Who is the fattest in Europe?

Percentage of population classed as clinically obese:

COUNTRY	WOMEN 18+	COUNTRY	MEN 18+
UNITED KINGDOM	23.9%	MALTA	24.7%
MALTA	21.1%	UNITED KINGDOM	22.1%
LATVIA	20.9%	HUNGARY	21.4%
ESTONIA	20.5%	CZECH REP.	18.4%
HUNGARY	18.8%	GREECE	17.6%
CZECH REP.	18.3%	POLAND	17.3%
GREECE	17.6%	SLOVENIA	17.3%
SLOVENIA	16.3%	SPAIN	17.0%
POLAND	15.8%	CYPRUS	16.7%
SLOVAKIA	15.7%	GERMANY	16.1%
GERMANY	15.6%	ESTONIA	16.0%
BELGIUM	14.7%	SLOVAKIA	14.5%
CYPRUS	14.5%	BELGIUM	13.3%
SPAIN	14.4%	AUSTRIA	12.4%
AUSTRIA	13.2%	LATVIA	12.0%
FRANCE	12.7%	FRANCE	11.7%
BULGARIA	11.3%	BULGARIA	11.6%
ITALY	9.3%	ITALY	11.3%
ROMANIA	8%	ROMANIA	7.6%

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2066060/British-women-fattest-Europe-quarter-classed-obese.html

An sent Coe hamewart, tae think again

P

So the good news is that Historic Scotland has said "no" to the preposterous idea of massive Olympic rings being placed on our castle.


Olympic chiefs, the Evening News reports (I suppose they mean the Noble Coe and his sidekick Jowley Tess) are baffled by the change of heart of Historic Scotland, which was said to be enthusiastic about the project when it was discussed during the summer. 


As Munguin pointed out, unlike the Quango, English Heritage, Historic Scotland is a executive agency of the government. It is possible that Culture and External Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, had a word.


To be fair it may be that Historic Scotland worked out for themselves that the people of Edinburgh and farther afield were not pleased about plan. The Edinburgh Evening News has run a campaign "Say No to Coe", and Edinburgers have been voluble in their condemnation, calling the sign gaudy and tasteless.


It seems that Coe wanted the sign to be in place for Hogmanay, when the eyes of the world are on Scotland and the castle in particular. But what for? Surely all the tickets for the games have either been sold or (the majority) allocated. So why would anyone want to advertise London's games. It would be like saying "Buy Grants whisky... but we don't actually have any". Additionally, London and Edinburgh vie for visitors and an enormous number of Edinburgh jobs are tied up in the tourist trade. Why would Edinburgh want to advertise one of its rivals? It would be like a big sign in Dundee saying "Go to Ashby-de-la-Zouch".


I suspect it might be that The Rt Hon Seb just wanted to show that the REAL capital's games were being supported by the pretendy capital of Scotlandshire.


If so, he failed.


But the Olympic "chiefs" aren't about to give up. They are looking for another building in Edinburgh from which they can hang their gaudy advertisement and Historic Scotland is hoping that this time there will be less antipathy from the residents. (You have to give it to Lord Nobleness Coe...he don't give up easily.) 


But Historic Scotland has to remember that one of the objections to the sign was the cost of £200,000. People in Scotland are aware that much needed sporting funds from, for example, the Lottery, have been reallocated from Scotland to London's Olympics, and we are aware here that while much of the Olympics is being paid for from general taxation, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 is being funded by Scottish taxpayers only. 


£200,000, many feel, would be better spent on promoting sport in the capital, rather than displaying an advertisement for someone else's events.


Historic Scotland may find that another venue may attract the same reaction!


Pics: Hi de Hi and Welcome to Maplins. The tacky looking coloured sign as it might have looked. Ms Hyslop, Culture Secretary. Seb Coe whose in charge of the Olympics on a salary of twice the PM. Tessa Jowel, the ex-Olympics minister whom Cameron retained so that he can blame someone from Labour when it all goes horribly wrong.


I've put a little poll in the side bar on the right. I'll leave it open till Monday afternoon. I thought it would be interesting to get your point of view even if you don't want to write anything.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AMERICA IN GENERAL (AND DANNY IN PARTICULAR)

This is something you shouldn't miss. The president pardons a turkey in a traditional ceremony with roots going back as far as...erm 1989!


The video was sent (by not filmed) by Danny, Munguin's man in America. He pointed out a joke about the "media training"........the ability to gobble without really saying anything. (A reference to politicians' media statements )


Danny also sent this beauty from West Wing a tv series which I think was shown over here. Danny reckons that within its vaults, most every situation that could occur in the White House, can be found.

Don't eat too much guys...

'I'M ALRIGHT JACK', SAYS FRANCIS

Francis 'Big Society' Maude is the Cabinet Minister who is slashing away at the pensions of civil servants who, on average, get around £5,600 p a, not enough to live on, after working full time for around 40 years for the government.


So, of course you would expect Mr Maude to be leading by example, wouldn't you.... Well, you'd be wrong. Mr Maude is not.




According to the Daily Mirror, old Maudie is collecting a massive pension pot of £731,000, at our expense. This will give him a massive £43,000 a year income when he retires. That's eight times the amount of the average government worker.


And he says that the current pensions are simply unsustainable. 


Well his is!


I'm inclined to agree with Len McCluskey who called him and his minister pals shameless hypocrites.

SO WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WRONG NOW?

You have to wonder at the level of stupidity that the London government displays in its day to day work, don't you?


You're probably nodding your head right now and thinking.... He's on about the MoD; they are pretty useless! 


Well it's a good candidate, quite apart from being jointly run until recently by Adam and Liam for the benefit of.... Adam and Liam,  its permanent  management is quite astounding. 


Take, for example the matter of the multitude of armoured cars projects that have had to be cancelled; some £718 million worth in the last 15 years, according to the National Audit Office. 

Or could it be the Revenue. And the almighty cock up over the Goldman Sachs affair, perhaps? You know, the one where they got out of paying oodles of tax, well £10 million actually, while they came after me for an under payment of £500?


Maybe it's the fact that in Customs and border control people are so short staffed that at busy times they simply can't check people in to the country, so they just let anyone in, rather than have planes stacked 40 high over the English capital. Or maybe it's that they don't check private planes at all these days for fear of disrupting rich people's lives with trivia such as customs.


But no, it's not  them either. 


Nor is the almighty mess of the PFIs, which is bankrupting local health authorities, councils, police and fire services...


And it's not even the half witted idea that they've come out with today where the government will take on what are, in effect sub-prime home loans (despite us having bailed out the bloody banks) and encourage the price of housing to rise... engendering a feel good factor.... falsely.


Nope. OK, I've kept you in suspense for long enough.


What I'm talking about is Tessy's brilliant idea to bring in legislation to make it illegal to protest around the area of the Olympics during the time of the Olympics.

Brilliant, Tess of the Horribles! Which one of your half-wit staff came up with that idiot idea, or was it your own wee brain that gave birth to it?


You see, I suppose that, in a country where most of the population is pretty depressed about the state of their affairs, disillusioned by incompetent government and displeased about the turning of London 2012 into Moscow of the Brezhnev 70s, with Zil lanes for the party elite, and most good seats for the games, which are causing such disruption for the ordinary people, going to Barclaycard, McDonald's and BT's elite customers, it's quite likely that people will wish to protest in some way. Certainly there will be protests by disabled people over the audacity of the paralympics being being sponsored by Atos, the soulless organisation that delights in making the lives of the ill such unimaginable misery.


Certainly it will be a little embarrassing when the tv cameras of the world focus on it, and they realise that the streets of London are not paved with gold for anyone except those and such as those. But most democracies have protesters. It won't be news.


But, Tess, old thing, if you make it illegal, people will still do it. 


In fact according to what I read on Facebook last night they will do a lot more of it. 


And then, because it's illegal, you will have to arrest them. And there will be fights and scuffles with the police... and that's going to look 10 times worse.


You really are a very stupid woman. 

NAIVE FOREIGN POLICY IN THE NEAR EAST OR JUST PROTECTING THE OIL COMPANIES' INTERESTS

Cameron with interim prime minister of Egypt

I suppose that in every job, there should be a training period at the beginning, a time during which the person learns on the job, often with the bosses eye firmly fixed on the most important decisions to be made.
In the case of the first or prime minister of a country that is a little more difficult because, in theory at least, he (or she) is the big cheese. But even this republican blog accepts that previous prime ministers have paid tribute to the advice given to them by the Queen, and the counsel they should be able to call upon most of all is that of the senior civil servants  from departments of government. The professionals


So whilst it is excusable that band new, squeaky clean David Cameron would want to make his mark early on foreign policy matters, it surely must have occurred to him, or to his foreign policy advisors in Downing Street or the FCO, that not only was he the first western leader to visit Cairo after the overthrow of Mubarak, but he was the only one to show any inclination to do so. It might also have occurred to him or them to wonder why that was.

King Farouk

Research, which if he didn't have the time or the wit to do, someone should have thought of, would have told him that the military has had a hold on the governance of Egypt since the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952 which it engineered with the help of the CIA. (Farouk's son was king for about a year, but as he was only 6 months old when he succeeded, it was surely Col Nassar who was calling the shots.) It was, then, very unlikely that the Army was about to give up power willingly in 2011.


So Cameron's visit to meet the new "interim" rulers (the military) was a somewhat dangerous and daring piece of foreign policy. Hailing the coming of democracy to north Africa was something over which he might have been well advised to "wait and see".


For, although there is to be an election, the military has made it clear that the new constitution should include a place in government for the military, and that that place should be shielded from any civilian oversight. 


Now, it is possible that that might be a sound idea. The relative stability of Egypt has been guaranteed over the last 60 years, possibly in part thanks to the firm hand of the military, under Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak in turn. And, in any case, we cannot judge the needs of every country by the needs of our own (as if we had any real democracy anyway). However, a state in which the military plays a role in government without any oversight of the people is not a democracy, and Cameron looks rather foolish to have hailed it as such.

Mr Hague and Mr Myers

The worrying thing is any role the FCO may have had in this piece of foreign policy. There was a time when the London FCO Arab desk might have been able to offer suitable advice about how to tread in this area. Maybe it still can and was ignored by a headstrong and none too clever Foreign Secretary (his judgement has to be called into question over his appointing his young friend and driver as a special advisor, and sharing expensive hotel bedrooms with him). Maybe there is no one left in the FCO who dare question the political masters, or maybe they just don't have the skills any more.


Whatever the reasons, Cameron's enthusiasm looks rather naive.


And as Syria explodes into civil war, there are those who are asking why Britian and France are not rushing to the aid of the "insurgents" as they did in Libya. Oh yes, the situation is more complex in Syria, and the military machine maybe stronger, but there are many similarities. The reason given for intervention in Libya was that we could not stand by and watch a dictator kill his own people. I failed to understand that at the time as we do that all  all over the world. But now it looks weaker and weaker as over 2,700 civilians including 100 children have been killed by Assad's forces.


It wouldn't be anything to do with the fact that Syria hardly has any oil worth talking about, could it?

IN THE NAME OF.... A NEW BLOG

If you've enjoyed the comments from Nominedeus on this blog, can I suggest that you might like to take a look at his new blog.


If you like intelligent and amusing comment and analysis (and why else would you be here?) then you'll be impressed.


Not only that, but the layout is awesome, and someone jealousy making.


Good luck with the new blog Nominedeus!


(Link now provided. Sorry about that. Sunday mornings....)

I ALWAYS SAID ALISTAIR DARLING WASN'T THAT GOOD AT SUMS

The call was said to be "acrimonious" and Mr Darling acknowledged that "Sir" Richard (Branson) was "disappointed" that his plan had been ditched. He said: "It is better for the Government to hold on to Northern Rock for a temporary period and as and when market conditions improve the value of Northern Rock will grow and therefore the taxpayer will gain.

Daily Telegraph 18th February,2008

*****

UK Financial Investments said it has agreed to sell 100pc of Northern Rock to Virgin Money for £747m in cash immediately, but this could potentially rise to around £1bn.

Under the deal, another £50m is “expected” to be paid within six months. The Treasury will also benefit by up to £80m if the bank floats in the next five years and retain £150m of Tier 1 capital notes.

Daily Telegraph 17th November, 2011

*****

This represents a loss of between 400 and 700 million pounds.

I was wondering if Mr Darling would like to explain to me (because I'm one of the poor suckers who is paying for this, and I can ill afford it) just in what parallel universe a loss of between 400 and 700 million pounds represents a gain to the taxpayer. 

At the same time I was wondering if Mr Osborne would like to let me know why he thinks that this is a good time to sell, or didn't they do sums at his expensive school?

Answers on a post card please.

EDINBURGH CASTLE STANDS UPON A ROCK.... AND THERE ARE THOSE WHO WANT OLYMPIC SYMBOLS TO STAND ON EDINBURGH CASTLE

Subrosa had an article yesterday about Historic Scotland's  application to Edinburgh Council for the right to erect massive Olympic Rings on Edinburgh Castle for a period of 9 months, until the end of the games in London.

It is excellent that she has brought this to our attention, and I repeat it here because I think the larger number of people who know about this, the better.


Her correspondents make good points too.


For example Doug the Dug asks, what is this for? Is it advertising? 


He provides his own answer...  The tickets, such as there were for sale (most of them having gone to corporate sponsors), were sold some time ago through a farcical auction system, involving crashing computers and bank accounts being denuded of cash for unknown tickets (but only if you had a Visa card, Visa being a sponsor). 


No. It's all about showing that Scotland and England are one country in perfect harmony. It's Scotland's Games too. 


What nonsense. As Quiet Man says, the Olympics is a London event. It is nothing to do with the rest of England, never mind Scotland. 

Iain Gray

This will doubtless be some daft notion cooked up by London to see if the SNP "picks another fight" with the union. You can just hear the whiny voice of Elmer Fudd complaining that whilst there are 100,000 young people on the dole, the First Minister is worrying about Olympic symbols... (As if in some parallel universe Labour never had massive youth unemployment.)


Edinburgh Council has to approve or disapprove the  sign. However, despite the nominal coalition of SNP and Liberals, I suspect that the unionist parties may join together to force an approval.


Some of Subrosa's correspondents have indicated that they will not visit Edinburgh while (if) the sign is up. I can only imagine that if one of the most photographed buildings in Scotland, becomes a cheap advertising hoarding, it's hardly going to encourage more visitors to our capital.


I hope the people of Edinburgh will make it clear to their councillors that despoiling the castle with unneeded advertising for an event 500 miles away is not going to be to the benefit of Scotland and that said councillors, mindful of upcoming elections, will vote a resounding "NO".

IT'S ALL EVERYONE'S FAULT ... EXCEPT THE BANKERS

I wonder just how much good Merv King is.


I mean to say, he has got every single prediction he ever made wrong. He constantly downgrades any predictions he has made about any aspect of the economy, and tonight when asked what would happen to inflation he said he thought it would come down in the New Year, but wasn't sure.


OK. I could have done all of these things and I don't get paid his massive salary, nor can I reasonably expect a seat in the House of Lords when I retire. (Actually I think it unlikely that inflation will come down much in the New Year. OK, the 2.5% VAT increase is out of the cycle, but the massive fuel price hikes are not; nor is food; nor are transport increases.)


Anyway, tonight he has told us that the hallowed banks, against whom no one is supposed to utter a word of condemnation for the almighty mess they made of the economy (or they will leave for friendlier shores), won't be able to lend money to businesses in Britain because the Eurozone crisis has left them unable to raise the cash. 


But wait a minute. The banks weren't lending anyway. That's why the chancellor asked them very nicely if they would please lend some of the mass of money that we borrowed or created to keep them afloat to do their job and lend to medium and small businesses instead of taking it all in bonuses. When they said "no", you'll remember, he was obliged to set up a government fund to lend to  businesses which are folding for want of a loan, even when they have orders on their books. Talk about booze ups in breweries?.

So why is it all now the fault of other countries?  


Sheesh.


With his usual vagueness Old Merv said that because of the Eurozone crisis, households, businesses and banks face an extraordinary period of uncertainty. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow, he twittered, like some fishwife over the back yard fence!


Gives you such confidence, that he's got his hands on the wheel, doesn't it. As governor of the Bank of Britain... ooops no, sorry England, he'd make a really good bus driver.


Talking about  confidence, why is Osborne so intent on talking Scotland into the ground? OK, it's a silly question and we all know perfectly well that the answer is... if you haven't got a credible true argument to put forward for something, make one up.


Businessmen are not in the least put off by a discussion of a referendum. At least I'm sure that a few who have had their ears whispered into by Cameron may be. In return for a knighthood maybe? It's actually far more likely that businessmen will be put off Britain as a whole because no one in the government or the central bank has much of a clue about what is going on.


Unlike John Swinney, who knows a thing of two about finance. 

It is typical of the hapless Osborne that he chooses to disparaging remarks about confidence in Scotland just at the time that the First Minister was joining the management of Amazon to celebrate the new sites that the worldwide retailer is opening in Edinburgh and Dunfermline. 


Clearly one of the most successful companies in the world is so worried about the future of Scotland that it is creating over 1,000 new jobs in the country.


This UK government, headed by a PR spin doctor, is even crap at spinning!

BBC DIRECTION ALL WRONG

The BBC's interpretation of "North West"

I should be used to it by now. But tonight I watched the BBC news, and coverage of the debate on petrol prices. The item was introduced and almost immediately they said that there were going to the North West for a special report.


Ah, thought I, this will be interesting. There has been a special case up in the North West, where the government agreed to wave some of the tax, but immediately the company importing the petrol into the islands increased it's price by a corresponding amount. Let's see how this has impacted on the population, and how the expected 3p a litre increase will make the North West the most expensive petrol in the world.


Pfffff, silly old me. 


This was the BBC in London and for them the North West is in fact the South West to us.


So off we went to Manchester.


Is it worth £146 a year to be completely ignored? The world for the BBC stops at the border, except, of course, when they are collecting their tax so that Alan Yentob and his likes can travel first class to New York.

JE SUIS DE RETOUR (OR TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY, I'M BACK)

I had a great break in Paris. It was warm, it was sunny, the people were polite, the streets clean (apart from round Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est), there were virtually no fat people and no incredibly thin ones, there were no drunks, no one was wearing "What Every Gadgy Wants" chic and the food was out of this world.

For just €30 I could buy a travel ticket which entitled me to use the Métro, Buses, RER, Trams (yes, they are splendid) and the funicular up to Sacre Cœur. What more could you want?

Oh yes, the concert.... well, it was all you would expect from Pet Clark...perfection. The French are more boisterous in their approval (or disapproval) of an artiste. (I think they are a bit like a good old fashioned Glasgow audience: if they like you, they like you a lot; if they don't like you.....God help you.) We were all along the front row, Jerseymen, English, Scots, Canadians, Norwegians, Germans, Australians, French, Belgians, and although I had, by this time a serious dose of la grippe, or flu, I was up dancing and shouting with the rest. 


It's always good to get home to Scotland, no matter how good the holiday, but the journey this time involved a hold up of around an hour in England because some poor sod had jumped in front of a train. Life in Yorkshire had presumably become too much for them. So we had to wait, and then, because we were a diesel train and could go round the 'accident' area, we were obliged to pick up, on our already "standing room only" train, the passengers of two other expresses, so that we became dangerously overloaded.


I couldn't wait to get to Edinburgh... to let the train disgorge what seemed like several hundred thousand people... and to get to a toilet, which had hitherto been impossible. If there is an alternative, my advice would be never travel by East Coast Trains. This is the line owned and run by the English Department of Transport. 'Nuff said.


Anyway, the journey was probably the only bad part of the whole break...


And so I got back to read figures on unemployment which, without wishing to seem to be a smart ass, the only thing I can say about is...I told them so. The idea that the private sector would take up the slack of the public sector as the country headed for a double dip recession was just risible. When is Gideon going to come up with a real plan for the economy?


He is, of course far too busy continuing his long time assault on the SNP and the independence referendum. He seems as idiotically blind to the futility of this campaign as he is to the stupidity of the Plan A nonsense he came up with to return the country to boom.


The Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Cambridge, Oxford, Bullingdon millionaires lecturing Scots on how poor, wee and stupid we are, and how we need England's munificence to keep us upright is music to my ears and I hereby invite the entire cabinet to lecture us non-stop on the subject in their plummy tones for the next 3 years. 


They should really realise that its all counter-productive. But no. They think that their words will stir the true Brit that they imagine to be at the heart of all of us. They might as well be Vietnamese, they are so foreign to the average Scot. Still I wish them a hearty cheer. They are wasting their time, but as least while they are doing that they are keeping away from other dangerous business.


I read in French papers about Cameron ranting about lack of patriotism and respect for soldiers in Remembrance Week. I'll bet he was not best pleased to find that there had been a leak that the government was reducing the subsidy for a couple of military charities, and that they would now be making more forces personnel redundant than they had  previously announced. Denied of course, by Pip Ham-mond... but then, who would believe anything he says?


So, all in all, am I glad to be back? 


No.


*****


Craig Murray has asked us all to make sure that this article gets the biggest amount of publicity possible. He apparently sent it to the Main Stream Media for which he regularly writes, and which has never rejected his work before. Despite checking its veracity, they have, to a man (if that's the word), refused to publish it. 


It makes grim reading. Fox and Werrity were up to more dangerous business than enough. War is almost certainly planned by the MoD and no one will answer questions about Werritty's and Gould's part in it. Even to MPs in the House.


Makes you wonder where the pay off is.

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS BEFORE A WINTER BREAK

I was interested to read in the Daily Telegraph that Prince Michael has revealed that members of the royal family were not obliged to take part in the lottery of tickets for the Olympics. They were simply asked what event they wanted tickets for, and they got them. What it is to have connections, huh?


Staying with the Royals and the Olympics, I expect that when Blair put so much effort into securing them for London, it never occurred to him that they would be taking place at the same time as the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Apparently, when the Olympics are on, they will be the only show in town. No one will have time or energy for anything else, and so the Queen has been forced to concentrate all the celebrations of her jubilee in the first 6 months of the year. I guess that means that come August in Scotland we can expect to have wall to wall Olympics rammed down our throats. Yippee, I can hardly wait.

Apparently the jubilee celebrations will include a horse pageant in London, with 500 horses from all over the world. Alan Titchmarch described it as "the most wonderful and appropriate celebration". So, I suppose it must be then, seeing as Alan Titchmarsh said so.

Talking about royalty, David Cameron has chartered a Virgin plane for a tour of the Middle East. What his staff neglected to take into consideration was that he will be flying into Saudi Arabia, and that Virgin planes have a model of a scantily dressed redhead as their motif. The arrival in Saudi of a British Prime minister on a plane with a half nude female isn't thought to be a great idea, especially when the trip almost undoubtedly a 'begging bowl, please buy our stuff', kind of visit. I wonder how much we pay these people.


Harriet Harman's husband, Jack Dromey is in a spot of bother over the small matter of forgetting to declare his salary from Unite in the Commons register of interests. £27,867 may be chicken feed to him, but for a lot of his constituents it's two or three or even four years' income. Socialists...pffff?

According to the Daily Mail, Foxy was seen yesterday skulking outside the Carlton Club where his young friend,Adam Werritty, was taking luncheon, dressed, apparently, in an expensive hand-made suit. Maybe they only had enough money left for one of them to eat, and the other one just hung about outside? And maybe not.

Well that's it...I'm heading off to Paris for a few days to indulge in some of my favourite occupations: speaking French, enjoying decent coffee, meeting up with mates from all over the world, and going to a big Petula Clark concert. So these few random observations comprise the last post for a week or so. I'll see you quand je serai de retour. Au revoir pour le  présent!

CHARLES WIELDS POWER OVER A WIDE RANGE OF MATTERS

Lithograph of the Black Prince (2nd left)

Under an ancient law dating from 1337 which has never been revoked, The Duke of Cornwall has the right to veto legislation of the Westminster parliament if it affects his private interests.


Breathtaking, isn't it?


Nonetheless, ministers have been forced to seek the duke's permission on matters as far ranging as road safety, gambling, the Olympics, co-operative societies, economic development, housing, regeneration, energy and planning amongst others. 


Whilst his mother technically has the right to interfere by "advising, encouraging and warning" on matters affecting her subjects, and a veto over matters that affect the royal family, it seems that  HRH, has a secret right to demand changes to Bills if they get in the way of his private interests.


The information came to light as the result of a Freedom of Information demand by the Guardian. The government recently exempted official correspondence between ministers and the Queen, Charles and William, from FoI legislation (meaning that Charles could continue to summons ministers to discuss legislation without it becoming embarrassing). However, with their customary panache from messing up, clearly no one thought to include this "right" in that  cover-up legislation, which, ironically, was unobtrusively tacked on to a Bill on openness in government!!!! 

Coinage of Edward, the Black Prince

The legislation originates from Edward III  when he created his son, the Black Prince, Duke of Cornwall and has been passed down since that time, seemingly without alteration. The Duchy provides Charles with £18 million a year of private income, quite separate from the money given to him by the state for royal duties and maintaining his wife.


The revelations have caused both MPs and Peers (although why the peers, I'm not sure) to protest and demand publication of details about how these powers have been used to interfere in legislation. Both the government and Charles' office is refusing to give any details of any changes that he has demanded. The Liberal MP for St Ives in Kernow, said that he was astonished to hear that Charles has a veto over government business, and a minister Lord Berkeley who was recently obliged to ask permission over a marine navigation bill, wondered why other landowners who would be affected by it should not have an equal say.


Charles has been accused on many occasions of poking his nose into government and meddling in the affairs of ministers. While some may think that a disastrously out of touch Cabinet might benefit from a little steering in the direction of the needs of the people, it's surely the constituency MPs who are supposed to do that. Not someone whose reality is so far removed from Mr Average as to be on a different planet and in a different time zone.

I WONDER IF THIS COULD REALLY HAPPEN...

Peter Hitchens in the Daily Mail has an interesting proposition for the 81 Tory rebels who refused to vote with the government on last week's debate on the EU.


He suggests that they, as men of principle (well sometimes anyway), should break away from the Conservative Party and set up a new right wing party basing it on a Europe-free England. I say England, because none of them is from Scotland, the only Scottish Tory MP, David Mundell, being a junior member of the government.

What would the result of this be?


The Conservatives currently have 306 seats. If they were to lose 81 that would leave them with 225. Their coalition partners have 56,  giving the coalition 286 seats out of a total of 650. Oops.


Either Cameron and Clegg could carry on in a minority government or they would be forced to dissolve the coalition and ask the Queen for a dissolution of parliament and a General Election. They might try the former, but inevitably it would not be long before the latter would be forced upon them by a confidence vote.


So who would win that General Election. There would be some impressive names  and formidable intellects in the supposed new party, including the likes of John Redwood and David Davies. (The latter could easily run as its leader.) Of course, for balance the party would also have the burden of the un-formidable brain of Louise Mensch.

Bill Ca$h

Who knows who it might attract from the rest of the Tories once a General Election were called. It would obviate the need for UKIP and with so much more chance of electoral success that that party, would almost certainly take the majority of their votes, and their candidates. Euroscepticism is not an exclusively right wing philosophy. Indeed Labour, when, years ago, it was a left wing party, was Eurosceptical. But it tends to be a policy of either the right or the left, rather than the centre. (It's possibly the only time you would see Dennis Skinner and Bill (I'll take) Cash in the same lobby.) But this is a Tory breakaway party, unlikely to attract the left, so it's my guess that the new party would be fairly hard right wing, neocon, Atlanticist. (Liam Fox and adjunct would feel at home there).


So how would that affect Scotland?


Well, it's unlikely to be popular here, not because of  a lack of Euroscepticism, but because it would be fairly hard right, and that philosophy goes down like a lead balloon in Scotland. However, a UK government made up of these people from England would drive Scotland, and perhaps Wales running into the arms of independence, possibly Northern Ireland running for the comfort of Dublin and hopefully Kernow looking more towards Mebyon Kernow.


So, I am all for it.  Go for it guys. Ditch Cleggie's best mate, Dave, and strike out on your own. You can rid the England of  Europe and damned soon afterwards of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Cornwall... 


Video: Louise Mensch being toasted by the "Have I got News for You" team. Honestly, you stupid woman, if you have a brain cell in your empty head it should tell you that if you are not clever and you are not funny, it's a seriously bad idea to take on Ian Hislop and Paul Merton at the same time. 

IF YOU HAVE A LONG STANDING CONTRACT TO RENEW...

November is the time that I renew my AA membership, something I've done for around 10 years.
And every year I've noted approximately when they would take the money out of my account and put the rest of the paperwork in the bin.


But for some unknown reason, this year I read a little more of the literature that they sent me, including all the new deals they were offering and some of the new "freebies" that they were treating us to.


And while I was reading I noticed to my astonishment that some of the "freebies" (which of curse are not free at all but covered in the cost of the membership) are only available within the confines of the M25, London, England's orbital motorway.


So effectively members of the AA outside the M25's warm embrace are subsidising members within.


"So", I thought to myself, "I'm paying out more so that drivers in London can get a better service? I don't think so. At least, not any more I'm not. I'm leaving. I'll find other cover which isn't London-centric, and which will probably be cheaper anyway".


So I phoned them to tell them of my decision, and instruct them not to take any money out of my account. Well of course you can't just do that, after you have negotiated the "choices" they put there to "help them to direct you to the right department"  you have to explain why you are leaving. 

I could, of course, have said "mind your own business", but I'm not that kind of guy, and the lad was only doing his job. So, although I don't know what made me do it, I lied. I think that I didn't want to sound like a grumbling Scot, although  on reflection I was wrong to hide that. I should have grumbled. Anyway, when I was asked for a reason for leaving I told them I could no longer afford the cost, that times were hard and that everyone was having to make cuts... blah blah, blah... 


You could have knocked me down with a feather when he said, "Well Sir, you've been with us 10 years, I could offer you a 10% discount". "Ah you could, could you", I thought. "I wonder that you didn't think to offer me that when you wrote!" But, I'd made my mind up; I wasn't going to subsidise London members. So I said no.


"Well sir", he said, "I could offer you your membership and half the price", he continued.


WHAT? HALF PRICE?


It seems that  at least some big organisations are prepared to give a discount rather that lose your custom.


So, if you have AA membership, and you have had it for a while, when your renewal date comes up, you might want to try them out for a discount.


Furthermore, other contracts from now on will not be renewed without some negotiations.


I just thought I'd pass it on to you guys!