he threw the Italian into the press conference to make sure that the Italians knew he would understand what they shouted from the touchline. I suspect too, he reads the Italian papers’ comments on the match. That must be a great help, as newspapers are always trying to be better than the managers. And usually failing!
The Last Match on ITV
Tonight’s match is last one, that I’ll have to watch on ITV. Yippee!
But I’ll be listening to the match commentary on my laptop.
It’s certainly the best way to watch football with adverts.
I wonder what percentage do it this way or listen to a radio for the commentary?
Those Sneaky Frenchies
They nearly got Black Caviar, which appeared to be caught out by the stiff six furlongs and perhaps a bit of not-quite-up-to-standard jockeyship. Every good trainer, I’ve ever met, has always said, that you always use the best local jockey available outside of the UK. Unless of course the normal jockey is one of the top class or has experience of the track. In this race, Thierry Jarnet brought Moonlight Cloud right through or behind the field to get to the rail. That isn’t a tactic on a round course, but is quite common on a straight one. How many races are run on straight courses in Australia? I’ve looked it up and think it’s only one straight course at Flemington. Here, most tracks have a six furlong straight course.
My Worries About Black Caviar
They are not major worries, but the confidence behind Black Caviar in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes is unprecedented and when that happens, things tend occasionally to go wrong.
I once had a runner, Debach Delight, start at odds of 22-1 odds-on in a race at Ayr. Everybody was confident and she did win by over a dozen lengths, but you always worry about something. After all, she might have stumbled out of the stalls and dropped the pilot.
They have shown pictures of Black Caviar and they all showed her running on a round course. Now Ascot is straight. So I have to ask, if she has ever run in a race on a straight course with fifteen runners? It can tend to unsettle a horse, the first time they do it.
The last worry, is that the two horses after her in the betting are French-trained. They always seem to get the odd surprise winner in England. This week so far we’ve had a few Irish winners, one from Hong Kong and one for Germany, but none from the French.
The Ramadan Rush
It would appear from The Times, that rich shoppers from the Middle East are getting their shopping in before Ramadan starts on July 20th. They also claim that France’s burqa ban, means that shoppers now prefer London.
The French really know how to create laws that help their business sector, especially as they are bringing in a financial transaction tax.
Eurozone Agrees Financial Transaction Tax
Well not quite, if you read the report on RTE, the Irish national broadcaster.
The Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, said the following.
We have stamp duty on share transactions at 1% – we don’t want to go beyond that at present. The British aren’t prepared to go beyond that, Luxembourg isn’t prepared to go beyond that.
“The risk of the activities in financial services moving from Ireland to other centres, particularly London, Luxembourg, the Netherlands is quite high.
One idea behind the financial transaction tax, which is also supported by France, is that it could create a fund to cushion taxpayers from having to bailout banks.
Reading what he said in full, seems to indicate that Ireland, the UK, Luxembourg and perhaps The Netherlands won’t have anything to do with it.
I don’t think any sensible person, would join a club, that would fine you every time you invested anything, especially if you paid all your taxes.
I see a personal problem with it, in that London is going to attract many more rich people, who will want to clog the city with their cars.
Racism Is Less Of A Crime Than Bentner’s Underpants
At Euro-2012 Croatia have been fined €80,000 for racial abuse and throwing fireworks, but Nicklas Bentner has been fined €100,000 for wearing a pair of dodgy underpants. it’s reported here in the Daily Mail.
So I think that we now know where UEFA stands on racism!
The Anonymous Widower 