The Council of Europe has today issued an emergency executive order to all member States concerning the use of national flags in association with the 2012 London Olympics. Teams, contestants and sponsors must choose one of the three designs below, in lieu of the nationalistic devices displayed at previous Games. (The third option may be adapted according to the two- or three- letter designation of the member State concerned.) The…
How fast we agree to become laboratory rats. And note how the exultation and applause increases as you have to work harder to get the same reward. In our Age of Abundance, is the liberty issue about self-denial? Are we enslaved as much by appetite as by force?
I’m reading an Andy McNab yarn (“Exit Wound”) and halfway through his protagonist (Nick Stone) says that Iranian President Ahmedinajad has his own blog (dormant since 2007). I don’t know why it should surprise me, but it turns out to be true – and on blogspot, to boot. Here it is. Any others? Did Bin Laden have one? Mind you, I’m getting to the point where I watch Russian TV…
The nominal price of gold has soared over the last decade, prompting some to worry that it may be something of a bubble. And ceratinly its price path is erratic, reflecting sentiment more than monetary fundamentals. But whether you look at the US monetary base, or alternatively at the growth of total credit market debt, gold is slightly below its 42-year average in relation to these benchmarks: I didn’t…
The Classic FM radio news said that “David Cameron” (the Prime Minister, apparently – Google him up) “may consider” a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. (My position is that we’re not in it.) The Sunday paper (Mail, of course – I need to know what the gullible are thinking, they’re – we’re – the ones who vote) gave this a big front-page splash, though their (print-version) headline…
The Prime Minister has, despite his previous clear manifesto commitment, decided for us that there should not be a referendum on our membership of the European Union. He further claims to “completely understand” those who want us to leave it. He does not understand. We are not in the EU now. It is unfortunate, but as the Bible shows, hardly without precedent, that opposition to the current unlawful state of…
And so yesterday we walked through a warm and busy London to the South Bank, where, after sharing a doughy cheese pierogi off the real food street market, we ascended bloodstained concrete stairs to the Hayward Gallery. The exhibition is entitled “Invisible: Art about the Unseen, 1957 -2012“. We paid, were given tickets after reminding the counter clerk (was this a foretaste of the installation?) and gave them to the…
Founded in 1877 but with 16th century roots in Gresham’s original Royal Exchange, the London Metals Exchange has just been sold to the Chinese. Ironically, the LME is the last “open outcry” market in Europe. Apart from a few brave individuals like Brian Haw (whom Parliament, to its everlasting disgrace, attempted to outlaw), and the Occupy London protestors against which the City, major newspapers and that refuge of the poor…
Request for Parliamentary question re NS&I index-linked savings certificates Dear Mr Xxxx As one of your constituents, I should be grateful if you would ask questions in Parliament re the Government’s intentions in respect of preserving our life savings against the ravages of inflation. This is especially a matter of concern because of continuing enormous financial support for the banking system, here and in other countries (latterly Spain) that seems…
Found via Zero Hedge, an international (146 country) arbitration service costing c. £100 per disputant (if that’s a word): Judge.me ZH’s piece is wider, on privatised alternatives to slow, inefficient and expensive public services. This may strike a chord with readers of Orphans. Oz comment here.
1941: “A Hauptmann (captain) with the 73rd Infantry Division reflected that peace would come even to the Balkans with a New European Order ‘so that our children would experience no more war’.” - Quoted in Anthony Beevor’s “The Second World War” (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2012) There is always this regrettable thing to do, then the lasting good will come. But it can’t: “… our personal experience and the study of…
I thought OOL readers might be interested in these observations from Charles Rowley, who has given permission for them to be reproduced here: Political systems characterized by large electorates suffer from a major systemic weakness. Whatever the vote rule – from pluraility to proportional representation – individual voters do not count in national elections. They do not count because there are so many of them. For example, the probabability of…
Following James’ previous… (From my own developing experience) or… … by the brilliant XKCD: http://xkcd.com/350/
We stood on a little jetty at the end of a private garden. The caged fowl beside the public footpath were silent. Shaded by branches, midges circled above the eddying stream. Static caravans lay haphazardly on the other bank, like cast runes. Near here, said the leaflet, stood the original Saxon bridge, where a Viking warrior held off Harold’s army, buying time for his countrymen to scramble into position on…
Peter Hitchen’s first item today is inspired by a touchy-feely recruitment poster for the prison service: “… Pasted up in an Oxfordshire byway, I found extraordinary proof of what most of us have long suspected and what politicians always try to deny (above). We are now so soft on wrong-doing that the wicked must be laughing at us. “It is a recruiting poster for prison officers. Beneath a picture of…
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