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Bye, bye Scotland
A couple of points with regard to the referendum the Scottish Nationalists want to hold, to decide whether or not they want to stay in this relationship with us. Firstly, shouldn’t we also have a referendum in the rest of … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Pitzi
There’s a great word in Romanian, Pitzipoance, which you can pronounce (badly) in English as pitzy pwonka or just pitzi. It is usually used to describe over made-up and frivolous young women but you can use it to describe men, or … Continue reading
Posted in Briefly, Politics
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Compensation Culture
I was hit last year by a woman who jumped the lights in Brixton, admitted responsibility for destroying my bike and then spent the next six months trying to avoid paying for it. Luckily there was a witness and once … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Shopping
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Charity Shops
I read an article a few years ago about how most charity shops don’t make a profit, they are just there to raise awareness of the charity by providing a permanent and cheap advertising billboard on the High Street. The … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics
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Disaster?
The government of Israel has a policy of assassinating political leaders in Gaza. That means that the people who have ended up in charge of Hamas are the violent nutters rather that anyone who might be interested in a political … Continue reading
Congo
If you’ve ever seen the Stan’s Cafe show Of All the People In All The World, where every grain of rice stands for one person, you may have been surprised by the size of the pile representing all the people … Continue reading
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Debt
Basing the growth of your economy on people borrowing money, as opposed to relying on increased productivity, doesn’t seem like a very sensible idea. An Austrian ecomomist called Ludwig von Mises described the problem very nicely: It may sometimes be … Continue reading
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Political Playmobil
Thanks to Giles for pointing out to me the excellent collection of humorous and political comments that are collecting on the Amazon page for this Playmobil Security Check-Point. Here’s an example: Thank you Playmobil for allowing me to teach my … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Shopping
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Aus Liebe zum Automobil
Ratan Tata, the head of Tata Motors who today launched the world’s cheapest car, is obviously quite a fan of the German motor industry: He described the new Tata Nano as a people’s car, an obvious reference to the Volkswagen, the … Continue reading
What was that?
Have a listen to this puzzling clip of Nelson Mandela that I heard on the World Service last night. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] He says: Together we have the power to change the course of destiny. Big … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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