Monthly Archives: February 2009

Sir Fred Goodwin is to pay back to the government and the taxpayer as much as 40% of his outrageous pension fund.  That’s right.  40%.  And you read it here first.   As a tax-payer, I share the tabloid wrath … Continue reading →

Politicians owe a debt of gratitude to the bankers.  We politicians used to be the most unpopular and reviled profession in the country, until the bankers stole the limelight.  Everyone hates the bankers.  There’s even talk of civil unrest in … Continue reading →

I do dozens of lunch and dinner events, and I hear a lot of Graces said before meals.  On the whole I prefer the serious and reverent Graces to the jokesy ones.  But on Monday Feb 23rd at a dinner of … Continue reading →

 On Sunday Feb 22nd I visited a large poultry unit at Sileby, Leics. Sunrise Eggs, run by Phillip Crawley, has many tens of thousands of laying hens, some in battery cages but increasing numbers in extensive free-range barns, fields and … Continue reading →

Vaclav Klaus is President of the Czech Republic.  And by virtue of the EU’s rotating Presidency, the Czech Republic holds the Presidency of the EU (Jan/June 2009).  So today (Feb 19th) President Klaus came to speak to the assembled Plenary … Continue reading →

At a Tate Gallery exhibition of works by Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles, a dozen small fish (perhaps a few ounces in total), died.  And immediately the usual suspects were fulminating.  The odious PETA, “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals”, … Continue reading →

MEPs in Brussels have just had a letter (Feb 10th) from the parliament’s top civil servant Harald Romer, advising us that the parliament will be turning off the public-area lights for a whole hour-and-a-half on Friday Feb 13th, from 6 … Continue reading →

“Against the Wind Farm at Low Spinney”, AWFALS, is a protest group against a wind-farm proposal near Lutterworth, Leicestershire.  They recently organised a Race-Night fund-raiser in the Gilmorton Pavilion, attended by over 100 supporters, and raising well over £1000.   Picture … Continue reading →

    Feb 9th: At a reception in the parliament in Brussels to announce the visit of a Chinese cultural show, “Divine Performing Arts”, (www.divinearts.org) coming to Belgium later in the month. The visit and the show are sponsored by … Continue reading →

One of the many nasty things about the old Apartheid régime in South Africa was the way they made black kids from the townships speak Afrikaans in School.  And I believe that the Nazis were very big in forcing non-German … Continue reading →

Here’s one from the “You couldn’t make it up” department.  According to the Sunday Telegraph (Feb 1st), Caroline Petrie, a nurse from Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset, has been suspended and threatened with dismissal by her employer, the North Somerset Primary Care … Continue reading →

How Gordon must wish he’d never said that! And now he tells us that the spontaneous sympathy strikes around the country in support of workers (or rather would-be workers) at the Lindsey, Lincolnshire refinery, are unacceptable. Far be it from … Continue reading →