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March 31, 2009

fred badwin’s stinking pension pot — latest

Filed under: brevity,business,just whinging,politics,the bleedin' obvious — anne thrope (miss) @ 1:25 pm

and that latest, according to former rbs group chairman tom mckillop is that myners, the goverment minister in charge of the debacle, despite his evidence to the contrary at the commons select committee, was indeed told the size of goodwin’s pension pot, and of the effect of his being given early retirement instead of the more appropriate summary firing.

swipe me, how shocking!

dodgy dossier – those mp’s expenses in full – unredacted surely

Filed under: just whinging,politics,sport — anne thrope (miss) @ 11:07 am

i’m tickled pink to hear that the entire database of mp’s expenses is for sale to suitable bidders (sadly it seems only those with a few hundred thousand pounds to spend need apply).

i only wish i had the dough, i’d be first in the queue. in a fallow period for my scribe of choice the marvellous j k rowling (haw, haw, haw) such an epic work of fiction would make splendid bedtime reading.

this unscheduled attraction is presumably the work of some frisky civil servant with a death wish or a taste for institutional food or both. i must say i admire their pluck but i wouldn’t give much for their chances of evading the long arm of inspector knacker.

after all it would be surprising if there weren’t some heavyweight individuals on the list who whilst enjoying taking the piss would object to the process in reverse. they will doubtless bring to bear whatever means they can to get their personal choice morsels “redacted”.

let’s hope some red top has the bottle and the loot to bag the unexpurgated version while the offer is still on and at least bung us a few tasty highlights.

yum yum. 🙂

March 30, 2009

g20 summit — deal or no deal?

Filed under: brevity,just whinging,politics,the bleedin' obvious — anne thrope (miss) @ 1:20 am

well no bloody deal obviously!

March 29, 2009

jacqui smith mp — porn videos on parliamentary expenses

Filed under: just whinging,politics,tv — anne thrope (miss) @ 2:23 pm

oh please jacqui, no, you’re too kind! a gift like this is just too much! i’ve been waiting since i was an egg for any government to do me a favour but this story truly take the cake!

just when she might have hoped that the fuss over her disgusting second home expenses claims had faded into the background comes news that home (homes, surely?) secretary jacqui smith has claimed parliamentary expenses for the cost of viewing pornographic videos at her home. whether or not she enjoyed them remains undisclosed at this time. i think we should be told. (my little joke)

the cost? a trivial £10 you say. i say this might just be the wispy little straw which finally breaks the camel’s back of public opinion on this ever more sordid government.

of course the £10 is trivial; but that makes this claim more offensive, not less. the fact that they feel free to simply broad-brush even the most demeaning expenses of their trashy lives into the taxpayers’ lap is a perfect example of the contempt with which these grasping creatures treat the public purse, not to mention the public who fund it.

if, in the absence of her resignation, brown does not fire this woman now, i predict it will come back to bite his arse.

on a happier note, for me at least, i further predict that this tangy snackette is no more than an appetizer to the smorgasbord of disgrace sure to be disinterred when shortly, courtesy of the long overdue freedom of information arrangements, mp’s expenses are revealed wholesale.

lip smackin’.

so long sleazebags 😉

March 28, 2009

english cricket — another excruciating performance

Filed under: just whinging,sport — anne thrope (miss) @ 12:28 pm

so sorry to hear about kevin pietersen
i hear he’s at the end of his tether.
if he’s gonna let the windies beat us then
send him back to enjoy some english weather.

oh, and by the way

cricket captains are born, and not created
as many will have already discerned,
and the sooner that vaughan is re-instated
the better it will be for all concerned.

March 27, 2009

those recession credits in full

Filed under: business,just whinging,politics — anne thrope (miss) @ 12:07 pm

candidly, just between you and me i’m getting a bit sick of this recession. so much so that, unaccustomed as i am to taking sides in an argument i think it’s about time to start handing out some blame.

but where to start? the field of potential targets is so broad and slow-moving it’s tempting to just pick-off the easiest first, so i will 🙂

okay then, let’s bag the bankers. back in the day a bank manager was as boring as a wet weekend in wigan. in fact boring was part of his job specification. (these days, what passes for a bank manager is almost certainly a sad, 25 watt, wet-behind-the-ears kid in an equally sad 100 watt suit, but these creatures are so far down the food chain that we’ve done ourselves a disservice even to have mentioned them).

no, the boys were interested in here are the savile row suited chief executives of banks, along with their fellow board members: those with reponsibility for setting strategy including lending policy and just as importantly the funding arrangements which will facilitate and support those lendings.

in simple terms, instead of referring to the tried-and-tested system which related bank lendings to their balance sheets and which had saved banks from their own stupidity for centuries, these flash idiots (1) lent money the didn’t have in vast quantities to people who (2) could not repay it. whoops, it’s all over!

of course between (1) and (2) there’s a period when everything looks just ginger-peachy which is when these grasping creatures bag their bonuses.

hang ’em up with piano wire. next?

ah yes, the fsa. a sloppy toothless dog of an outfit armed and ready with brown’s patent light-touch system of regulation.

a complete waste of time and space. shut it down and let them get proper jobs. next?

step-up the bank of england: what do they do for a living? neither do i! put ’em out to grass. next?

and finally, the government, who must without doubt shoulder the lions share of the blame for this ruinous debacle. don’t listen to what brown tells you about this mess. never mind it’s a global recession and an international banking crisis, though of course it is.

take my word for it, at the heart of the uk’s woes are years of slack banking policy characterized by an unwillingness to increase interest rates, which year-on-year fuelled consumer borrowing to deranged levels. and all for fear of scaring the horses, which was exactly what the horses needed for their own good.

in short, our banks have been permitted, some might therefore say tacitly encouraged to get away with lousy, casino-style lending/funding policies which would have had the proper bank manager i mentioned earlier rotating in his grave.

and what do you expect if you allow pigs unhindered access to the trough?

don’t forget that these years of unsustainable spiral accelerating to inevitable implosion were accompanied, day-in, day-out by brown’s smug “no return to boom and bust” mantra. so pathetic.

the fact that he knows all of the above and yet has the brass-neck to remain in his job says so much about brown i think i’ll just bugger-off and leave it at that. next?

let me see. oh dear, i appear to have run out of low-hanging fruit. still all good things etc; and they were yummy.

caio for now basket cases 😉

indian premier league — in south africa — bizarre

Filed under: just whinging,sport — anne thrope (miss) @ 9:06 am

so the much-heralded indian premier league cricket is to held in south africa this year: well the idea has at least the merit of novelty!

but whatever your view of the ipl it’s a sad state of affairs that it has to be relocated lock, stock and barrel to another country because the indian authorities cannot guarantee the security of the players, presumably in light of the sickening recent attack on sri lankan cricketers in lahore.

even for the relocated events the organisers are said to be urgently sourcing some 80 bullet-proof vehicles.

england, the first alternative option due to it’s superior facilities, was it seems, ruled out on account of the unreliability of the spring weather.

but the decision having been made to go to south africa, the question remains, can the event be successful there? it’s surely impossible to replicate the fanatical support for cricket which exists in the indian sub-continent.

to expect local south african audiences to turn-out in sufficient numbers for some 59 matches in quick succession is indeed a tall order.

but the die is cast and i for one will shed no tears particularly on account of the highly-dubious betting elements who seem to be in close attendance to much of cricket these days.

brown – in the brown stuff – even deeper still

Filed under: just whinging,politics — anne thrope (miss) @ 1:34 am

what price your gordon brown shares now?

if you’ve had the bottle to hold on to them so far you have my admiration and pity in almost equal measure! just out of interest, who are you, mrs brown?

well, a word to the wise: pretty boy is now shedding his clothes so fast that he’ll be greeting the assembled g 20 leaders in london next week stark bollock naked!

if i had to admire anything about him (and i don’t), i’m just saying if i did, okay, it would likely be his ability to row backwards whilst removing every last thread of credibility.

look brown, i’m asking nicely, again man, for pity’s sake why don’t you do everybody a favour and just bugger-off?

we’re clinging to the hope that you’ll realise it makes sense – it’s all we’ve got left.

ttfn poppets.

March 26, 2009

more formula 1 grand prix farce

Filed under: just whinging,sport — anne thrope (miss) @ 11:33 am

more farce in formula 1 racing as a new row erupts over car design before a single lap is driven in anger.

new regulations introduced for the 2009 season, broadly with the intention of making the racing more exciting have resulted in many design change requirements.

the fuss this time seems to be about the design of a component called the rear diffuser which can have a dramatic effect on downforce, and therefore speed of the three cars concerned. i’ll spare you further details and just take the piss out of the chaos.

by the way, courtesy of another design change this time at the pointed end, look out for a shower of carbon fibre as new, full-width front wings are ripped off in contested tight turns, especially the first corner.

enjoy the new season. 🙂

uk gilts sale tanks

Filed under: brevity,just whinging,politics — anne thrope (miss) @ 1:36 am

yesterday’s uk government bonds sale was a bit of a flop: with £1.75bn of 40-year bonds on offer, investors only bid for £1.63bn, a shortfall of £120m in take-up.

this is an alarming sign. with the uk government along with others all around the world needing to raise vast capital sums to plug projected borrowing requirements competition for funds is likely to be fierce.

and whilst admittedly these are among the longest-dated gilts on offer in the uk and therefore carry more risk than average, the temptation to extrapolate this reaction, to the market for shorter dated issues in due course if conditions do not improve cannot be ruled out.

if you’re afraid of this kind of thing, be afraid: be quite afraid. 😉

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