Weird and Wonderful
The Sunday Times has a column of this name, which collects odd news from around the the world. This is the text of one this week with a title of Call the Pants Police.
Brides should be forced by law to wear knickers at the altar, says a Brazilian councillor. Ozias Zizi claims a growing number of women are being married without underwear because a superstition says this will guarantee a longer marriage.
The councillor from Vila Velha wants to introduce a local law that would not only force brides to wear knickers, but would bring in a minimum neckline for dresses.
“The moment they enter a place of worship they must show some respect,” he said. But Enoch de Castro, a local priest, said: “It would be absurd to try to police something like this, to find out whether a bride is wearing knickers or not.”
I think the priest has it right. Although, I don’t think that the police would lack volunteers for the job.
Has Anybody Looked at the Harlery Medical Group Website?
You wouldn’t think this was the website of a ompany with a bit of a problem and especially as the site is still advertising for new punters.
One interesting thing is that typing Harley Medical Group into Google, the first entry you find is a firm of solicitors.
I also found this article on the Daily Mail’s website. So was the head of the firm advising how to smarten up NuLabor’s image? Probably not, but it just shows how high-profile Harley Medical Group was.
But not in the same way as now!
Why The Queen Doesn’t Wear a Hard Hat when Riding
The Sunday Times discloses today ewhy the Queen doesn’t wear a hard hat when she rides a horse, despite the fact that various organisations are always telling her to set an example.
She was once took to task by the racehorse trainer, Ian Balding, when he was hacking with her in Windsor Home. ‘I really think it is ridiculous that you above all others, do not wear a crash helmet.’ She never does, as this piece shows
The Queen replied: ‘I never have and you don’t have to have your hair done like I do’ As it says in the article in The Sunday Times, this is an expression less of vanity than of the practical need to be ready for her appointments.
Cherie Blair Moves Into Private Health Care
According to The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail, Cherie Blair is part of an attempt to setup a chain of private one-stop health clinics called Mee Healthcae. Read about it in the Daily Mail here.
The domain, meehealthcare.com, seems to have been registered, but the website hasn’t been setup yet.
The registrant appears to be Gail Lese, a business partner of Cherie’s mentioned in both articles.
What would Mark Serwotka and Bob Crow think?
Our New Aircraft Carriers Won’t Have Any Aircraft!
The Sunday Times today says that the two follies of Gordon Brown’s tenure as Prime Minister won’t have any aircraft, as the new F35C, that have been chosen by the Coalition, can’t land on a carrier. There’s more about the F35C’s problems here. To be fair to the Coalition, they had little choice but to go for the C variant, after the B variant, which had a limited vertical take-off and landing capability, was not performing well in test flying.
Perhaps though we’ll come up with a better solution, given that the British public won’t support another Iraq or Afghanistan. We’ve also proven that for operations near home, such as Libya, that we don’t need carrier-based aircraft. In addition, we’ve also proven that attack helicopters can work very well off ships like HMS Ocean. Perhaps we need another ship like this one, which was built at a small fraction of the propsed cost of one of the new aircrsft csrriers.
Some Horse
An old horse-coper in Suffolk, once told me that if you think you’ve got a good horse, you should ask if it could charge guns and tanks.
Brough Scott in today’s Telegraph, tells the story of Warrior, his grandfather, General Jack Seely‘s horse. Warrior led one of the last cavalry charges in the First World War at Moreuil Wood, was painted by Sir Alfred Munnings and took part in the victory parade in 1918. For an encore he won a race at the Isle of Wight point-to-point in 1921. In the end he lived until he was 33 and was only put down in 1941, because of a shortage of feed.
With all the hype going on about War Horse, let us not forget that others played their part. But perhaps not as bravely as Warrior.
It Isn’t Just the PIP Implants To Blame
The third leader in The Times yesterday was a reasoned one on the scandal of the PIP implants.
It started by saying that those hospitals and clinics that fitted them should rectify the problem. It also said that the NHS and eight cosmetic surgery groups would replace the implants without charge.
The leader then said this.
But even in this mire, one private clinic stands out for the audacity with which it is abdicating its responsibility to its patients. The Harley Medical Group, which was responsible for fitting PIP implants to almost 14,000 of the 40,000 British women who received them, is refusing to replace the now banned implants without further charge. Doing so, it says, would put it out of business.
But what is Harley doing? Absolutely nothing except protesting it wasn’t their fault, but one of the regulatory authorities. I should say, that I’ve heard of the Harley Medical Group, as has everybody who uses escalators on the London Underground. I should say, that their adverts haven’t been there for some months.
It would be interesting to see a report on finances of the Harley Medical Group, by a reputable forensic accountant.
As an aside here, according to a doctor on BBC Breakfast, a proper breast implant costs £16,000. So if Harley fitted implants to 14,000 women, that works out at £448 million pounds to sort out the problem. The Times has a lesser figure of £40 million, bt also states that Harley only made a small profit last year.
So why should the NHS and ultimately the taxpayer pay for the patient’s vanity? And stupidity for going to Harley?
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.
The Anonymous Widower 