Poking a Hornets Nest
An unnamed footballer, who everybody who wants to know, knows who he is anyway, is trying to take action against Twitter, so that those that posted his name there can be hauled before the Courts to be punished.
All this will do is make matters worse, as many more Twitter users will just add to the posts.
The man, whoever he is, is an idiot and he is just pouring more money into the pockets of greedy lawyers. C did her first pupilage in defamation chambers and if she were still alive today, she would be cursing her decision to go into the much more rewarding field of Family Law, rather than stay in a more lucrative field, that relieves the vain of their easily earned money.
I Bet Elliot Morley Wishes He Was French!
Elliot Morley has just been jailed for expenses fraud for sixteen months.
What would he have got in France?
After all, the French believe that Dominique Strauss Kahn is innocent and it’s all a setup, so I suspect someone like Eliot Morley would have probably been given a guided tour of the Bastille.
Liz’s Triumph
The Queen’s visit to Ireland has passed so far without any serious hitches or gaffs. But then visiting Ireland, where nearly all the population are hospitable to all visitors, is a lot less tricky than visiting some of the places governed by some of the worst or the worst, she has been told to go by successive governments. I’m sure she really enjoyed her visits to Saudi Arabia and Rumania!
There might however be a problem for the Queen on the horizon, where Ireland is concerned.
Currently, her horse, Carlton House, is favourite for the Derby. He also has entries in the Irish and French Derbys.
Many Epsom Derby winners have followed up their victory at Epsom, with a run at The Curragh. And of course, there are horses, who have run in Ireland because of minor problems that prevented them competing at Epsom.
The permutations are endless.
But it is not inconceivable that a horse as good as Carlton House is, will run in Ireland.
So as with the visit to Ireland, it’s all so far and so good!
But she has undoubtably shown politicians how to forgive and forget and move on constructively. And many of those she’s met in Ireland have shown the same positive attitude.
So many of those in trouble spots around the world could follow this lead in looking forward rather than hundreds of years into the past.
Those That Live By The Shredder Die By The Shredder
It is often said that everything comes to him who waits. The partial lifting of the so-called banker’s, Fred Goodwin‘s super-injunction, shows that no matter how tight you jam the lid on a can of beans, eventually the pressure builds and it blows up in your face.
There are some choice headlines.
- Daily Mail – Sir Fred, adultery and the public interest.
- Independent – Goodwin’s affair at bank exposed after peer breaks gagging order
- Daily Mirror – No good in these gags
- The Sun – Fred the Bed
There’s a lot more.
The tone is set by this from the Daily Mail.
While RBS was undergoing the biggest collapse in British corporate history, he was busy carrying out an extra-marital affair with a senior colleague involved in the strategic direction of the bank.
Truly, there can be no doubting the public interest in disclosing Sir Fred’s conduct. The collapse of RBS, under his control, led to a £45billion bailout by taxpayers.
Thousands upon thousands lost their jobs and businesses in the financial devastation which followed.
If Fred had had an affair with a Page 3 bimbo, that wouldn’t have mattered so much to the bank and in the end UK taxpayers. The tabloids might have made us laugh as they did years ago with Ron Halpern, a long forgotten businessman in the 1960s or 1970s, but because he had an affair with a senior executive, it meant that his crazy policies were able to get through board and other meetings. I had problems years ago with a company, where I served on a technical committee that had a husband and wife on it. We all had to convince two people who slept together of the correct course of action. It was not easy and the company suffered.
Two people having a relationship in an organisation is rarely a good idea!
Fred Goodwin was knighted in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to banking. So at least we can’t blame that one totally on Prudence, as he wasn’t Prime Minister until four years later. It will be interesting to see in twenty or so years time, when the details of Sir Fred’s knighthood are released, what dicussions took place on his suitability for such an award.
If ever there was a case for a knighthood to be taken away, then Sir Fred is at the top of the list.
Strauss-Kahn Reporting in the United States and France
I have read this enlightening report on Bloomberg about the difference of the reporting of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York, in the United States and France.
Here’s a typical couple of paragraphs.
For the U.S., the public’s right to know about an arrest is paramount, while in France the privacy — even of a criminal suspect — takes precedence.
“For the moment, the French media has been very restrained” in avoiding saying or writing anything to imply guilt, said Dominique de Leusse de Syon, a member of Strauss- Kahn’s legal team. “The problem is the images, whether they convey Mr. Strauss-Kahn as guilty.”
In other words anything goes in France, if you are French.
After all, the French published any old tosh they could find about Princess Diana, when at the time several high-profile French politicians were as crooked as a hurling stick.
Strauss-Kahn may indeed be innocent, but then seeing the allegations that have appeared in respected newspapers, he doesn’t appear to hsve been a saint in matters sexual.
Strauss-Kahn Walks But Ken Doesn’t
So Dominique Strauss-Kahn has now quit as head of the IMF. He should have gone immediately, as evidence in serious papers I have read has him down as a man, who can’t keep his hands and dick to himself.
But Kenneth Clarke hasn’t resigned over his choice of words on BBC Radio 5 yesterday morning. I listened to the interview in full and have a rather different take on what happened.
I should say now, that I’ve very much against all violent, sexual and personal crime, as having been married to a barrister, who dealt with many cases involving some of the worst sexual offenders in this country, I have more knowledge than most people.
The program was billed as discussing the problems of the large numbers of people in prison and how we deal with it. I e-mailed in early in the program, before the discussion started and my e-mail is below.
A few years ago, I read the book Prisongate by Lord Ramsbottom. In the book, he says that there are a large number of prisoners who are suffering from dementia and other long term illnesses. Surely, these people should not be in prison.
I also went over a prison, where there were quite a few East European truck drivers, whose only crime was inadvertently bringing in illegal immigrants. Generally they are model prisoners, so why are they in jail, rather than being deported.
We need to make certain that we lock up the serious criminals, but what proportion of those are not any menace to society and should not be in jail.
They called me back and said they might put me on air and would call me back, if they wanted to put me on.
There had been comments in the tabloids in the morning saying that Ken was going to be soft on rapists, but giving them a fifty per cent discount on sentences if they pleaded guilty.
Virtually, all of the calls aired in the discussion were about letting criminals off lightly and fairly soon it was seemingly all about rape. Very little callers talked about anything else.
Now we all know Ken can be rather robust at times and I think he lost his patience and didn’t choose his words as carefully as he should have. He made a mistake that many would have done in the same circumstances
But the program lost complete track of being a wider discussion about how we get a better and a more affordable criminal justice system.
In the end Ken apologised, but it hasn’t stopped those who want a scalp in this government from calling for his resignation.
How many of those, who are calling for the resignation listened to the whole program?
Arizona To Bring in a Fat Tax
This story caught my eye on the BBC’s web site.
I don’t care a fig, if Ariziona does bring in a Fat Tax, as I’m not fat and I don’t live anywhere near the State.
But I do think there are two main types of fat people; those who have a medical problem and those who are, as Hancock once remarked to Hattie Jaques, gannets. Gannets of course are on a seafood diet; they see food and eat it.
I would not be in favour of a direct fat tax or fine as Arizona propose for those who don’t stick to a dietary regime laid down by their doctor.
What is needed is indirect taxes, like :-
- Weight limits in airline seats. If you’re too heavy you have to buy two seats.
- Extra VAT on junk food.
- Extra taxes on alcohol.
In other words taxes that are avoidable by just saying no!
Should The Queen Be Going To Ireland?
Probably Yes! But on a personal note, she’s probably a bit stressed and even a trifle excited about her horse Carlton House, which runs in the Derby on Saturday June 4th.
There is also this little story from horse racing gossip in the Guardian.
The Queen’s racing advisor, John Warren, told journalists an intriguing story as to how the monarch came to own Carlton House after the colt galloped into Derby favouritism with a victory in York’s Dante Stakes on Thursday. The three-year-old was apparently a present to Her Majesty from Sheikh Mohammed and there could be wry smiles all round if the royal colours are carried to victory at Epsom.
Despite more than 30 years of trying and hundreds of millions of pounds of investment, the sheikh has yet to have a Derby winner in his own name – now he could have given away a horse with a potential worth of tens of millions of pounds as a stallion.
Meanwhile, the Queen’s breeding empire suffered from what proved to be an error of judgement in the early 1980s when her mare Height Of Fashion was sold to Sheikh Mohammed’s brother, Hamdan. She went on to become one of the greatest mares of all time and produced the 1989 Derby winner Nashwan.
So perhaps she doesn’t beware of Arabs bearing gifts. On the other hand, it was quite an error of judgement over Height of Fashion.
I have a feeling I might go to the Derby. After all, if Carlton House does justify his favouritism and win, it will be one of those truly I was there moments.
Remember though that the last Royal Derby winner was Diamond Jubilee owned by Edward, the Price of Wales, in 1900. That was the year before his mother, Queen Victoria, celebrated her diamond jubilee in 1901.
And Queen Elizabeth the Second celebrates her diamond jubilee next year!
Blatter Sat on Bribe Claims
The Sunday Times also has an article claiming that Sep Blatter ignored the bribery claims over the World Cup bids.
Of course he didn’t. He’s after all one of the most honest and trustworthy men in the world!
Party Licences to be Scrapped
One of NuLabor’s most disastrous pieces of legislation was the need for a council licence where any music was played.
It is all described here in the Sunday Times. One classic ruling means that a carol concert in a church doesn’t need a licence, but one in the church hall next door does.
This is perhaps the best bit of the article.
In one notorious ruling, the Tate Britain gallery was told it had to obtain a licence for an exhibition by the Turner prize winner Susan Philipsz because it featured a recording of her singing a Scottish folk song.
Hopefully things will get better and create more and better music and other venues. Obviously, there is the noise and alcohol nuisance problem, but that should be handled with other unconnected legislation. You could argue that you get more of the latter, for a Cup Final shown live on a big screen in a pub, than say a folk concert in the same venue.
The Anonymous Widower 