BBC news 6-o-clock this evening.
George Osbourne (chancellor of the exchequer) said: "We now need to concentrate 110% on the economy".
I'm speechless!
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We're going up to heaven in a pie...
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I used to work for a regional director who wanted everybody's sales performance to be above average. Maybe he went to St Paul's too, or did history rather than maths at Oxford.
So he preferred arts to science and never had a proper job, having gone from folding towels at Selfridges to working at Conservative central office. Most of us are probably better qualified to be Chancellor, or might be if we had the Bullingdon Club on our CVs.
You couldn't make it up.
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>> I used to work for a regional director who wanted everybody's sales performance to be
>> above average. Maybe he went to St Paul's too, or did history rather than maths
>> at Oxford.
>>
>> So he preferred arts to science and never had a proper job, having gone from
>> folding towels at Selfridges to working at Conservative central office. Most of us are probably
>> better qualified to be Chancellor, or might be if we had the Bullingdon Club on
>> our CVs.
>>
>> You couldn't make it up.
>>
No no no.. you're all wrong
If you are a LD, Lords Reform is more important...
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And if you are Tory it's not since the Tories have a perpetual majority there.
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>> And if you are Tory it's not since the Tories have a perpetual majority there.
>>
Err
You are a little out of date following 13 years of Labour Government..
see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords#Current_composition
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>> Err
>>
>> You are a little out of date following 13 years of Labour Government..
>> see
>>
>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords#Current_composition
So nobody has a majority now. Probably as it should be.
Also, as there's little if any effective whipping in the Lords peers are much more likely to vote with their knowledge or conscience. Lord Howe of Aberavon (Geoffrey Howe) and the late Lord Newton of Braintree (Tony Newton) went through the noe lobby on Social Security and justice matters. The latter while at death's door.
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>> George Osbourne (chancellor of the exchequer) said: "We now need to concentrate 110% on the
>> economy".
I'd email him and ask him to explain about this 110%, but I've only got 100% of my time available and it's already used up by other things.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Tue 7 Aug 12 at 09:07
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It doesn't surprise me that the Chancellor is no good with figures.
He actually knows 3/5ths of 5/8ths of damn all.
The sad thing is that Ed Balls wouldn't be much better. We're doomed, I tell yer!
Let's just have an amnesia attack for a few days and enjoy the Olympics. Reality will intrude soon enough.
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>>Let's just have an amnesia attack for a few days and enjoy the Olympics<<
Has it started yet then?
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One night years ago I was feeling bored, after returning from a great summer holiday, and I was inputting some copy for a feature on winter heating. There was a series of tips on how to cut your electricity bill and the percentages you would save by following each tip. It dawned on me that the savings added up to 110 per cent so, to give the proof reader a laugh, I added 'if you follow all this advice, next winter SWEB will pay you!' to the last sheet of copy.
Due to a series of slips and mishaps it was set in type and appeared in the paper.
M'learned friends were on the phone within hours. I've still got the letter threatening the sack unless I grovelled - which I did.
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...Due to a series of slips and mishaps it was set in type and appeared in the paper...
Mike,
I trust you were young and inexperienced.
I never, ever, put anything in any story which would cause problems if it found its way into print.
A similar incident happened at the Portsmouth News in the days of paper page plans.
In the headline space for the Bognor football report, someone wrote: "Fat boy waffles on about Bognor" - the reporter carried a little excess weight.
Needless to say, it appeared as the headline.
The plan was compiled before the result of the game was known, so the proper headline could not have been used.
What should have been written was: 'headline in here', or: 'Bognor report'.
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Same principle anywhere Iffy.
Few years ago, responding to a solicitor's letter to the office, a colleague sought my advice on some technical point. In the end it was easier to write the whole thing myself and for a giggle I signed it Yours Sincerely, Mike Hunt.
Cloth head just printed and initialled. Fortunately I saw the file copy before the post was collected.
Others have been less fortunate and rude comments about Ministers have been left in briefing.
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>> Others have been less fortunate and rude comments about Ministers have been left in briefing.
Quite right too, they need to be reminded what we really think of them.
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>>I trust you were young and inexperienced<<
About half my present age, but very, very bored with newspaper production - and I have many similar tales to Iffy's about what got in when it shouldn't have. Then one day a colleague said 'why don't you stop slagging off people who have done Open University and have a go yourself if you think you're so clever?'. And he presented me with an application form. So I filled it in and the rest is history.
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Hanging about in third-world capitals with other Europeans in the same game - many of them familiar faces or even 'friends' from previous jobs - can get a bit boring sometimes. Idle chitchat and practical jokes (the French being especially keen on these) tend to set in. The other thing about 'foreign' is that it takes a poor second place to 'domestic' in the European media, so people are constantly monitoring the story they are on to see whether it's slipped off the front page yet. The bigger fish then rush off immediately to the next scandal or bloodbath, while the others scrabble for money to pay their hotel and telex bills before they can leave town.
More than once I have been diverted to see a joke at dinner, or some crazed fantasy dreamed up in a hotel room late at night, appearing on the agency wires a day or so later as news. Tee hee!
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Reminds me I haven't read Scoop for a long while.
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Enjoy cabaret I believe invented by the French.The world is a joke shop for some.>:)
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A few years back, cricket writers were getting pee-ed off that 'their' scoops always turned up in other papers. Turns out that when they went for lunch, one unscrupulous scribbler used to have a quick glance at their laptops, which they'd left open in the pressbox.
So a few of them concocted a story that Mick Jagger was going to buy Surrey (IIRC), and the plagiarist took the bait...
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First time I say the Stones in live concert Ahoyhal Rotterdam.
I can't get no satisfaction and the place was demolished.>:) Good song.
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during the falklands war, a single journo was trusted with taking back copy from all the journos in the field and at the front to HQ for transmissin to London.
It is reported as a rumour that when it was Max Hastings turn, no-one else's copy got through except his.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 7 Aug 12 at 15:20
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We're heading for hell in a handcart - Lygonos
