More things which may have been overlooked - - -
Christina
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The problem with the BBC's rewrite of Humpty Dumpty in order to give it a happy ending, is that it doesn't square with the instinctive cruelty of children.
The version from the Ha Ha Bonk! joke book does the trick, though:
"All the king's horses and all the king's men said:
'Scrambled eggs for breakfast again!' "
(Melanie McDonagh Telegraph 19.10.09)
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Quote of the Month # 1
"The best way for businesses to pay more tax is to become more profitable." Rt. Hon. Ken Clarke MP
(Roger Helmer’s ‘STRAIGHT TALKING ’ Oct 2009)
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£250,000 for unused Sarkozy shower
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has come under fire over a shower built for him that auditors say cost 276,000 euros (£250,000) - but was never used.
The shower, in the Grand Palace in Paris, was for his sole use at a Union of the Mediterranean summit held during France's six-month EU presidency.
But the leader preferred to wash in the Elysee Palace 10 minutes away. The new shower has since been dismantled.
The French European Union presidency was one of the most costly in history. (BBC 28/10/09 plus Telegraph, Mail, Independent)
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“in order to save the planet we must all become vegetarians - - - It seems that cows and sheep produce too much methane which is much more damaging to the environment than the carbon dioxide mere mortals are expelling. Pardon me for breathing but aren’t cows and sheep vegetarian?” {Terry Wogan in S.Telegraph 1/11/09)
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Bats dictate terms to Tony Blair
No one and nothing has been allowed to stand in the way of the relentless advancement of Tony and Cherie Blair since they left Downing Street two years ago.
Mandrake hears, however, that they may finally have met their match in a colony of rare bats who reside in a derelict gardener's cottage on their £5.75 million Buckinghamshire estate.
The former prime minister and his wife want to turn it into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house for the use of their guests, but, after Aylesbury Vale district council required them to call in ecological consultants to produce a bat survey, they have been told they must make their plans more bat-friendly.
"The bats lived in this property long before the Blairs had anything to do with it," says my informant. "They are actually quite rare and there are rules about what can and cannot be done to their habitats." The Blairs have already been accused by their neighbours of trying to "overdevelop" their historic estate comprising the Grade I listed South Pavilion in Wotton Underwood that was once home to the late Sir John Gielgud.
Since buying the house in August 2006, the Blairs have already installed a swimming pool and a car parking extension.
Templeton Associates, the design team behind the renovation, have drawn up plans to extend the cottage from 70 to 120 square metres by adding a "contemporary rear addition of glass and oak".
A spokesman for Tony Blair batted me away yesterday
(‘Mandrake’ in Telegraph 3/11/09)
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Ryanair boss gets heated on climate change
The forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Change conference has been heralded as one of the most important meetings of global leaders this year, but Michael O'Leary does not see it that way.
The Ryanair boss yesterday described United Nation scientists as "wallies" and declared himself a global warming "sceptic", as he announced the low-cost airline's half-year results in a typically combative and politically incorrect mood. Climate change, he added, has been going on for six billion years. "I would not cross the road to get to Copenhagen," he said. The Prime Minister was also in the line of fire: "Gordon Brown knows about the climate what I know about flying a Concorde - nothing.”
(City Diary in Telegraph 3/11/09)
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