No Christmas 2012

Christmas has been cancelled this year, the spirit destroyed in a hail of gunfire from a crazed man who snuffed out 26 lives, 20 of them children under the age of nine.

Who could celebrate when faced with 20 little coffins?

What is wrong with you, America?

DIFFERENT PLANETS:

EUROZONE & AMERICA

The latest unemployment numbers - best gauge for individuals' pain and hardship - paint two entirely different pictures:

The US economy is on a steady albeit moderate path of growth and, confirming the positive trend under the Obama administration, continuously falling jobless numbers. Despite the havoc of a major natural disaster on the East Coast, the November unemployment rate sank to a 4-year low of 7.7%.

Then there is this calamitous eurozone, the economic wasteland threatening other economies globally. The Brussels buffoons just can't get a grip on dismal economic performance - virtually no growth for the past 14 months, recession ahead for all of 2013 - and soaring unemployment numbers to levels not seen since World War 2, tendency rising to expected 13% within six months (some countries will see jobless numbers reach 26%, figures usually associated with states in Black Africa). Gloom and doom rules Europe, and aging colossus that once set out to become the world's #1 economic powerhouse; thanks to the Eurozone and the dimwits at the "EU" commission it resembles a desolate cloak room instead.

"EU" Forewarned: Britain to Leave

Warning to "EU":
Britons reject current membership

A poll issued by the Observer today shows that 56% of British voters reject membership of the "EU" as a fall-out of years of disastrous impositions, interference and hostile legislation from the unelected "EU" commission. Only 30% want to remain in the "EU".

Asked about a possible joining of the eurozone - in itself a ludicrous suggestion - 82% of Britons said "Hell NO."

Another Arab Thug Bites the Dust

REJOICE!

 

NAVIGATING THE FISCAL CLIFF EURO-STYLE

EURO-LALALAND

TEETERING ON THE BRINK

In Euro-speak, "decision day" means that the day to put off a decision has come, and the exercise can be repeated indefinitely, as witnesses to the last 8 "EU" summits can testify. No matter how urgent the issue, and how precariously close to the abyss the bloc drifts, nothing seems to spur "EU" laggards (for a more accurate word than 'leaders') into action. It haunts the "EU" today that for many years, people with the "charisma of a damp rag and the posture of a bottom-grade bank clerk" who have been admonished and eagerly whisked out of their country of origin, have been unduly elevated to positions of seniority in the "EU" - where demands of intellect, integrity and decency at home are replaced with readiness to defraud, mismanage, corrupt and indulge in nepotism, deceit and procrastination.

Now, in November 2012, we are no closer of tackling, let alone resolving, the crippling financial crisis that has emerged already 4 years ago. GREECE has been bankrupt for 2 years, yet the "EU" keeps siphoning taxpayers' funds and delusional credit to the moribund nation. With irrational expositions of principles, the eurozone manifestly refuses to throw out Greece for fear it would trigger a mass exit of nations that should have never joined, and have never been qualified under the rules of eurozone treaties. Instead, we hear the daily threats from the "EU" and ECB elders, that European taxpayers will foot the bill of "whatever it takes." What started out as a $150 billion problem in 2008 has grown into a self-declared readiness to shed up to $1.6 Trillion to prolong the eurozone debacle.

Greece already in the deep end, Italy fast falling, Portugal & Spain doomed 

Even staring over the cliff, the "EU" quacks buck obstinately to show leadership for once. Instead they raise idle petty issues, such as bemoaning the justified rebate to Britain. The idea in Brussels, Berlin, Rome and Paris is to portray Britain as the villain of the "EU" and inflate the island nation as an external threat to "us."

At the same time as Germany's Merkel serenaded her olive twig song in Downing Street, she also sanctioned French-Italian efforts to strip Britain of the annual rebate of £2.2 billion (already cut under Labour from £3.7bn). It will not work, as Britain has veto power, and the veto threatens plans by some to create a banking union which would severely impair economies outside this envisaged union.

Two neighbouring words from German dictionary which describe "EU" denial

As the days of decision come and go in the self-castrated "EU," the Day of Reckoning approaches fast. Greece is in a suffocating stranglehold thanks to the "EU" yet even more austerity has been pushed through parliament on the direction of Brussels and Berlin, the usual threats included. After a few hours of feigned relief, first voices of pending doom arise. The German finance minister declared today that it is "highly unlikely" that an urgently needed next tranche of European taxpayers' funds will be transferred to Athens next week. Even with the $244 billion already received in the past 18 months, Greece runs out of public funds on November 15th and is in real danger to default on a $6.3 billion loan repayment. I wonder how this will pan out next week...

OBAMA-II

Barack Obama has been returned to the Oval Office for a second term. Winning 50.6% of the popular vote he has beaten Republican Mitt Romney (49.1%) by approximately 130,000 votes. However, the victory was more pronounced in the elctoral college, where the sitting president beat his opponent 332:206 votes, a significant margin of 126. In October I predicted that Obama would win by 145 votes, and that the Senate would be a deadlock of 50 seats for each party. But the Democrats managed to hold on to their majority with 51 seats, against the Republicans' 47 seats; two seats are being held by independents who lean to the left.

The House of Representatives remains solidly in Republican hands.

US 2012 / Last Prediction

Following the onslaught of hurricane "Sandy" along the Eastern Seaboard, and the show of incompetence of the White House, Mayor Bloomberg of New York (who saw it appropriate to endorse President Obama!), NY Gov Cuomo and NJ Gov Christie, I revamped my September prediction and forecast now a win for Republican Mitt Romney [286:252 electoral college votes].

 

You call the shots, try this link to make your own prediction:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19794259

 

 

 

In-Flight Safety

Air NewZealand has found the Holy Grail of on-board safety tips even I would pay attention to:

Anglochat chav reminder

In a rare reflection on the long shelved Anglochat memorabilia gallery, here's another jewel from the days I derided the AOL chavs on a daily basis. When desperate enough for bling and welfare check, even they fell on their wounded knees, held their greasy hands together and fell into a communal prayer:

 

NFL Action in Londontown

FOOTBALL ARRIVES IN LONDON
 

 

GUYS, PUT YER HELMETS ON! Soccer plays 2nd fiddle this weekend as the capital is in the firm grip of NFL action. The New England Patriots will maul the St Louis Rams at Wembley on Sunday in front of the usual enthusiastic 84,000 fans to celebrate the event.

 The city has already seen a Touchdown thanks to an Eli Manning's 4,000 mile throw back in 2002. His missile turned into steel and glass and is now known as The Gherkin, for some inexplicable reason. But that's just another of the many mysteries of London.

US Growth vs EU Stagnancy

US Q3 GDP +2.0%, BETTER THAN EXPECTED,

OUTPACING UK (+1.0) AND EUROZONE (+0.2)

With yet a further sign that the US economy is on the mend, today's better than expected growth of 2.0% of the nation's GDP validates the course of the Obama Administration. The 3rd Quarter result also beats the growth rate of 1.3% in the 2nd Quarter. Encouraging is the fact that the growth was fuelled broadly based, with home construction, consumer spending and car sales leading the way, more than offsetting the negative effects from the drought in wide parts of the US.

This also bolsters my argument that Britain should continue to decouple from the stagnant European economies and intensify economic ties with North America.

Vote'12 - last call

VOTE 2012: After all that's been said and done ...

 

... here are my conclusions. They are remarkably different from what they would have been only six months ago, after a campaign and a series of events which have made this year's race for the White House and control of Congress not at all as dull as the (American) media wanted us to believe.

For me, the what I believed was a dismal record of President Obama, made the incumbent the clear underdog against a yet to be determined Republican contender back in January. Then came the crowning of Mitt Romney, and the race suddenly became wide open again for me. The appalling course of impotence and incompetence in the "European Union" during the past 2 years also helped me to put the perceived failures of the Obama administration into perspective. Strangely, the Democrat in the White House has actually shown remarkable stewardship during the global financial crisis and - astounding for a man of his youth and previous inexperience in government - calm yet swiftly acting leadership in a world marked by chaos and panic from a slowly dying "European Union." It makes Obama today the clear favorite to win re-election by a margin that will surprise many. Obama's popularity in Europe is based on the relative strength and leadership quality at play in America, compared to the listless drift of the Old Continent towards the abyss.

I now expect Obama to win by a 4.5% margin of the popular vote, with a majority of 145 votes in the Electoral College.

Back in January I also expected that the current 53:47 Democratic majority in the US Senate would be reversed into a 2-3 seat majority for the Republicans. Somehow I still hope for that, but it must not come at the cost of seeing a nutter like Todd Akin be elected as Rep senator for Missouri, who fails on such fundamental issues such as biology and reproduction, and what constitutes rape and its consequences. Equally repugnant was the way how a distinguished senator from Indiana, long-serving Richard Lugar, was ousted by the irrational Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, a scary (and scare-mongering) fringe grouping on the far right. I am inclined to wish upon the failure to reach a Republican majority in the Senate after days of agonizing count and re-count of election results in Indiana.

In the end I see a 50-50 balance in the Senate, a numerical deadlock that VP Joe Biden will have to break on occasion. I do not expect a major change in the Republican hold of the House of Representatives.

For those undecided I would seriously suggest to vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson for president.

United Kingdom of Muppets

By all accounts Britain has currently the weakest pair of leadership, the prime minister on one side and the leader of the opposition on the other, in the nation's history. The unconvincing David Cameron, soon to be challenged as Conservative leader and PM  and buffoon-like David Miliband as Labour leader, provide for the most mocked at set of clowns, and for the lamest, most uninspiring and aimlessly drifting duo in living memory. The ratings underscore the deficits: any number under 50 is bad.

 

London Pub Snarl

The perils of London pubs: out-of-towners

 

Random Thoughts

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON RANDOM INJUSTICE:
A fat rat on Armstrong ban, a kangaruh court in Italy

The debilitated quip by the fat, self-inflated chief executive of the International Cycling Union, gender-neutral Pat McQuaid that "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. Lance Armstrong deserves to be forgotten in cycling," is as idiotic as the six-year jail terms handed out by an Italian court to scientists for "failing to predict the exact location, time and magnitude of an earthquake that left 309 people dead.

Sky's falling

Owing to a sudden bout of man flu I had to forfeit tonight's gala in honour of the latest James Bond movie at the Royal Albert Hall and pass on the ticket to a dear colleague.

Obama, after 3 debates

AFTER 3 DEBATES THE WINNER IS OBAMA
 

 

If one places enough value on presidential debates Mitt Romney had to win all three of 2012 to pose as serious challenger to incumbent Obama. He failed to achieve that sweep by miles. I have watched the last 2 debates, both clearly won by the president. The first debate, by all credible accounts, has been a disaster for Obama.

I take also consolation from the fact that Obama is on many issues to the right of the (British) Conservative Party, making the choice for Obama just the more palpably acceptable.

BA delay

Delayed; new departure 10:59 [not 11!] Sched.	Flight No.	Departing To	 Status	Terminal

09:50

BA700

VIENNA

DELAYED 10:59

3

Hostile Grounds: the "EU"

When you work for the British Government and have to embark on a mission to Brussels you cannot help but feel gratitude about the hostility thrown at you in the billion-dollar gravy-train corridors of the "EU." That was my experience last week and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The mission itself was successful: we ridiculed, tore apart and rejected the "EU" budget schemes as delusionary, out of step with reality and unacceptable.

It's anyone's guess what possesses the German chancellor to try to force down enormous budget increases for the "EU" David Cameron's throat. While Britain supports a reasonable 0.1% increase, the "EU" demands a 6% hike. And now Merkel ups the ante for vulnerable Cameron: "Accept a German compromise (4.6% budget rise) or I'll cancel next month's European summit talks."

Frau Merkel clearly over-estimates her sway in Britain. If David Cameron signs up to the excessive budget plans in Europe, he'd be dead meat in London, and out of his job. The "threat" of cancellation of a "EU" summit would also be greeted in London with open joy and satisfaction. It will be fun to watch this story to unfold in the coming days.

Trips

Today & tomorrow in Brussels ("EU" beware!);
Friday-Sunday in Paris (Emily prepare!)

ROTTEN BEANS: STARBUCKS

Starbucks: Brewing Crooks & Cooking Books

The Starbucks book value of $40bn is similarily absurd as the public offering price of Facebook shares suggested (fictitious value of $102bn with $822mn of annual profits). Little wonder that the UK arm of the dispenser of mediocre coffee made a loss of $53mn on $637mn turnover in 2011. The poorly run UK company recorded a loss in 8 of the past 10 years and paid a total of $6.2mn in corporate taxes since 2002 in the UK.

Three prime reasons for the poor performance of Starbucks UK can be cited. Starting with bad products - their coffee is barely better than the country's worst coffeemaker, Costa, even though that British company paid corporate tax of 31.6% on $52mn profit as a result of $603mn in sales - the irrational expansion of the past four years in the UK and the exorbitant "royalty fee" that Starbucks UK has to transfer to the Seattle-based mother company. This "royalty fee", nothing else but a tax-dodging instrument, is put at 6% of sales, instead of the customary industry standard of 0.8-1.2 percent.

This puts the operating cost of Starbucks UK at $$637mn in 2011. That bill is expected to top $670mn this year. The unsustainable expansion will lead to what experts call "an uncontrollable shrinkage nand implosion" of the company beginning in late 2013.

Criminal investigations have begun to investigate the elusive taxing structure of Starbucks UK, in tandem with investigation over alleged utilization of slave labour in China by Starbucks. It's green image in shambles, the dismal quality of products and service is a foreboding of yet another corporate disaster.

FLIGHT OF THE FELIX

 

 

The successful return - little surprise as all things going up must come down - to Earth for the thrill-seeking daredeviltry cannot obscure the fact that people close to him have been put through hell for the six minute adventure. It is difficult to fathom the sense and purpose of the jump from 24 miles (128,000 feet), the beautiful view of the Earth's curvature aside.

We fell far short of the insane boldness displayed over the New Mexico desert: our knees buckled at the foot of The Eye today.

(My London) Weekend 2gether + pics

Last night's chili fest turned out magnificently, thanks to the 20 chili peppers and the lovely party of 8 (that includes me). Accompanied by good wine and music the evening lasted from 7 to 2am. No casualties, no fracas, no left-overs.

Slow start this morning, we went over to Southbank to have brunch, bubblies included. I swear my eyesight improves significantly once I gulped down a flute of Bollinger.

Southbank was abuzz, even with a flair of luna park and the burlesque. From a distance, Emily pointed to the London Eye and the Phallic structure to its left, and wanted to take a spin with each. However, she changed her mind the closer we approached the wheel, and not only because of the waiting queue. The flimsiness and height made her stomach revolt and to my great relief she decided to "die another day."

<< More pics >> click below

Barbican -Random International: Rain Room

Barbican -Random International: Rain Room

saVILE and the BBC

 

 

JIMMY "VILE" SAVILE - R.I.P.

(rot in purgatory)

In his lifetime, Jimmy was a complete unknown outside the BBC1 broadcasting area, for good reasons. Looking at him today, posthumously - I shudder with what I call a "Hitler moment." It is that split of a second of shock and surprise how a creepy looking cretin, with shrill voice and awkward spasm motions, ugly as sin and shit for brains, could be allowed to rise to such prominence. Despite the known and documented acts of viciousness, let alone of hardcore crimes, the BBC provided a forum for the ostensibly retarded prick, and thought of the geeky, klotzy idiot as a great entertainer.

We cannot pursue the perpetrator anymore. But the BBC's role in facilitating the many crimes of SaVile needs to be brought to the fore, and heads must roll. I hope that more victims come forward and sue the BBC for amounts similar as in such cases in the US (there it was the Roman Catholic Church, who so far has paid victims and courts nearly $1.4 Billion).

Piece of a prize for the EU

Dragging a continent down the path towards the abyss has been awarded with the 2012 Peace Nobel Prize. Recipient "European Union" is in good company with terrorist leaders previousy bestowed with the prize: Yassir Arafat and Le Duc Tho.

According to reports from within the Nobel Prize Committee, other contenders for this year's award were Julian Assange, Hugo Chavez, Pussy Galore, The Chinese Communist Party, Abu Hamza, Vladimir Putin and Big Bird.

The Oslo committee has made a mockery of the ideals of the award, and told the world this year's best joke.

However, I believe that it was a clever ploy by the Northeners: "We give you a prize, and you continue to leave us alone, and won't ask to dish out bail-out moneys from our $460 billion national reserve fund." After all, the Norwegians have built up reserves called SWF, Sovereign Wealth Fund; all three words are treated with disdain and resentment in Brussels, replaced with Annexing, Impoverishing and Deficit-Spending.

"EURO's" Increasing Popularity

I feel tickled by the interest of a deputy of the German Bundestag (Parliament) in my blog, especially when the individual reads up on my comparison of J-C Juncker and former Iraqi (Dis)Information minister Comical Ali.

Chateau Euro By Details > Visit Detail Visit 35,560
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Cameron Lists Utensils, Misses Damp Rag

The Prime Minister today missed a golden opportunity in his speech to the Party Conference to score a quick and cheap point with the populace.


I LOATHE UKIP, BUT ITS LEADER SPOKE FOR ME TOO

In his otherwise drab sermon, Cameron listed a few prominent Tories and likened them to useful kitchen utensils. Boris Johnson was dubbed a mop previously, which caused the Mayor to return the favour and call the PM a broom (both come very handy in cleaning up after the mess Labour has created over a generation).

But the PM could have pointed out the usefulness albeit ill repute of a damp rag and, after a double-check on his AA provided magna carta, could have turned towards Brussels to let the audience know where to find one.

 

EU calls Cameron's bluff

You have to laugh at anything Brussels emits these days, including this Hungarian paprika blast:

Brussels has fired a shot across the bows of Britain’s Conservative-led coalition government, saying it is increasingly concerned about attacks on core EU principles and threatening to take the UK to court if it fails to respect key elements of the bloc’s laws.

David Cameron’s decision to review and potentially curtail a longstanding right for EU citizens to live and work in the UK could also harm British business, the EU’s social affairs commissioner said. “There is no evidence that the workers who come to the UK are crowding out British workers,” László Andor told the Financial Times in an interview.
http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/4C63V5/NU1PF/169PPL/IEEMFK/ID/h?a1=2012&a2=10&a3=10

On a more serious note...

IMF calls for euro action to avert

global catastrophe

Risks to the global financial system have increased as capital flight threatens to tear the eurozone apart, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Cameron: Dull Sermon for a Listless Conclusion

LET THE LEADERSHIP CONTEST COMMENCE!

Cameron fails to mute chorus of discontent

The astoundingly dull and uninspiring address of PM Cameron to the delegates in Birmingham inadvertently throws open the door to the contest for a suitable successor.

His rhetorical brilliance was exhausted with the hollow exclamation that "Britain is the greatest country in the world." The audience remained visibly bored and unimpressed, for everyone in the hall knows that America is the greatest country in the world. Implicitly Cameron acknowledged Labour's 13-year term in governmentas preserver of "Britain as greatest country in the world."

 

Cameron has made clear yet again that he is of the calibre of a junior minister in Whitehall, but unconvincing to lead Party nor country. As flat-footed the delivery of his speech was, as ominous were the messages contained in it. He will oversee the break-up of the United Kingdom, banks on the construction of a fiercely opposed third runway of Heathrow, supported to the end a treacherous yet aborted merger of BAE and EADS against better advice of many, including this office, shrugs off serious warnings about the economy from the IMF as recently as yesterday, evades the calls for a clear and viable stand against attempts of the EU to undermine British sovereignty and showed remarkable ignorance of challengers emerging around him.

He is the wrong man for the right time. The Party has several logical candidates to succeed Cameron, from Theresa May, (once again) William Hague, Dr Liam Fox, David Davies and - naturally - Boris Johnson. One scenario favoured by me is that the Conservatives accept a care-taker leader and prime minister Liam Fox, until the London mayor's term expires and Boris captures a parliamentary seat in 2015.

With the prospect alone that Boris Johnson would become prime minister if elected would boost the Tories' share of votes by 8-10 per cent in 2015.

Liam Fox: Rolling back EU

Dr Liam Fox, MP on Europe:
"Economic, not political Union"


The senior Conservative MP of Somerset-North and former Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox gave an interview today to BBC-4 while attending the Party Conference in Birmingham. Liam underscored his leadership position as champion of mainstream Tories, sometimes in clash with left-tilting David Cameron.

As Liam Fox addressed a packed Carlton Club fringe Monday evening on a mezzanine floor in the ICC in Birmingham, a round of loud singing broke out on the floor below. The Prime Minister had appeared at another reception, and guests were cheerily singing ‘happy birthday’ to him. As the PM celebrated his birthday, his former defence secretary was dispensing advice just a few metres above his head on what the Conservative promise on Europe should be in 2015.

‘What I want is to see us keeping faith with the British people and I want to see us having a slogan at the next election which says ‘Back to a Common Market’, back to an economic and trading relationship with Europe that parks all the political interference in the running of our economy, our workplace, our legal system and all the other things that we don’t like.’

Fox’s delivery was impressive and authoritative, statesman-like. He is clearly keen to forge a role for himself as a serious senior party figure shaping the debate from the backbenches while possessing a strong knowledge of the front bench. But what also struck me was how he managed to respectfully deflect two very passionate questions from anti-gay marriage campaigners who were very keen for him to promise that he would do everything he could to prevent the Prime Minister praising equal marriage in his speech tomorrow.

Fox’s response was that he doesn’t actually hold a view on the issue either way, but that he feels that too often political debate is shaped by what those in power want to talk about rather than what voters actually want to discuss. He also asked for a more respectful tone of debate on the issue from both sides. But it’s interesting that he’s drawing a distinction between the actual principle of the policy and the reason it has been brought up.


 

IMF vs London: Quip for Quack

The IMF often gets it patently wrong, as everyone knows all too well.

But when the folks from within the Belt Way 'over there' appealed today to PM Cameron to move to "Plan-B" to tackle the economic amnesia, Cameron, with paranoia maybe, suspected a "Plan-Boris" and quickly called for a "Plan-A+" instead. So many plans, so few men ...

Boris Jolts Conference With Brilliant Speech

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has made his second triumphant appearance at the Tory party conference within 24 hours.

The Mayor of London was given a hero's welcome in Birmingham on Monday night and there was similar chaos as he arrived for his key speech today. Despite revelling in the attention, Mr Johnson insisted that he is completely loyal to the PM and praised him for taking "difficult decisions in difficult times".

Boris electrified the Party conference with a rousing speech of optimism, a "can-do" attitude of Britain and "magna carta" grasping education for all, including future prime ministers. The mix of humour, sarcasm for Labour, Olympian reminders of what Britain can achieve, specific plans for the future and visibly professed loyalty for David Cameron's government went down well with the captivated audience. With so much enthusiasm for him, and his graceful gestures to David Cameron ("Happy Birthday, Dave!") Boris Johnson appeared more premier league than ever before.


Earlier, David Cameron claimed that he does not envy Mr Johnson's "rock star status" as he was repeatedly asked if the adulation for his fellow Tory bothered him.

[SPEECH TO BE POSTED THIS AFTERNOON]

"Blond Mop" sweeps Tory Conference

William Shakespeare reports on Boris's

speech to yesterday's ConHome rally

"Casca; tell us what hath chanced to-day." (Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2)

"The Mayor of London blew into its conference in Birmingham, a hurricane of blond hair, media attention and other people’s speculation about his prospects of one day taking David Cameron’s job." (James Kirkup, Daily Telegraph)

"Why, there was a crown offered him: and being offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the people fell a-shouting...he put it by once: but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it."

"His reception – in a city not noted for its Tory support – was more suited to a rock star than a politician, with crowds of passengers chanting his name at New Street station."

"Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it."

 

"At the conference centre, he was surrounded by a scrum of cameramen and photographers so intense that one was thrown to the floor and required medical attention."

 

"And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands and threw up their sweaty night-capsand uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar; for he swounded and fell down at it: and for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air."

 

"Mr Johnson insisted he had nothing but loyalty for Mr Cameron, paying extravagant tribute to the Prime Minister and his ministers."

 

"He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless."

"But even as he played the loyal retainer, the mayor could not resist performing to the Conservative gallery with a declaration of support for selective education."

 

"Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his throat to cut."

 

"That was a far-from-subtle reminder of Mr Cameron’s still contentious decision to end the Conservatives’ traditional backing for grammar schools."

 

"And so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done or said any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity."

 

"Mr Johnson was addressing a rally of almost 1,000 Tory members who cheered his arrival and applauded a performance that also took in aviation policy, an economic recovery and the “terror” of French tax rates."

 

"Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried 'Alas, good soul!' and forgave him with all their hearts: but there's no heed to be taken of them; if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BJ in Birmingham

Birmingham: Let the show commence

 

 

AMONG BRUMMIES & GRUMPIES

I arrived in Birmingham a short while ago and immediately became involved in some altercations with fellow Tories. These were people that should be expelled as they vent rhetoric scripted by Ukip's propaganda ministry or numpties under the influence of some dodgy tea served by a certain Sarah Palin.

The truth of the matter is - and the point of the confrontation - that David Cameron in the past few days has shifted considerably to the centre and mainstream of the Conservative Party, abandoning his flip-flops and LibDems accommodating stance of the recent past.

My London / Photo Series / 1

"My London"

The start of a sporadic series of pictures, one at a time, which I have taken in my favourite city.

Today's pic shows how terribly wrong things can get when you abuse London for an architect's self-promoting exhibitionism playground, regardless how ugly the result is to the public eye. The Albert pub near Victoria Station, sandwiched between modern day monstrosity.

Cameron, the Emperor's New Clothes

CLUELESS ON MAGNA CARTA

I shall remain mum on my source, but the exchange itself was funny indeed.

After Cameron's public humiliation by the hands of David Letterman, who dared to ask a British PM of the translation of Magna Carta and its meaning, and expected an answer, the Man who reigns in London made somersaults and rolled on the floor in a bout of hysterical bemusement. And who could blame him? After all, Cameron went to Eton and Oxford, supposedly had some exposure to Latin there, let alone basic English history lessons. As Cameroni himself stated, "I will need to do some homework with my son (age 11)." I can imagine who'd teach whom...
...

Said the man at City Hall: "I could have told them (CBS network), he'll never guesses that one right, and a guess it would have to be, with his knowledge base. I would have bet my hair he would miss, sporting a Jedward hairstyle at the Party conference if I had lost."

 

 Now THERE's an image to drool over! And we agreed that Cameron was lucky that the flop happened in front of a US live audience, where the vast majority would have tipped on the name of some ice cream bar behind "magna carta."

TORI fAMOuS CONQUERED
ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Tonight's concert was absolutely brilliant. Tori's decision to add orchestra to her performance was an additional stroke of genius. Anyone who will not get her latest CD will have to struggle to remain on my pals list. Yep, she's THAT good!


“Don’t you want more than my sex?” is just one of many memorable lines on Tori Amos’ 1992 album Little Earthquakes, jauntily tossed off in the cabaret singalong “Leather.” But it encapsulates the challenge the singer-songwriter posed to the music world 20 years ago. It also was the first of 5 CDs I have gotten to-date, not counting the one on amazon.co.uk order: Gold Dust

Labour weapons against muslim terrorists

TERROR AGAINST TERRORISTS

The High Court will have to decide whether Abu Hamza and four other muslim cohorts should be allowed to continue their parasite lives in Britain because their animal rights have been violated. The five claim that they have been subjected to torture by sleep deprivation.

They might have a point: reportedly they were forced to listen without interruptions to taped speeches from Harriet Harman, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls every day between 8pm and 7am.

Garanča Mesmerizes Barbican Audience

ELINA GARANCA AT THE BARBICAN

The concert was simply magnificent. Elina and her husband, maestro Karel Chichon with the London Symphony Orchestra, delivered a fireworks of alternately accentuated finesse and emotional explosions that left the audience - me included - breathless and on its feet with endless rounds of applause.

This woman is a world star of the opera scene. Watch out for years of exciting and reverberating performances from this still young mezzo-sopranos. I am going to look through her catalogue to-date and am sure to get CDs with her.

It's been a wonderful evening!

List of the programme

Glinka Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila
Tchaikovsky Aria of Johanna from The Maid of Orleans
Massenet Meditation from Thaïs
Saint-Saëns Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix from Samson et Dalila
Saint-Saëns Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila
Gounod Plus grand, dans son obscurité from La Reine de Saba
Marquina España Cañí
Lope Gerona
Penella Pasodoble from El gato montés
Bizet Extracts from Carmeni. L'amour est un enfant de Bohême (Act I - First version)
ii. Prélude (Act I)
iii. Habanera (Act I)
iv. Entr’acte (Act III)
v. Séguedille (Act I)
v. Entr’acte (Act IV)
v. En vain, pour éviter (Act III)
vi. Entr’acte (Act II)
vii. Chanson bohème (Act II)

VOMIT FOR STARBUCKS

 

 

Starbucks, and their eyesore ubiquitous presence at every corner of London, has become as annoying and irritatingly bothersome as did the "Golden Arches" of a certain feed chain that serves indescribable junk. There is hardly a landmark in the capital not tarnished by the logo of a greenish siren, whose breasts had the nipples retouched so not to offend members of a Tea party or not to invoke some insatiable appetite for lactose from maternal springs, nearby.

It irks me that the greenish company is obsessed with its image rather than with the mission it pretends to propagate: to serve a basic, decent and palatable liquid out of coffee beans. That mission is betrayed daily, with each cup they dish out. No wonder they don't dare to set foot on Italian ground, for there you get what coffee worshippers like myself are looking for. London is blessed with many Italian and French coffee shops, that not only offer fabulous coffee but cakes that actually do justice to the espresso, and provide a Bohemian atmosphere to enjoy.

 

The practice of dispensing a despicable brownish liquid in the setting of a wannabe-hippish outpost for followers of a tree-hugging cult should be torpedoed by those of us with their senses still intact, both on the tongue and in the head. Shun the starbuckers!

Ugly Scots: Scotching Nature

'SCOTCHING' REPULSIVE LOOKS

Scotland is known as the reservation with the world's ugliest indigenous tribes. For centuries the tradition of "Scotching" - to put the head into refuse, dirt or manure - has amazed visitors from all over the world. Scotching is meant as a sign of atonement and to amend the conflict between nature's beauty and the appalling unpleasantry of a Scotsman's looks. Usually such acts of attempted remorse take between 2 - 6 hours, but reportedly isolated cases around the coastal regions have lasted for even up to six days in the past.

The case in the picture above took place this week on Aberdeen's Justice Street (!!) and involved a 51-year old native. A passer-by told onlookers, "I walked around the corner and saw his walking stick on the ground and his bum sticking out and said 'that's Willie'. Me and my pals tried to pull him out but his ears were stuck."

It shows that Scottish aborigines recognize each other by their bum, call it willie and sport ears big enough they could glide from the mainland to the Outer Hebrides.

BBB: Bubblies Before Boarding

SATURDAY MORNING, 09:23
 

The St Pancras champagne bar is a  convenient assembly point from which one can literally drop from the stool into the train bound for Paris (Belgium is not a country, but also a destination).

 

Between the three of us travellers the 'damage' remained within civil limits; this time.
 

The train ride (or is it "Ryde" in Eurospeak nouveau?) itself felt more like a walk on clouds thanks to the spiritual help Made in France, than the usual 'ride of the valkyries' between the two cities.

IKEA: Rather lose female shoppers than Saudi market

WOMAN - THE NIGGER OF THE ARAB WORLD

Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has removed all the women from the version of the company's famed catalogue to be distributed in Saudi Arabia, prompting a stern reaction from Sweden's trade minister. 2013 catalogues (208 million) will be globally nearly identical, save for those printed for distribution in Saudi Arabia, a country where women don't get to vote, drive cars, or move freely on the street.

In the Saudi version of Ikea's annual booklet, all the women who appear in images featured in the catalogue in other countries have been removed via photo retouching. In the rest-of-the-world version of the Ikea catalogue, for example, a mother can be seen standing at a sink next to her child in a stylized bathroom. In the Saudi catalogue, however, there is no mother; the child stands at the sink alone. In another image, a woman and a little girl who appear to be studying in the Swedish catalogue have been completely removed from the Saudi version, leaving an empty room.

Ikea has even gone so far as to remove from the Saudi version of the catalogue the image of a female designer who helped design the company's "PS" line of home furnishings.

While refusing to comment on any company specifically, Swedish Minister of Trade Ewa Björling made no secret of how she felt about the images. "It's impossible to retouch women out of reality. These images are yet another regrettable example that shows we have a long road ahead when it comes to gender equality in the Arab hemisphere."

Attorney Claes Borgström, who served as Sweden's gender equality ombudsman between 2000 and 2007 also slammed Ikea's decision to remove women from the Saudi catalogue. "I think the Swedish business community should uphold existing ethical principles. You can't participate in the marketing and selling of goods in a way that discriminates against women in this way." According to Borgström, Ikea would be better off "abstaining from the [Saudi] market completely".

I have cut up my Ikea card - not a source of pride anyway - and will send one half to Ikea.

EU Unemployment at record high

Unemployment in the eurozone hit a fresh high of 18.2 million in August, the EU statistics agency has said. The number of people out of work rose by 34,000, and revised data for July showed that the unemployment rate remained at a record high of 11.4%. The highest unemployment rate was recorded in Spain, where 25.1% of the workforce is out of a job, and the lowest of 4.5% was recorded in Austria. The unemployment rate in Germany was 5.5%.

 

Youth unemployment remains a particular concern, with the rate among under-25s hitting 22.8% across the eurozone, above 50% in Greece and 52.9% in Spain.

Across the wider 27-nation European Union, unemployment rose by 49,000 to 25.5 million people, Eurostat said, with the unemployment rate stable at 10.5%. Compared with a year earlier, the unemployment rate rose in 20 countries, fell in six and remained stable in the UK.

Barbican -Elina Garanča

Barbican -Elina Garanča

Shard

There is really only one building in the world that truly deserves the label Skyscraper - and it is in central London!

When one sees the reflection of clouds the idea of the brilliant architect of the building, that "The Shard fits in with the London skyline, you just need to look up" becomes evident. Oh, and there are window cleaners half way up...

Pictures taken on 26 September 2012

I'm glad I MET ya ...

 

The Lincoln Center is the Mecca for all opera buffs, this year even more so.

 

This week sees three premiers to start the 2012/13 season with a bang. Last night's opening gala of Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore" was yet another triumphant appearance of Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani in one of the greatest comic gems in opera, as the fickle Adina and her besotted Nemorino.

Tomorrow follows Puccini's "Turandot" [global live cast starts at 12:30am BST] for which Zeffirelli provides a spectacular stage; a repeat performance from last night on Thursday, followed by Bizet's "Carmen" on Friday [also available as live broadcast, 12:30am]. Saturday ushers in 2 performances, with Verdi's "Il Trovatore" in a Matinée and Turandot in the evening. Other highlights later in the season is Wagner's Ring.

I wish I'd still live in New York.

Abu Hamza loses EU support

Terrorist Thug to End Up Dead in the US

When the European Court of Justice (a pompous label for a negligible apparatus of trademark European complexity and obtuse logistics) told Britain that the intention to extradite chief terrorist Abu "The Hook" Hamza is futile and "illegal, for it violates the thug of his human rights," it received a pat on the shoulder from Labour leaders, but a sharp rebuke from the Government. Home Secretary Theresa May then told the court that its ruling is of no relevance nor significance in London.

Today the same monkey court succumbed to the inevitable and supports now the British Government. Abu Hamza will be thrown out of Britain and handed over to eagerly awaiting US marshals for due process. I hope the fucker will enjoy some water-boarding pleasantries and end up dead on a gurney.

Who's looking even dumber than the European court? Labour!