Herve Falciani

The thing is, people rarely do things for other than two reasons – money or personal obsession about some point. This blog was begun because of an obsession with Them.
What was the reason for Herve Falciani [pictured] doing as he did?   If it was for money, who was going to pay it?  The answer [...]

Peter Hain and the extreme right-wing Albion Alliance

Peter Hain addressed the Welsh Labour Conference held in Swansea from 26th to 28th February 2010 and accused his opponents of falling in with:
…the aims of the extreme right-wing “Albion Alliance”, a dubious organisation whose Chief organiser, John Higham, has posted on his own blog this highly offensive diatribe against Muslims [...]

Crappuccino

The Indonesian President gave the Australian Prime Minister an interesting gift:
”The President and his first lady gave Mr Rudd and Therese Rein some rare luwak coffee. It’s made from beans that have passed through the digestive system of a monkey-like creature called a civet cat. A new treat at the Lodge: crappuccino!”
Coffee, [...]

Cool, calm and collected

The Beeb, on Rumpy Pumpy. This is how it might have been:
“Voters appreciate politicians who keep their cool – it’s a distinct advantage being a damp rag, better than being a dry wit and I’m very cool under pressure and when I was in the Belgian parliament as prime minister, if people said nasty [...]

Meanwhile Nero fiddles …

Here’s the Wiki entry on Shadowstatsdotcom and Lorimer Wilson is a financial analyst. Apart from the prattiness of putting up a “you must be logged in” to even quote from the article – it’s just an article, after all – it does quote some good things:
The intensifying economic and solvency crises, and the responses [...]

Who wants to grow up?

Circling on heat, she signalled her willingness to mate by lowering her head, bending her front legs and raising her rear quarters; her tail was held up and to the side of her body.  She moved her back legs rhythmically, as if walking in place.
There was no subtlety here. This position [...]

Tidying up some loose ends

The triple glazing
Cherie asks why and I reply – I’ll tell you when they turn up at 8 a.m. to finish the job.  They left gaping holes to the outside last night and it was an interesting thing sleeping in the next room with little heating.  It looks good though and should both cut out [...]

Old game, new name

No doubt you’ve read this:
The European Commission on Monday signalled its willingness to swing into action with a plan for a monetary fund equipped with sufficient resources to assist highly indebted eurozone nations such as Greece.  Commission officials said preliminary work was already in progress and a proposal for a [...]

When is resistance sedition and treason?

In the past few days, in my lucid moments, I’ve been looking at this and that and one topic which was most interesting, for two distinct reasons, was Jehanne la Pucelle, otherwise known as Jeanne d’Arc or Joan Darc or Joan of Arc.
The first aspect will be a post tomorrow morning, if I can.  The [...]

An oldie but a goodie

No, the Democrats didn’t get to me, the dreaded lurgy did.

Defence of the nation

In a Russian university room, I asked a group of girls which country they were from.  Some said Tatarstan and some said Russia.  To those who said Tatarstan, I asked why they were then speaking in Russian.  To a group of students in Melbourne, I asked which country they were from, Victoria or Australia.  I [...]

When is a traitor not a traitor?

As one usually does when dental work goes slightly wrong, one looks up old Iain Dale posts and here was a good one – Iain’s poll of the greatest political traitors.
Let’s broaden it beyond the UK though [this blog has American, Canadian and Russian readers too, one from France and one from Australia].  Take a [...]