GREAT BRITISH VALUES...AN OCCASIONAL SERIES

There a seemingly endless list of things we can't find the money for in the UK, many of them relating to the welfare of the poor, the sick and the old. But one thing we can always allow is that the super-rich can get away with whatever kind of crap they want to.

"His Grace" wouldn't miss £3.6 billion, but I guess there are people suffering for horribly illnesses who could, with that kind of money, be given treatment.

I suspect then, that one of the Great British Values, about which they never cease to go on, must be GREED. 

CLOTHES HORSES AND REAL HORSES

I was idly looking through the papers in the barber's shop the other day and I noticed among other things, some picture of the royals at the races. 

Royal Ascot is quite the thing as society occasions go and the royals turn out in huge numbers to celebrate being inordinately rich. Not only Brit royals, but royals from other countries flock to show off how wealthy they are.

Each day the male royals turn up looking really peculiar in what my granny would call "lum hats" (in that they look like lums (chimneys to non Scots), waistcoats and very baggy trousers, but, although they have different daft suits with tail coats and lum hats for each day,  at least for them it's essentially the same gear.

For the female royals it's obligatory to wear something different every day, and, as you can see from the picture above Beatrice has certainly managed the something "different". Don't be fooled however, that she looks like something that fell off a flitting (a house moving for non Scots) apparently her costumes are (as I'm sure the costumes of the others are) incredibly expensive. The Daily Mail noted that her shoes alone cost nearly £600. 

I reckon that there are five days of royal Ascot, and that suggests that this holiday girl has spend around £3000 on shoes for the week... slightly less than half the average retirement pension.

Isn't it a comforting thought that we are all in this together.

I wonder how much it cost to look like that...

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BIG AIN'T NECESSARILY BEAUTIFUL

Nothing small town about Vaduz

We were told during the referendum campaign that if we left the mighty United Kingdom, we would be nothing more than a tiny insignificant place in the North of Britain. 

Well, I was reading about this little country today and I thought... you know, being small doesn't seem to be that bad. 

Liechtenstein, officially the Principality of Liechtenstein,  is a landlocked German-speaking country in Central Europe bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east and north. Its area is just over 160 square kilometres (62 square miles), and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Shaan. 

Central station

Liechtenstein has the highest gross domestic product per person in the world when adjusted by purchasing power parity. Liechtenstein also has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at 1.5%.

Liechtenstein is the richest (by measure of GDP per capita) country in the world and the only country to lie entirely in the Alps. It is known as a principality as it is a constitutional monarchy headed by a prince.

Liechtenstein is divided into 11 municipalities. Much of its terrain is mountainous, making it a winter sports destination. 

Border with Switzerland

Many cultivated fields and small farms characterize its landscape both in the south (Oberland, upper land) and in the north (Unterland, lower land). The country has a strong financial sector located in the capital, Vaduz. It is a member of the European Free Trade Association and part of the EEA and the Schengen Area, but not of the EU.

I'd not mind being that small and insignificant.