Italy celebrates Women’s Day today 8th March.
46.9% of Italian women are in employment compared to the European average of 58.8%. Only Malta is lower at 37.5%, while the Netherlands has 70%. The proportion of female company directors in Italy is in line with European averages at 32.9%.
According to European Parliament, the average quota of female MEPs is 31%, while Italy is near the bottom of the league at 16.7%, or 13 women out of 78 MEPs.
Italy's highest appeal court has ruled that married Italian women who commit adultery are entitled to lie about it to protect their honour. The Court of Cassation found that having a lover was a circumstance that damaged the honour of the woman among family and friends. Lying about it, therefore, was permitted, even in a judicial investigation. At present the ruling applies only to women.
The Court of Cassation, which is largely staffed by elderly male appeal judges, once ruled that a woman could not be raped if she was wearing tight jeans, since the jeans could only be removed with her consent.
One in three young Italian girls believe having sex while standing up or in water is effective in preventing unwanted pregnancy, the Italian Gynaecology and Obstetrics Society said. Other widespread misconceptions among Italian adolescents include the belief that it is impossible to get pregnant if it is the first time they have sex or if they do not have an orgasm, and that Coca Cola is an effective contraceptive douche, proving there is some useful purpose to the liquid.
One woman in three takes the contraceptive pill in the rest of Europe, but Italian women largely avoid it as they believe it is fattening.
For Women’s Day The National Feminist and Lesbian Assembly marched in Rome and 15 other large Italian cities to protest against violence towards women and recent public debate about the right to abortion.
Amongst regional initiatives planned, The Northern League will hand out pepper spray to women instead of the traditional mimosa, putting them at risk of arrest.
Milan's three-day pornography expo Mi-Sex, said it would honour women's ''special day'' with a guest appearance by retired superstud and world No.1 male hardcore star Rocco Siffredi.
In other news,
Several MPs are believed to be among the 400 names of Liechtenstein account holders on a list bought by Italian Tax authorities from Britain.
Milan is staging an exhibition of noise (scarcely necessary in Italy) which includes A Laugh Will Bury You (2005) by Lara Favaretto, where a small resin box on the floor continuously emits a loud high pitched laugh.
Despite boasting such landmarks as the Colosseum and St. Peter's, Rome is only the fifth most recognizable city in the world, according to the latest City Brand Index. Sydney is first.
Fewer than half of Italian families own a computer
An 80-year Ferrara woman was denied a national health card because, according to health officials, she had been dead since January 1, 1983.
100 Italian towns have bike sharing schemes in place, where you can borrow a bike free at one point and deposit it at another
After a series of episodes involving bullying and vandalism a school in Trento is inviting the parents of rowdy children to sit in on first-year lessons for a few hours each day. The school trains children to become accountants.
At a seminar following a survey showing that many homosexuals and divorcees felt unable to confess because priests spoke at them in apocalyptic tones, priests have been told they can deal with ''delusions, hysteria and other symptoms'' but when faced with ''possessions, obsessions and persecutions'' it is best to call an exorcist
Genova: The frustrated lover of an Italian man castrated him in a fit of rage sparked by his refusal to leave his wife, Italian police said.
In a separate case a woman from Parma, pretending to agree to make-up with her estranged husband and have sex, bit off a piece of his penis.
In an investigation of claims for EU funds for olive oil production, police have found false invoices amounting to some 40 million euros and sequestered 85 farms, 23 oil mills, three distribution companies, nine real-estate properties and scores of bank accounts.
Silvio Berlusconi is no longer Italy's richest man, according to Forbes’ List, having been overtaken by the owners of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Luxottica sunglasses. Further down the list telecoms entrepreneur Silvio Scaglia, despite being worth $1.2bn, was only 962nd richest in the world.
Announcing her latest film L'Imbroglio del Lenzuolo (the trick with the sheet) Italian screen beauty Maria Grazia Cucinotta says her native Sicily, for all its faults, is Heaven on Earth. Her statement is being classed by the Church as ''delusions, hysteria and other symptoms''
In order to get to a TV appearance on time through Rome’s heavy traffic Senator Gustavo Selva, 81, feigned an illness and got an ambulance, giving the studio address as his doctor’s surgery. He has been given a six-month suspended sentence and fined 200 euros. He left court saying his conscience was clear.
Young scientists at Pisa University have created a computer model to forecast traffic congestion and make the city more liveable.
The majority of offenders in Italian juvenile detention centres are foreigners, according to The Justice Ministry.
More counterfeiting goes on in Italy than any other European country. The Bank of Italy last year discovered a total of 119,017 counterfeit euro notes to the value of 8.7 million euros, compared to 6.6 million euros in 2006.
The newly revived Alfa Romeo brand will return to the American market for the first time since 1995
New polls show Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party increasing its lead over the Democratic Party, with 45% of the vote. Walter Veltroni said Berlusconi had gone beyond ''delusions, hysteria and other symptoms'' and it was best to call an exorcist
08 March, 2008
07 March, 2008
The Olympics
I have maintained from the start that the competition to get the Olympic Games is a good one in which to come second. It is an absurd expense, and without even knowing what the going rate for expenditure was I knew it would be at least double the initial estimate: these things always are. And it is going to be better to watch on TV. But it isn’t just the expense: it was always going to be an opportunity for the politically correct to enact some nonsense.
In this respect there is a story going about that the Government has banned the RAF flying team The Red Arrows from performing at the Olympics in 2012. A petition has been got up on the Downing St website, which in turn has posted a message that it is a matter for the organising committee. Nothing to do with us, squire.
Personally, I can quite imagine that some vile little governmental leftie thought it was too militaristic to have the Red Arrows at the games and that the Government, realising the public would be angry, is now backing down. We’ll never know.
In my view it’s better to be safe than sorry and sign the petition. You can sign if you are a British Citizen even living outside the UK, or if you are resident in Britain. It already has over a quarter of a million signatures. You can sign on
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/RedArrows2012/?ref=redArrows2012
In this respect there is a story going about that the Government has banned the RAF flying team The Red Arrows from performing at the Olympics in 2012. A petition has been got up on the Downing St website, which in turn has posted a message that it is a matter for the organising committee. Nothing to do with us, squire.
Personally, I can quite imagine that some vile little governmental leftie thought it was too militaristic to have the Red Arrows at the games and that the Government, realising the public would be angry, is now backing down. We’ll never know.
In my view it’s better to be safe than sorry and sign the petition. You can sign if you are a British Citizen even living outside the UK, or if you are resident in Britain. It already has over a quarter of a million signatures. You can sign on
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/RedArrows2012/?ref=redArrows2012
06 March, 2008
Tibet
I confess I don't really care for the work of Icelandic singer Bjork, but following reports that at the end of her concert in China she sang 'Tibet, Tibet, raise your flag' I might just go and buy one of her records.
Few public figures ever seem to mention it but in my view it can't be stressed too often. China invaded Tibet illegally and has since conducted the most disgraceful act of ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen.
It is to this place we are paying for our athletes to go, giving credence to their corrupt, undemocratic regime
Few public figures ever seem to mention it but in my view it can't be stressed too often. China invaded Tibet illegally and has since conducted the most disgraceful act of ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen.
It is to this place we are paying for our athletes to go, giving credence to their corrupt, undemocratic regime
Luther and Dross
When on the campaign trail I was often asked why I thought the euro would only last 10-15 years. I used to say part of the problem was Martin Luther.
It won’t make the headlines much but a very important European story is slowly breaking. It concerns international finance so bear with me.
Interest rate differentials in the government bond market – that is to say how much one country pays on its borrowings compared to another - are so small that they are measured in ‘basis points’ (bp), a bp being one hundredth of one percent.
There has always been a tiny difference between the rates on Eurozone government bonds, based on rarity (or in Italy’s case lack of it). Now, you’d expect it to be pretty near zero: the amount that each government can borrow is controlled, no one is going to let a particular country go bust while it is a member of the Eurozone (surely?) and, after all, we are talking about the same currency, the euro.
Yet the yield on different government bonds in the Eurozone is getting wider and wider. What has happened is that investors bought the slightly higher yielding bonds (Italy, Greece etc: the olive belt) because the risk was the same (they thought none of them will go bust since they will be bailed out by Germany), so you got more interest for the same (near zero) risk. But as following the recent crisis they have run short of cash they have been dumping these bonds, which means the yield or interest paid has to rise in order for them to be tradeable. Italy now has to pay 55bp more than Germany on its borrowed money; that’s over half a percent, a huge difference considering it's the same currency. Greece pays 53bp more, Spain 36bp more.
That means an Italian euro is worth less than a German one. Or rather a Southern, Mediterranean, Catholic Euro is worth less than a Northern, Atlantic, Protestant one. That’s where Martin Luther comes in.
People said I was talking nonsense and the euro could never break up. Here is their answer.
It won’t make the headlines much but a very important European story is slowly breaking. It concerns international finance so bear with me.
Interest rate differentials in the government bond market – that is to say how much one country pays on its borrowings compared to another - are so small that they are measured in ‘basis points’ (bp), a bp being one hundredth of one percent.
There has always been a tiny difference between the rates on Eurozone government bonds, based on rarity (or in Italy’s case lack of it). Now, you’d expect it to be pretty near zero: the amount that each government can borrow is controlled, no one is going to let a particular country go bust while it is a member of the Eurozone (surely?) and, after all, we are talking about the same currency, the euro.
Yet the yield on different government bonds in the Eurozone is getting wider and wider. What has happened is that investors bought the slightly higher yielding bonds (Italy, Greece etc: the olive belt) because the risk was the same (they thought none of them will go bust since they will be bailed out by Germany), so you got more interest for the same (near zero) risk. But as following the recent crisis they have run short of cash they have been dumping these bonds, which means the yield or interest paid has to rise in order for them to be tradeable. Italy now has to pay 55bp more than Germany on its borrowed money; that’s over half a percent, a huge difference considering it's the same currency. Greece pays 53bp more, Spain 36bp more.
That means an Italian euro is worth less than a German one. Or rather a Southern, Mediterranean, Catholic Euro is worth less than a Northern, Atlantic, Protestant one. That’s where Martin Luther comes in.
People said I was talking nonsense and the euro could never break up. Here is their answer.
05 March, 2008
How the Brits would vote
Well, I must confess I don’t like the cut of Hillary’s gib – trying too hard, no substance other than spin (we know a bit about this in the UK) but I’m a bit suspicious about Obama, too, and McCain, well, is he today’s man?
But there’s one thing that should concern us Brits and Europeans above all else: the threat of protectionism. What this would mean is that America, in the midst of a recession, shuts up shop and slams import tariffs on all and sundry. And it is a real issue, right now: the recessionary threat is there for all to see, and just look at the noises made about the Airbus consortium EADS, which together with an American company, Northrop-Grumman, won the tanker refuelling contract.
So far both Hillary and Obama have made protectionist noises in their speeches. This would be disastrous for EU/American trade and disastrous for the whole world. McCain doesn’t appear to have touched on the subject so at the moment I’m backing him. But watch them: there is a strong protectionist streak in America and the effects would be far worse than the Iraq war.
But there’s one thing that should concern us Brits and Europeans above all else: the threat of protectionism. What this would mean is that America, in the midst of a recession, shuts up shop and slams import tariffs on all and sundry. And it is a real issue, right now: the recessionary threat is there for all to see, and just look at the noises made about the Airbus consortium EADS, which together with an American company, Northrop-Grumman, won the tanker refuelling contract.
So far both Hillary and Obama have made protectionist noises in their speeches. This would be disastrous for EU/American trade and disastrous for the whole world. McCain doesn’t appear to have touched on the subject so at the moment I’m backing him. But watch them: there is a strong protectionist streak in America and the effects would be far worse than the Iraq war.
04 March, 2008
The Mediterranean Union
There are continuing reports that France is trying to set up a Mediterranean Union, a free trade area with loose political ties encompassing all countries which border the Med.
Doubtless Britain, with Gibraltar and its two sovereign bases on Cyprus, will be invited.
The best point about the plan is that Angela Merkel is wholeheartedly opposed to it.
Doubtless Britain, with Gibraltar and its two sovereign bases on Cyprus, will be invited.
The best point about the plan is that Angela Merkel is wholeheartedly opposed to it.
03 March, 2008
All our problems solved on the Island
When I was a child I was taught that all the people in the world could fit on to the Isle of Wight. I suppose now there are more people, and we are too jealous of our privacy and personal space to allow such a stunt to take place so as to prove or disprove the claim, but I thought about it while trying to see some thread in the various disjointed news reports that we are delivered these days like handfuls of grain to free range chickens.
It is now, incredibly, some sort of political contest as to how many prisons we have. The leader in our most popular tabloid, always one of my favourite bits of reading matter, entitled ‘The Sun Says’, has this:
‘David Cameron’s plans to expand spaces in Britain’s jam-packed jails from 81,000 to above 100,000 will be widely welcomed. So will his proposals to end automatic release after serving half the sentence; making lags work to compensate victims; and a tough programme to tackle re-offending.’
So more prisons, and more reasons to lock more people up. Do you want a prison next to your house? Thought not. But what about building them in the Isle of Wight? There is already a prison there (Parkhurst), lots of space if we are not going to put all those billions of people there, and being an island, any escaping lags would have to swim home across the busiest sea-lane in the world.
The second piece of news is that Germany seems to have gone off the rails. It first went off the rails when it appointed a vegetarian chancellor some 75 years ago and now madness has descended on a woman chancellor. Angela Merkel appears to be considering an Anschluss of Liechtenstein, without even the Sudetenland excuse that there are Germans being treated badly there. Indeed they appear to be being treated very well, paying less tax than they would have to if they left their money anywhere near the profligate Merkel. She is making threats not just against the Principality, which in my view should retaliate by making a bid for Volkswagen, but against anyone who has lower taxes than Germany and might attract some banking deposits.
Now, obviously, is the time for a well armed nation like the UK to create a new tax haven to spite this Saxon woman's blustering. Gordon Brown has given away the status of Jersey and Guernsey but I was thinking, what about the Isle of Wight? Plenty of space (OK, except for a few prisons), it needs developing out of its grim 1950s Brighton Rock tourism so what about zero income tax, no VAT and a few 7-star Dubai style hotels near Shanklin? And drink: the government wants to put up the price of booze particularly for you middle class drinkers, what about no tax on any sort of booze throughout the island? All the drunks would leave England’s quiet market towns and take the ferry from Portsmouth, to the benefit of both island and mainland.
The next item is that the government suddenly wants to renege on its promise to build a casino in every town (remember John Major’s grammar school in every town? That didn’t work either). But I think we can see now that there is only one suitable site for a maxi casino – indeed several, we can make it the Las Vegas of Europe.
Looking for a job for Prince Harry when he leaves the army in a sulk and his brother becomes Prince of Wales? Lord of the Isle: who better to run this new paradise?
When I lived near Ryde many years ago there were still the wartime sea defences which you could see stretching out at low tide. So we’d be ready for Angela Merkel’s invasion. Cry God for Harry and the low tax Isle of Wight!
It is now, incredibly, some sort of political contest as to how many prisons we have. The leader in our most popular tabloid, always one of my favourite bits of reading matter, entitled ‘The Sun Says’, has this:
‘David Cameron’s plans to expand spaces in Britain’s jam-packed jails from 81,000 to above 100,000 will be widely welcomed. So will his proposals to end automatic release after serving half the sentence; making lags work to compensate victims; and a tough programme to tackle re-offending.’
So more prisons, and more reasons to lock more people up. Do you want a prison next to your house? Thought not. But what about building them in the Isle of Wight? There is already a prison there (Parkhurst), lots of space if we are not going to put all those billions of people there, and being an island, any escaping lags would have to swim home across the busiest sea-lane in the world.
The second piece of news is that Germany seems to have gone off the rails. It first went off the rails when it appointed a vegetarian chancellor some 75 years ago and now madness has descended on a woman chancellor. Angela Merkel appears to be considering an Anschluss of Liechtenstein, without even the Sudetenland excuse that there are Germans being treated badly there. Indeed they appear to be being treated very well, paying less tax than they would have to if they left their money anywhere near the profligate Merkel. She is making threats not just against the Principality, which in my view should retaliate by making a bid for Volkswagen, but against anyone who has lower taxes than Germany and might attract some banking deposits.
Now, obviously, is the time for a well armed nation like the UK to create a new tax haven to spite this Saxon woman's blustering. Gordon Brown has given away the status of Jersey and Guernsey but I was thinking, what about the Isle of Wight? Plenty of space (OK, except for a few prisons), it needs developing out of its grim 1950s Brighton Rock tourism so what about zero income tax, no VAT and a few 7-star Dubai style hotels near Shanklin? And drink: the government wants to put up the price of booze particularly for you middle class drinkers, what about no tax on any sort of booze throughout the island? All the drunks would leave England’s quiet market towns and take the ferry from Portsmouth, to the benefit of both island and mainland.
The next item is that the government suddenly wants to renege on its promise to build a casino in every town (remember John Major’s grammar school in every town? That didn’t work either). But I think we can see now that there is only one suitable site for a maxi casino – indeed several, we can make it the Las Vegas of Europe.
Looking for a job for Prince Harry when he leaves the army in a sulk and his brother becomes Prince of Wales? Lord of the Isle: who better to run this new paradise?
When I lived near Ryde many years ago there were still the wartime sea defences which you could see stretching out at low tide. So we’d be ready for Angela Merkel’s invasion. Cry God for Harry and the low tax Isle of Wight!
01 March, 2008
Italian News 1st March
Italy has no tradition of ladies proposing on 29th February. However a third of Italian ladies say they would be prepared to do the asking themselves. Of these 29% said they would like to propose by posting a video on the Internet so that friends could watch and comment on their performance, whereas 16% would prefer to propose on live television, while 10% would opt for a large advertising billboard on the streets.
Instead, February 29th was Rare Diseases Day in Italy. About 1 million Italians say they have a rare disease.
In an operation called Red Passion Italian police arrested 15 people in a nationwide crackdown on imitation Ferraris. The customers are aware that they are buying a fake but they are proving very popular. Two years ago the EU's justice commissioner, an Italian, Franco Frattini, caused a diplomatic incident by claiming to have spotted a fake 1967 Ferrari in China.
Sicilian crime writer Andrea Camilleri has been ranked among the 50 greatest ever in a list published by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
Hard on the heels of its rubbish crisis, Naples is running out of burial sites. About 60 people die in the city every day.
In Italy, fewer than 10% of people are cremated, compared to an average of 36% for Europe.
In 2006, there were 130,000 terminated pregnancies in Italy, 44.6 per cent fewer than in 1982. The comparable figure for the UK is 190,000
Whilst Italy and the UK spend around the same total per head on health, 25% more Italians go private.
German producers have been banned from using the label ‘Parmesan’ for fake Parmigiano cheese
The Sanremo festival, a competition which showcases Italy’s unique tradition of lyrical songs, has been a flop this year with lowest ever audience numbers. Superstar singer Loredana Berte has been banned for copying a 1988 song ‘The Last Secret’ but she will sing anyway.
Italy’s dependency ratio of slightly over 50 per cent (two workers to each dependent) is causing concern
In Prato, Tuscany, the Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross will be made in Chinese during Lent. Father Giuseppe Zhao will perform mass in Mandarin.
Italy has marked World Slow Day with a host of initiatives reminding people to ''slow down to live better'', including Rome's second annual Slow Marathon, in the Trastevere area of the city. Athletes attempt to cover 300 metres in not less than an hour and 27 minutes without stopping. In Milan culture minister Vittorio Sgarbi has invited citizens to the Teatro Franco Parenti to hear him reading Dante through the night. Unmissable.
A 'gentleman thief' who presented his victims with red roses has been caught in Genova. Police said they had tracked down the man, 48, by following the trail left by his flowers at various shops
The number of candidates running for the post of premier in Italy's April general elections has reduced to the unusually low figure of nine
The comedian Beppe Grillo is announcing candidates for his ‘F*** Off’ party. Candidate for governor of Sicily is Sonia Alfano, daughter of the journalist Beppe Alfano who was murdered by the mafia in 1993
Walter Veltroni, leader of the centre left Democratic Party, on a 12,000km campaign tour of Italy in a green, eco-friendly bus has been fined €70 for a seat-belt violation
Rome hosts a festival dedicated to magic. Magicians from around the world will attend the show, entitled 'The Reality of Illusion'. Visitors have been put off, believing it to be a political demonstration.
Gianni Mattiolo, one of Italy's best known magicians, will seek to create the largest physical illusion ever seen in the country. It is believed to be Walter Veltroni winning the election
Instead, February 29th was Rare Diseases Day in Italy. About 1 million Italians say they have a rare disease.
In an operation called Red Passion Italian police arrested 15 people in a nationwide crackdown on imitation Ferraris. The customers are aware that they are buying a fake but they are proving very popular. Two years ago the EU's justice commissioner, an Italian, Franco Frattini, caused a diplomatic incident by claiming to have spotted a fake 1967 Ferrari in China.
Sicilian crime writer Andrea Camilleri has been ranked among the 50 greatest ever in a list published by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
Hard on the heels of its rubbish crisis, Naples is running out of burial sites. About 60 people die in the city every day.
In Italy, fewer than 10% of people are cremated, compared to an average of 36% for Europe.
In 2006, there were 130,000 terminated pregnancies in Italy, 44.6 per cent fewer than in 1982. The comparable figure for the UK is 190,000
Whilst Italy and the UK spend around the same total per head on health, 25% more Italians go private.
German producers have been banned from using the label ‘Parmesan’ for fake Parmigiano cheese
The Sanremo festival, a competition which showcases Italy’s unique tradition of lyrical songs, has been a flop this year with lowest ever audience numbers. Superstar singer Loredana Berte has been banned for copying a 1988 song ‘The Last Secret’ but she will sing anyway.
Italy’s dependency ratio of slightly over 50 per cent (two workers to each dependent) is causing concern
In Prato, Tuscany, the Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross will be made in Chinese during Lent. Father Giuseppe Zhao will perform mass in Mandarin.
Italy has marked World Slow Day with a host of initiatives reminding people to ''slow down to live better'', including Rome's second annual Slow Marathon, in the Trastevere area of the city. Athletes attempt to cover 300 metres in not less than an hour and 27 minutes without stopping. In Milan culture minister Vittorio Sgarbi has invited citizens to the Teatro Franco Parenti to hear him reading Dante through the night. Unmissable.
A 'gentleman thief' who presented his victims with red roses has been caught in Genova. Police said they had tracked down the man, 48, by following the trail left by his flowers at various shops
The number of candidates running for the post of premier in Italy's April general elections has reduced to the unusually low figure of nine
The comedian Beppe Grillo is announcing candidates for his ‘F*** Off’ party. Candidate for governor of Sicily is Sonia Alfano, daughter of the journalist Beppe Alfano who was murdered by the mafia in 1993
Walter Veltroni, leader of the centre left Democratic Party, on a 12,000km campaign tour of Italy in a green, eco-friendly bus has been fined €70 for a seat-belt violation
Rome hosts a festival dedicated to magic. Magicians from around the world will attend the show, entitled 'The Reality of Illusion'. Visitors have been put off, believing it to be a political demonstration.
Gianni Mattiolo, one of Italy's best known magicians, will seek to create the largest physical illusion ever seen in the country. It is believed to be Walter Veltroni winning the election
27 February, 2008
Hungary and the euro
Hungary has floated its currency, the Forint. The accompanying statement said that this would help towards the goal of joining the Euro.
So, let’s see if we can understand this. As part of its approach to ‘full’ membership, Hungary had fixed its exchange rate against the euro. It liked the idea of fixed exchange rates. Then to help it...er...fix its value to the euro it decouples, preferring floating exchange rates as a means to ...er...fixing them again. The truth is it can’t hold on at these high exchange rates.
Hungary’s is a developing economy: high growth (or supposed to be), high inflation. The last thing it needs is to fix its currency to the mature economies of Europe. Its growth will come from its cheap labour manufacturing and exporting low value low tech items. Like China. Does it think China would have fixed its currency to the euro as it rose against the dollar?
It’s like watching someone walk slowly towards the cliff edge with their eyes bandaged.
So, let’s see if we can understand this. As part of its approach to ‘full’ membership, Hungary had fixed its exchange rate against the euro. It liked the idea of fixed exchange rates. Then to help it...er...fix its value to the euro it decouples, preferring floating exchange rates as a means to ...er...fixing them again. The truth is it can’t hold on at these high exchange rates.
Hungary’s is a developing economy: high growth (or supposed to be), high inflation. The last thing it needs is to fix its currency to the mature economies of Europe. Its growth will come from its cheap labour manufacturing and exporting low value low tech items. Like China. Does it think China would have fixed its currency to the euro as it rose against the dollar?
It’s like watching someone walk slowly towards the cliff edge with their eyes bandaged.
David Cameron
Cameron has made a major speech in a debate organised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, saying that multiculturalism has brought us to the point where even social workers shrug their shoulders at human rights abuses saying 'It's their Culture, isn't it?'. He said Britain now has a cultural apartheid which will lead to the introduction of shari'a law unless something is done about it.
The speech is under-reported, but covered in the Mail. Why not the Telegraph? I heard a bit on Sky.
I suspect that I am not the only person who will be thinking that if he pursues this line, and that of repatriating powers from Europe, I can see myself voting Conservative for the first time since 1987.
Some way to go yet but...
The speech is under-reported, but covered in the Mail. Why not the Telegraph? I heard a bit on Sky.
I suspect that I am not the only person who will be thinking that if he pursues this line, and that of repatriating powers from Europe, I can see myself voting Conservative for the first time since 1987.
Some way to go yet but...
23 February, 2008
The Auschwitz Fiasco
Something really does have to be said about this. The papers and the blogs are up in arms about Cameron’s having described trips to Auschwitz as a gimmick. In my view it was that and worse.
I am a middle aged man; I was born ten years after the end of World War II. In my childhood the War was all consuming. My comics would be of the racially stereotyped casual but brave Englishman/dogged but pigheaded German, Achtung Spitfeuer sort of stuff. We played war games on the street. When people came to the house, the man would be assessed by what sort of war he had had. We were over-fed because the previous generation had gone without, but they wanted you to know they had: any attempt at not eating or throwing away food resulted in ‘We’d have been grateful for that in the War’. The previous generation had shown character and wanted to point out one’s own lack of it; feckless youths on the street, rock and roll, that’s not why I fought Hitler. Unfortunately the chance of bravely defending my country was not open to me so I felt guilty. The War was an all-pervasive thing in which I had been unable to take part and was looked down on for it.
I’d like subsequent generations to have things different.
I think we still have too much of the Second World War and am appalled at attempts to lock up eighty year old men on flimsy identification. And by the way none of them are ever Germans or Japanese – have you noticed that? I do not think it is necessarily a good idea for our children to visit the Auschwitz Museum; I do not think that Auschwitz is the way to teach them what went on in the war; I think teaching them not to be afraid of people who are different is better than teaching them that Germans used to be evil. Let them spend the time learning German.
And I do think this was a gimmick. They weren’t sending all the children to the Auschwitz museum, just two from each class, who presumably would be the cleverer ones (I suppose some formal reporting back world be necessary) who needed the educational point less than others. And the Government weren’t paying for it all anyway. It is clear to a complete schweinhund that this was a sop to the bien pensant left to make up for having allowed the tax break to non domiciles. It was messing around with kids’ education to avoid a difficult headline in the New Statesman or the Guardian.
It was a cynical cheap effort by Labour and the Tories were right to expose it. Let’s educate our children, not force feed them with what they should be thinking.
I am a middle aged man; I was born ten years after the end of World War II. In my childhood the War was all consuming. My comics would be of the racially stereotyped casual but brave Englishman/dogged but pigheaded German, Achtung Spitfeuer sort of stuff. We played war games on the street. When people came to the house, the man would be assessed by what sort of war he had had. We were over-fed because the previous generation had gone without, but they wanted you to know they had: any attempt at not eating or throwing away food resulted in ‘We’d have been grateful for that in the War’. The previous generation had shown character and wanted to point out one’s own lack of it; feckless youths on the street, rock and roll, that’s not why I fought Hitler. Unfortunately the chance of bravely defending my country was not open to me so I felt guilty. The War was an all-pervasive thing in which I had been unable to take part and was looked down on for it.
I’d like subsequent generations to have things different.
I think we still have too much of the Second World War and am appalled at attempts to lock up eighty year old men on flimsy identification. And by the way none of them are ever Germans or Japanese – have you noticed that? I do not think it is necessarily a good idea for our children to visit the Auschwitz Museum; I do not think that Auschwitz is the way to teach them what went on in the war; I think teaching them not to be afraid of people who are different is better than teaching them that Germans used to be evil. Let them spend the time learning German.
And I do think this was a gimmick. They weren’t sending all the children to the Auschwitz museum, just two from each class, who presumably would be the cleverer ones (I suppose some formal reporting back world be necessary) who needed the educational point less than others. And the Government weren’t paying for it all anyway. It is clear to a complete schweinhund that this was a sop to the bien pensant left to make up for having allowed the tax break to non domiciles. It was messing around with kids’ education to avoid a difficult headline in the New Statesman or the Guardian.
It was a cynical cheap effort by Labour and the Tories were right to expose it. Let’s educate our children, not force feed them with what they should be thinking.
Italian News 23rd February
In Venice, which is at risk from being ruined by floods, gondolas have been left stranded in mud along Venice's Grand Canal after one of the lowest ever tides.
More than 3,000 tonnes of rubbish are still lying on the streets of Naples but some of it is being stolen. According to the Corriere della Sera peddlers go through the waste before dawn, looking for valuables and extracting "pairs of shoes and pornographic videos". Of many nationalities, they have become “linked together, an ethnic band cemented by a shared commercial intent based on the sharing of rubbish".
According to Dr Emmanuele Jannini and his team of researchers at the University of L’Aquila, it is now possible for the first time to determine by a simple, rapid and inexpensive method if a woman has got a G spot or not. Apparently it is called sex.
An exhibition in Venice seeks to rehabilitate the reputation of the Vandals, Goths and Huns who ravaged the continent at the fall of Rome. They had their good sides, apparently.
Following an accident in which a 16th century violin was damaged, it is reported that there are 650 Stradivari and 100 del Gesù violins still extant.
An Italian parliamentary commission reported this week that the most efficient holding company in the globalised marketplace is the ’Ndrangheta criminal organisation, Calabria’s mafia.
Wine industry sources say that half the 7 million bottle production of the 2003 Brunello has been sold before it came on to the market.
Florence has held a referendum on whether or not to block the building of a tramline system which would pass through the city's historic centre but the vote failed to reach a quorum.
A luxury chocolate from Tuscany has been named the world's best. 'Toscano Black 63%', made by the Amedei firm in Pisa, won the Golden Bean awarded each year by the London-based Academy of Chocolate.
Italian scientists in Sardinia, where Silvio Berlusconi lives, have identified one of the genes responsible for male baldness. It appears to be connected to the gene which makes you talk too much.
Oetzi, Italy's famed Iceman, whose corpse is 5,000 years old, is to have company next year as mummies from all over the world arrive for a major show in the northern Italian city of Bolzano
Steak Fiorentina is again legal after 7 years. The steak should properly be from 30 month old cattle – giving a more mature flavour, but the maximum age had been reduced to 24 months by EU directive.
A pensioner from Asti bit off the tip of a neighbour's nose in an argument about a parking space.
Prof. Bruno Siciliano of Naples University, who leads an EU project to produce a household robot, has unveiled the prototype called Justine, saying ‘She's flexible and precise enough to make a cup of coffee’. Unfortunately Justine seems to have a mind of her own and will only make instant coffee at the moment, not much use in Italy.
Judging by the streets of Naples she appears to be OK at putting the rubbish out, though.
Hollywood strongman Sylvester Stallone says he wants to die in Italy. Suggestions are that he might try his luck as a pedestrian in central Rome or steal a parking slot in Asti.
Outgoing Deputy Premier and Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli on Monday announced his intention to run for mayor of Rome. He was mayor in 1993 and 2001
Rutelli’s nickname is Cicciobello, a popular baby doll, signifying baby good looks but empty of content.
Rutelli will be associated with Walter Veltroni’s Partito Democratico, an ethnic band cemented by a shared commercial intent based on the sharing of rubbish.
More than 3,000 tonnes of rubbish are still lying on the streets of Naples but some of it is being stolen. According to the Corriere della Sera peddlers go through the waste before dawn, looking for valuables and extracting "pairs of shoes and pornographic videos". Of many nationalities, they have become “linked together, an ethnic band cemented by a shared commercial intent based on the sharing of rubbish".
According to Dr Emmanuele Jannini and his team of researchers at the University of L’Aquila, it is now possible for the first time to determine by a simple, rapid and inexpensive method if a woman has got a G spot or not. Apparently it is called sex.
An exhibition in Venice seeks to rehabilitate the reputation of the Vandals, Goths and Huns who ravaged the continent at the fall of Rome. They had their good sides, apparently.
Following an accident in which a 16th century violin was damaged, it is reported that there are 650 Stradivari and 100 del Gesù violins still extant.
An Italian parliamentary commission reported this week that the most efficient holding company in the globalised marketplace is the ’Ndrangheta criminal organisation, Calabria’s mafia.
Wine industry sources say that half the 7 million bottle production of the 2003 Brunello has been sold before it came on to the market.
Florence has held a referendum on whether or not to block the building of a tramline system which would pass through the city's historic centre but the vote failed to reach a quorum.
A luxury chocolate from Tuscany has been named the world's best. 'Toscano Black 63%', made by the Amedei firm in Pisa, won the Golden Bean awarded each year by the London-based Academy of Chocolate.
Italian scientists in Sardinia, where Silvio Berlusconi lives, have identified one of the genes responsible for male baldness. It appears to be connected to the gene which makes you talk too much.
Oetzi, Italy's famed Iceman, whose corpse is 5,000 years old, is to have company next year as mummies from all over the world arrive for a major show in the northern Italian city of Bolzano
Steak Fiorentina is again legal after 7 years. The steak should properly be from 30 month old cattle – giving a more mature flavour, but the maximum age had been reduced to 24 months by EU directive.
A pensioner from Asti bit off the tip of a neighbour's nose in an argument about a parking space.
Prof. Bruno Siciliano of Naples University, who leads an EU project to produce a household robot, has unveiled the prototype called Justine, saying ‘She's flexible and precise enough to make a cup of coffee’. Unfortunately Justine seems to have a mind of her own and will only make instant coffee at the moment, not much use in Italy.
Judging by the streets of Naples she appears to be OK at putting the rubbish out, though.
Hollywood strongman Sylvester Stallone says he wants to die in Italy. Suggestions are that he might try his luck as a pedestrian in central Rome or steal a parking slot in Asti.
Outgoing Deputy Premier and Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli on Monday announced his intention to run for mayor of Rome. He was mayor in 1993 and 2001
Rutelli’s nickname is Cicciobello, a popular baby doll, signifying baby good looks but empty of content.
Rutelli will be associated with Walter Veltroni’s Partito Democratico, an ethnic band cemented by a shared commercial intent based on the sharing of rubbish.
22 February, 2008
Our investment
At a time of credit squeeze on the one hand and falling house prices on the other you would expect a bank to tighten its lending criteria. We used to say, when I was in banking some years ago, that if you had to force the sale of a property and go to the expense and delay of getting its owners out, the most you could lend was 70% of its value. Given property prices are falling it doesn't take much sense to see that the ratio should be around 60%.
Until last night, Northern Rock were lending 125%, double what is prudent and considerably more than what is barely sane. Until last night! And Gordon Brown says it has a healthy loan book, but until his defeat in the Lords, didn't want us to be able to find anything out about our investment under the Freedom of Information Act.
What have they got us into? I would remind readers that I pointed out last year that this had been done to save jobs in a Labour heartland. How much is each of these votes going to cost us?
Until last night, Northern Rock were lending 125%, double what is prudent and considerably more than what is barely sane. Until last night! And Gordon Brown says it has a healthy loan book, but until his defeat in the Lords, didn't want us to be able to find anything out about our investment under the Freedom of Information Act.
What have they got us into? I would remind readers that I pointed out last year that this had been done to save jobs in a Labour heartland. How much is each of these votes going to cost us?
21 February, 2008
Liechtenstein isolated!
According to the FT, Chancellor Merkel of Germany has threatened Liechtenstein with isolation in Europe unless it changes its banking secrecy laws. German prosecutors suspect 1,000 people of using special trusts in Liechtenstein to hide hundreds of millions of euros from tax authorities. Merkel said Liechtenstein must act fast: “The clock is ticking.”
Prince Alois of Liechtenstein accused Germany of acting in the affair like an “overpowering state”.
So: Germany wants high public expenditure and high taxes which some of its citizens try to evade. This is entirely a German problem and yet Merkel tries to blame it on tiny Liechtenstein, saying that despite the fact that it is not part of Germany and not even in the EU, it should not have the right to set a taxation system which does not please Germany.
I wonder if Mrs Merkel is so insensitive as not to realise this behaviour might bring back memories for some people. The whole affair is an utter disgrace and I hope the brave Prince Alois will give her a properly Saxon response.
Prince Alois of Liechtenstein accused Germany of acting in the affair like an “overpowering state”.
So: Germany wants high public expenditure and high taxes which some of its citizens try to evade. This is entirely a German problem and yet Merkel tries to blame it on tiny Liechtenstein, saying that despite the fact that it is not part of Germany and not even in the EU, it should not have the right to set a taxation system which does not please Germany.
I wonder if Mrs Merkel is so insensitive as not to realise this behaviour might bring back memories for some people. The whole affair is an utter disgrace and I hope the brave Prince Alois will give her a properly Saxon response.
17 February, 2008
Cyprus
The current Cypriot elections are a closely fought battle, and they are significant because the new incumbent will have to do something about Turkey, and the candidates have different leanings on the subject.
Henry Kissinger told his staff that if ever they found him making plans about Cyprus they were to put him in a straightjacket and bundle him off to the nearest hospital, but I do think a little objectivity might be in order.
Here’s what the BBC say on their website and it’s the nearest I have ever seen them come towards impartiality:
Cyprus was partitioned after a Turkish invasion in 1974, which came shortly after a Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military junta ruling Greece at the time.
So the Turkish invasion came ‘shortly after’ the coup – no hint that it was because of the coup, that the Greek military junta overthrew the constitution and Turkey had to protect its citizens.
Just suppose there was some other country, say Kuwait, and a neighbouring power, a military junta, fomented revolt then poured its troops in, setting up a foreign government with martial law. The UN intervenes. Which side would you expect your government to support?
There has been a great deal of evil done here over the last 34 years, by both sides, but why do we support the regime which broke the agreed bipartisan constitution in Cyprus? Why don’t we recognise neither side, or both, and let them sort it out?
The Turks will never trust us to broker a solution unless we are impartial.
Henry Kissinger told his staff that if ever they found him making plans about Cyprus they were to put him in a straightjacket and bundle him off to the nearest hospital, but I do think a little objectivity might be in order.
Here’s what the BBC say on their website and it’s the nearest I have ever seen them come towards impartiality:
Cyprus was partitioned after a Turkish invasion in 1974, which came shortly after a Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military junta ruling Greece at the time.
So the Turkish invasion came ‘shortly after’ the coup – no hint that it was because of the coup, that the Greek military junta overthrew the constitution and Turkey had to protect its citizens.
Just suppose there was some other country, say Kuwait, and a neighbouring power, a military junta, fomented revolt then poured its troops in, setting up a foreign government with martial law. The UN intervenes. Which side would you expect your government to support?
There has been a great deal of evil done here over the last 34 years, by both sides, but why do we support the regime which broke the agreed bipartisan constitution in Cyprus? Why don’t we recognise neither side, or both, and let them sort it out?
The Turks will never trust us to broker a solution unless we are impartial.
Price Charles and Global Warming
I am a big fan of Prince Charles. He has spoken such a lot of sense over the years that I can allow him a piece of ill-advised nonsense occasionally, and such is, it would appear, his latest speech to the European Parliament on climate change.
Cranmer berates him (and HRH such a supporter of the prayer book!) for his statement ‘Surely this is just the moment in history for which the European Union was created?’ saying ‘When a rump Parliament, corrupt Church and a compromised Crown are all united in favour of ‘ever closer union’, only divine intervention, revolution, or a latter-day Cromwell can save the British people from the 'unavoidable' tyranny’
Well, well. No one is more eurosceptical than me, and I do think the Prince was ‘ill-advised’ to make such a political statement (I can only assume the PM’s office read his speech in advance and concluded it would take some of the pressure off them – which is one reason why it was ill advised).
But actually I don’t mind environmental issues being sorted at EU level – it is a cross border thing. It’s all the other interference into our lives I can’t stand. It’s easy enough: discuss, make a proposal, then publish the names of those countries that disagreed (no vetoes, thanks).
There’s a couple of things I can’t grasp, however. Firstly I keep reading that there is in fact no global warming at the moment. That statistically (whatever that means) global temperatures have been stable for 10 years. Do the environmentalists accept this? In what way is it wrong?
Secondly, HRH talks about warming of 1.5 degrees but the Kyoto protocol would (if it had worked, and it didn’t) have reduced temperatures by only 0.5deg. Doesn’t this mean we are wasting our time trying to cut carbon emissions to reduce temperatures and would spend the money better looking after the people who will be affected?
Perhaps one of my readers knows the answer to all this. I don’t.
Cranmer berates him (and HRH such a supporter of the prayer book!) for his statement ‘Surely this is just the moment in history for which the European Union was created?’ saying ‘When a rump Parliament, corrupt Church and a compromised Crown are all united in favour of ‘ever closer union’, only divine intervention, revolution, or a latter-day Cromwell can save the British people from the 'unavoidable' tyranny’
Well, well. No one is more eurosceptical than me, and I do think the Prince was ‘ill-advised’ to make such a political statement (I can only assume the PM’s office read his speech in advance and concluded it would take some of the pressure off them – which is one reason why it was ill advised).
But actually I don’t mind environmental issues being sorted at EU level – it is a cross border thing. It’s all the other interference into our lives I can’t stand. It’s easy enough: discuss, make a proposal, then publish the names of those countries that disagreed (no vetoes, thanks).
There’s a couple of things I can’t grasp, however. Firstly I keep reading that there is in fact no global warming at the moment. That statistically (whatever that means) global temperatures have been stable for 10 years. Do the environmentalists accept this? In what way is it wrong?
Secondly, HRH talks about warming of 1.5 degrees but the Kyoto protocol would (if it had worked, and it didn’t) have reduced temperatures by only 0.5deg. Doesn’t this mean we are wasting our time trying to cut carbon emissions to reduce temperatures and would spend the money better looking after the people who will be affected?
Perhaps one of my readers knows the answer to all this. I don’t.
16 February, 2008
Italian News Valentine's Special
St Valentine was Italian (what else?) and was Bishop of Terni, martyred in Rome in the 3rd century.
Valentine had no connection with February 14th, which is the day birds are supposed to mate.
A pair of golden eagles mated this year on 14th February in front of a huge face of Mussolini carved into the hillside near the Marche town of Acqualanga. The act has been posted on You Tube.
Another reason for the date is that it is near the Roman festival of Lupercal when young men worshipping the cult of Romulus, Remus and the She Wolf (La Lupa) dressed only in the skins of newly killed goats, beat their prospective partners with slivers of goatskin.
My researches indicate that this practice is not now popular.
Italians spent 100 million euros on 22 million flowers for Valentine’s Day. Although lilies and orchids are popular, roses account for 60% of all flowers sold during this period.
By the end of Thursday, Italians are expected to have handed over 14 million roses, at a cost of some 45 million euros. That is about 10 times the amount spent on chocolates.
Red roses are regarded as the classic, if somewhat banal sign of passion, while white ones indicate pure, spiritual love. Musky pink indicates a capricious beauty, a peach colour means secret love and light pink highlights friendship and gratitude. Yellow roses can point to the passion connected to overpowering jealousy but can also hint at a declining love.
As can beating your partner with slivers of goatskin.
In other news,
Italians have a passion for comic strips. 2,800 are published per year, of which 58% are translated from Japanes and Korean
An Italian survey for the anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol on 16th February determined that Italy has 11,876,691,354 trees of more than 1.3 metres in height and 4.5cm in diameter, around 200 per person.
The most common species is the beech, diffuse in the Appenines.
Emilia Romagna and Umbria are the most densely forested with over 1,800 trees per hectare, while the Northern regions of Valle d’Aosta and Alto Adige have around 700.
The Kyoto anniversary was also celebrated by turning off the lights. Darkness descended on The Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, Saint Mark's Square in Venice, and the Italian parliament (not much change there, then).
Italy’s economy is thought to have contracted in the 4th quarter of 2007, despite paying a lot of people to count the trees, but no one is sure because a technical problem held up production of the data.
Although official statistics show that Italy has one of the lowest employment rates in Europe, an estimated 6m Italians are thought to have two jobs.
Italy has over 120,000 architects, more than any country in Europe. Germany is second with 50,000; Finland has only 2,280.
Police have uncovered the hideout of Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo, astonishingly near Palermo in Sicily. The Lo Piccolo clan controlled much of Palermo through charging businesses and shops 'pizzi' of between 500 and 10,000 euros a month. They even imposed a fixed charge of 15 euros to keep electricity running in parts of the Sicilian capital (it is thought many customers complained they weren’t succeeding).
A survey of prostitutes in Italy has shown 34% hold degrees or diplomas, 11% speak at least one foreign language correctly, 9% read five or six books a year and 38% read at least one newspaper a day. Over 50% of prostitutes prefer to watch political talk shows to reality shows. 26% prefer to exercise their profession in the early afternoon, from 1pm to 3pm, while only 16% still opt for the night.
Researchers from the universities of Pavia and Milan, using a small nuclear reactor to examine strands of his hair, have determined the British did not poison Napoleon
The pigeons in Venice costs each resident some 275 euros a year to clean up the mess.
The largest memorabilia show ever dedicated to Pinocchio will be held in Milan in March. Carlo Collodi's Adventures of Pinocchio, whose nose grew longer and longer if he told a lie, was first published in 1883 and is Italy's most printed book after the Bible in the last 100 years. In Italy today there are 400 Pinocchio collectors.
There is a new Euro-quality level for Neapolitan pizzas, which must be made only of hardwheat flour, fresh yeast, water and sea salt, with a topping of olive oil, San Marzano tomatoes (in slices no thicker than 8mm) mozzarella di bufala and basil.
Football is a major export for Italy. Following England’s appointment of Fabio Cappello, former Italy manager Giovanni Trapattoni is the new manager of Ireland.
Michele 'The Pope' Greco, known for his ability to mediate between the various families in the Sicilian Mafia has died aged 83.
Benedict ‘The Pope’ XVI has instructed bishops to show ''greater sobriety and rigour'' when deciding candidates for sainthood. They over-promote local heroes, and their noses are getting longer and longer.
Valentine had no connection with February 14th, which is the day birds are supposed to mate.
A pair of golden eagles mated this year on 14th February in front of a huge face of Mussolini carved into the hillside near the Marche town of Acqualanga. The act has been posted on You Tube.
Another reason for the date is that it is near the Roman festival of Lupercal when young men worshipping the cult of Romulus, Remus and the She Wolf (La Lupa) dressed only in the skins of newly killed goats, beat their prospective partners with slivers of goatskin.
My researches indicate that this practice is not now popular.
Italians spent 100 million euros on 22 million flowers for Valentine’s Day. Although lilies and orchids are popular, roses account for 60% of all flowers sold during this period.
By the end of Thursday, Italians are expected to have handed over 14 million roses, at a cost of some 45 million euros. That is about 10 times the amount spent on chocolates.
Red roses are regarded as the classic, if somewhat banal sign of passion, while white ones indicate pure, spiritual love. Musky pink indicates a capricious beauty, a peach colour means secret love and light pink highlights friendship and gratitude. Yellow roses can point to the passion connected to overpowering jealousy but can also hint at a declining love.
As can beating your partner with slivers of goatskin.
In other news,
Italians have a passion for comic strips. 2,800 are published per year, of which 58% are translated from Japanes and Korean
An Italian survey for the anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol on 16th February determined that Italy has 11,876,691,354 trees of more than 1.3 metres in height and 4.5cm in diameter, around 200 per person.
The most common species is the beech, diffuse in the Appenines.
Emilia Romagna and Umbria are the most densely forested with over 1,800 trees per hectare, while the Northern regions of Valle d’Aosta and Alto Adige have around 700.
The Kyoto anniversary was also celebrated by turning off the lights. Darkness descended on The Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, Saint Mark's Square in Venice, and the Italian parliament (not much change there, then).
Italy’s economy is thought to have contracted in the 4th quarter of 2007, despite paying a lot of people to count the trees, but no one is sure because a technical problem held up production of the data.
Although official statistics show that Italy has one of the lowest employment rates in Europe, an estimated 6m Italians are thought to have two jobs.
Italy has over 120,000 architects, more than any country in Europe. Germany is second with 50,000; Finland has only 2,280.
Police have uncovered the hideout of Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo, astonishingly near Palermo in Sicily. The Lo Piccolo clan controlled much of Palermo through charging businesses and shops 'pizzi' of between 500 and 10,000 euros a month. They even imposed a fixed charge of 15 euros to keep electricity running in parts of the Sicilian capital (it is thought many customers complained they weren’t succeeding).
A survey of prostitutes in Italy has shown 34% hold degrees or diplomas, 11% speak at least one foreign language correctly, 9% read five or six books a year and 38% read at least one newspaper a day. Over 50% of prostitutes prefer to watch political talk shows to reality shows. 26% prefer to exercise their profession in the early afternoon, from 1pm to 3pm, while only 16% still opt for the night.
Researchers from the universities of Pavia and Milan, using a small nuclear reactor to examine strands of his hair, have determined the British did not poison Napoleon
The pigeons in Venice costs each resident some 275 euros a year to clean up the mess.
The largest memorabilia show ever dedicated to Pinocchio will be held in Milan in March. Carlo Collodi's Adventures of Pinocchio, whose nose grew longer and longer if he told a lie, was first published in 1883 and is Italy's most printed book after the Bible in the last 100 years. In Italy today there are 400 Pinocchio collectors.
There is a new Euro-quality level for Neapolitan pizzas, which must be made only of hardwheat flour, fresh yeast, water and sea salt, with a topping of olive oil, San Marzano tomatoes (in slices no thicker than 8mm) mozzarella di bufala and basil.
Football is a major export for Italy. Following England’s appointment of Fabio Cappello, former Italy manager Giovanni Trapattoni is the new manager of Ireland.
Michele 'The Pope' Greco, known for his ability to mediate between the various families in the Sicilian Mafia has died aged 83.
Benedict ‘The Pope’ XVI has instructed bishops to show ''greater sobriety and rigour'' when deciding candidates for sainthood. They over-promote local heroes, and their noses are getting longer and longer.
13 February, 2008
Athletics and drugs
Dwain Chambers tested positive for a banned substance in 2004, was barred from athletics competition and is now back. Unfortunately, he still seems to run faster than the other competitors and wants a place in the England team. The selectors think his presence in the team would be embarrassing but Chambers, understandably, says he did the crime but he’s done the time.
The only solution to all this is to be found in Formula 1. Just as they have the Constructors’ championship, parallel to the individual drivers’ one, so athletics would have a pharmaceutical championship, with, say, Hoechst competing alongside Glaxo SmithKline and Aventis for having assisted the quickest athletic performances.
It would bring a huge amount of sponsorship to the sport and only recognise what is already going on.
The only solution to all this is to be found in Formula 1. Just as they have the Constructors’ championship, parallel to the individual drivers’ one, so athletics would have a pharmaceutical championship, with, say, Hoechst competing alongside Glaxo SmithKline and Aventis for having assisted the quickest athletic performances.
It would bring a huge amount of sponsorship to the sport and only recognise what is already going on.
11 February, 2008
Multiculturalism
In my post The Bench on the Left I argued that Archbishop Williams’ statement that incorporation of some Shari’a law into our own was ‘inevitable’, was simply multiculturalism gone mad, like the call for an end to the blasphemy laws. Now, after a million words of outrage the dust has settled and opinion formers are beginning to agree.
Here is Janet Daley in the Telegraph ‘The archbishop has discredited not just himself, and the über-tolerant multicultural lobby that he sought to support, but the position of the established Church.’
And an astonishing U-turn from leftie Johann Hari in the Independent: ‘Rowan Williams has shown us one thing – why multiculturalism must be abandoned’
You heard it here first
Here is Janet Daley in the Telegraph ‘The archbishop has discredited not just himself, and the über-tolerant multicultural lobby that he sought to support, but the position of the established Church.’
And an astonishing U-turn from leftie Johann Hari in the Independent: ‘Rowan Williams has shown us one thing – why multiculturalism must be abandoned’
You heard it here first
09 February, 2008
Italian News Justice Special
A 34-year-old butcher from Vicenza has got away with a commuted prison sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old girl after judges decided the pair were ''in love''.
The Italian age of consent is 14, or 13 if there is less than a three-year age gap between the two people involved.
Two septuagenarian agricultural labourers from Puglia, who are suing the Social Security Service for pension rights, have been given a hearing date of 27th February 2020. This would imply a ruling between 2025 and 2030 and a lodging of the decision in 2035 assuming there were no delays. On appeal the hearing was brought forward to 2013.
In Rome you can register a complaint that you have been waiting too long for justice, but the registration takes two years
200,000 cases a year expire due to the statute of limitations.
58% of prison inmates are still awaiting sentence.
A civil case takes an average of eight years. A divorce takes 7 ½ years.
Less than 5% of fines are collected
A judge forgot about an immigrant held in jail for 15 months but got off with a warning because it was his first time.
3,612 preliminary investigations to ascertain judges’ liability in 3,612 cases of compensation for protracted trials have ended with 3,612 acquittals.
Failure to update the system (it is done by hand) enabled one woman of no fixed abode to be detained 122 times in various towns for theft and mugging, and sentenced to segments of six to nine months on each occasion, racking up a theoretical total of over 50 years imprisonment without spending a single day in jail.
In Campobasso district €138,000 are allocated for the expenses of the courts; €1 million are allocated to compensate people for the delays.
In other news,
American Democrats living in Italy and Italians with dual nationality were able to vote in the 'Super Tuesday' primaries thanks to polling stations set up in Milan, Florence, Rome and Bologna. Italy's minister for sports and youth policy, Giovanna Melandri, has dual nationality and voted for Sen. Obama
Tuscans produce the most rubbish in Italy, 700kg per person per year, 24% more than the average.
Malpensa airport, which describes itself as Milan (it is 45 minutes away by train) is suing the bankrupt Alitalia for €1.25 billion for having cut 180 fights a day from its schedules.
Omar Bin Laden, 27 year old son of the more famous Osama, was seen on a shopping trip in Rome with his 52 year old British wife Jane Felix Browne, both dressed in black leather. He says he wants to meet the pope.
Italy has the highest total in the European Union of deaths at the workplace.
18% of Italian children are born outside wedlock. The figure for France and Sweden is over 50%
Life expectancy in Italy is 78.6 years for a man and 84 years for a woman. Men live an average of a year longer in Umbria (most of it spent queuing at the Post Office). 30% of Italians are over 65 compared to a European average of 25%
Perugia celebrates the 550th anniversary of the birth of Renaissance artist Pinturicchio. The local boy, described as ''small, deaf and not much of a looker'' by a contemporary writer, overcame his misfortunes to become a favourite of dissolute Borgia pope Alexander VI and worked on the Sistine Chapel.
Silvio Berlusconi will lead ‘People of Freedom’, an alliance of Forza Italia and the Allianza Nazionale, into the elections. He is the world’s 52nd richest man, a tribute to what you can achieve despite being small, deaf and not much of a looker.
The Italian age of consent is 14, or 13 if there is less than a three-year age gap between the two people involved.
Two septuagenarian agricultural labourers from Puglia, who are suing the Social Security Service for pension rights, have been given a hearing date of 27th February 2020. This would imply a ruling between 2025 and 2030 and a lodging of the decision in 2035 assuming there were no delays. On appeal the hearing was brought forward to 2013.
In Rome you can register a complaint that you have been waiting too long for justice, but the registration takes two years
200,000 cases a year expire due to the statute of limitations.
58% of prison inmates are still awaiting sentence.
A civil case takes an average of eight years. A divorce takes 7 ½ years.
Less than 5% of fines are collected
A judge forgot about an immigrant held in jail for 15 months but got off with a warning because it was his first time.
3,612 preliminary investigations to ascertain judges’ liability in 3,612 cases of compensation for protracted trials have ended with 3,612 acquittals.
Failure to update the system (it is done by hand) enabled one woman of no fixed abode to be detained 122 times in various towns for theft and mugging, and sentenced to segments of six to nine months on each occasion, racking up a theoretical total of over 50 years imprisonment without spending a single day in jail.
In Campobasso district €138,000 are allocated for the expenses of the courts; €1 million are allocated to compensate people for the delays.
In other news,
American Democrats living in Italy and Italians with dual nationality were able to vote in the 'Super Tuesday' primaries thanks to polling stations set up in Milan, Florence, Rome and Bologna. Italy's minister for sports and youth policy, Giovanna Melandri, has dual nationality and voted for Sen. Obama
Tuscans produce the most rubbish in Italy, 700kg per person per year, 24% more than the average.
Malpensa airport, which describes itself as Milan (it is 45 minutes away by train) is suing the bankrupt Alitalia for €1.25 billion for having cut 180 fights a day from its schedules.
Omar Bin Laden, 27 year old son of the more famous Osama, was seen on a shopping trip in Rome with his 52 year old British wife Jane Felix Browne, both dressed in black leather. He says he wants to meet the pope.
Italy has the highest total in the European Union of deaths at the workplace.
18% of Italian children are born outside wedlock. The figure for France and Sweden is over 50%
Life expectancy in Italy is 78.6 years for a man and 84 years for a woman. Men live an average of a year longer in Umbria (most of it spent queuing at the Post Office). 30% of Italians are over 65 compared to a European average of 25%
Perugia celebrates the 550th anniversary of the birth of Renaissance artist Pinturicchio. The local boy, described as ''small, deaf and not much of a looker'' by a contemporary writer, overcame his misfortunes to become a favourite of dissolute Borgia pope Alexander VI and worked on the Sistine Chapel.
Silvio Berlusconi will lead ‘People of Freedom’, an alliance of Forza Italia and the Allianza Nazionale, into the elections. He is the world’s 52nd richest man, a tribute to what you can achieve despite being small, deaf and not much of a looker.
The Bench on the Left
A month ago (see my post the Church the Dimwits and the atheists) it was a former Archbishop of Canterbury who had called for the abolition of the blasphemy laws. Now the present incumbent has called for the introduction of some elements of Shari’a law into our system. You don’t usually hear much from Archbishops, so what is going on?
The point about the proposal to abolish the blasphemy laws is that it amounted to a plea for multiculturalism: blasphemy only exists against certain tenets held by the Established Church: you can’t blaspheme against other religions (at least it isn’t a crime).
This outburst by Rowan Williams is the same. He can’t see why there should be some aspects about living in Britain which are individual to Britain: in this case British Common Law which holds individual non-Muslim views about marriage and financial disputes among other things.
You never heard of multiculturalism 30 years ago. It crept into the language of the Left almost unnoticed as a replacement for multi-racialism. It is of course much different. The Left hate the nation state, whereas the British people, by and large, do not. In my view immigrants want to see Britishness here.
Now even the left has realised that we should be heading for a multiracial, monocultural society. All on the left, that is, except for the Church of England, which not only is proceeding on its multicultural way but has not noticed the shift of opinion against it in the last few years. I wrote in January ‘This recent blast is the last call of the manic multiculturalists’, but it seems they are not finished with us yet.
We should ask Rowan Williams to begin his multicultural journey in countries where Shari’a law applies.
The point about the proposal to abolish the blasphemy laws is that it amounted to a plea for multiculturalism: blasphemy only exists against certain tenets held by the Established Church: you can’t blaspheme against other religions (at least it isn’t a crime).
This outburst by Rowan Williams is the same. He can’t see why there should be some aspects about living in Britain which are individual to Britain: in this case British Common Law which holds individual non-Muslim views about marriage and financial disputes among other things.
You never heard of multiculturalism 30 years ago. It crept into the language of the Left almost unnoticed as a replacement for multi-racialism. It is of course much different. The Left hate the nation state, whereas the British people, by and large, do not. In my view immigrants want to see Britishness here.
Now even the left has realised that we should be heading for a multiracial, monocultural society. All on the left, that is, except for the Church of England, which not only is proceeding on its multicultural way but has not noticed the shift of opinion against it in the last few years. I wrote in January ‘This recent blast is the last call of the manic multiculturalists’, but it seems they are not finished with us yet.
We should ask Rowan Williams to begin his multicultural journey in countries where Shari’a law applies.
06 February, 2008
Bugging
The Group Privacy International on its website produces a map of the world according to the level of surveillance of the public and the controls to limit it. Britain ranks at the most dangerous level ‘endemic surveillance societies’ along with Russia, China, Malaysia etc.
Now I believe it is the right thing to do to bug suspected terrorists and serious criminals. And I believe it to be perfectly possible that someone with terrorist leaning could become an MP: the Wilson doctrine whereby MPs are not bugged, drawn up at a time of suspected and proven communists in the government, was clearly always nonsense.
But we need to change two things: firstly the bugging of people over trivial matters. It is clearly wrong that councils can tap your phone if they suspect you of not filling the rubbish bins correctly. Secondly we need proper accountability: if someone has been bugged we need to know exactly who will have authorised that bugging. Often it will have been the right thing to do or at least defensible. Sometimes I fear it will not have been and that person needs to be held to account.
The Tories are going to find this hard to articulate, but they must try.
Now I believe it is the right thing to do to bug suspected terrorists and serious criminals. And I believe it to be perfectly possible that someone with terrorist leaning could become an MP: the Wilson doctrine whereby MPs are not bugged, drawn up at a time of suspected and proven communists in the government, was clearly always nonsense.
But we need to change two things: firstly the bugging of people over trivial matters. It is clearly wrong that councils can tap your phone if they suspect you of not filling the rubbish bins correctly. Secondly we need proper accountability: if someone has been bugged we need to know exactly who will have authorised that bugging. Often it will have been the right thing to do or at least defensible. Sometimes I fear it will not have been and that person needs to be held to account.
The Tories are going to find this hard to articulate, but they must try.
05 February, 2008
Italy votes
Berlusconi has refused to co-operate with temporary prime minister Marini (Berlusconi is way ahead in the polls so who can blame him) so Italy will have its election. Favoured date is 13th April (like most European countries Italy votes on a Sunday).
04 February, 2008
Cecile Freund
Cecile: j'ai recu tes messages mais le blog ne me donne pas ton adresse email. Tu peux me contacter a timhedges@btinternet.com : il me plairait beaucoup d'apprendre comment ca va chez toi. Tim
Italy and England
After one of my rants about corruption in British politics someone posted that as a commentator on Italian politics I seemed to put up with quite a lot here. And it’s true: ‘sleaze’, which we might define as the political class feathering its own nest, legally or illegally, is rife here, and far worse than in England.
First let me say that I am a guest in this country. That does not mean that I think it wrong to criticise – it’s in the interests of Italy that someone who has experience of other countries should make his views known and anyway I pay taxes the same as anyone else. It’s just that I believe that you get the politicians, and the political system, that you deserve, and this is what the Italians chose. They can change it: Italy is a democracy.
Don’t get me wrong: when I read that poor families are having difficulty making it to the end of the month and that Clemente Mastella went to a football match in an Airbus paid for by the State (not illegal of course but definitely sleazy) my blood boils. But Britain and Italy are very different places:
1 Martin Luther. The Catholic countries of Europe, France, Italy and Spain, never got the Puritan morality thrust on them: ‘this is a sin and must be denounced!’. You would never get the typical News of the World headline ‘X in three-in-a-bed shame’. Here if someone gets into bed with a couple of supermodels it is not a cause for shame: good on him. Equally if you manage to screw something out of the state good luck.
2 Jealousy. I think this rather springs from the Catholic/protestant argument above. I remember Jeremy Clarkson having parked a brand new Ferrari convertible outside a pub and returning to find it full of spittle. Here if you have a nice car, people say ‘Complimenti’. They think that someone important should travel in a Maserati and have a supermodel on his arm. This is La Bella Figura. Not to do so would count against him.
3 For obvious reasons after the war the Italian Constitution did not place too much power centrally. Ironically giving powers to the regions has meant there are very few controls on the use of power centrally (and almost none in the regions where corruption is rife)
4 There is so much organised crime here that people can’t get excited about a bit of sleaze.
Lastly I think Britain should be an example of honesty and straight dealing. So I shall go on shooting my mouth off about sleaze whether it’s in Italy, England or anywhere else.
First let me say that I am a guest in this country. That does not mean that I think it wrong to criticise – it’s in the interests of Italy that someone who has experience of other countries should make his views known and anyway I pay taxes the same as anyone else. It’s just that I believe that you get the politicians, and the political system, that you deserve, and this is what the Italians chose. They can change it: Italy is a democracy.
Don’t get me wrong: when I read that poor families are having difficulty making it to the end of the month and that Clemente Mastella went to a football match in an Airbus paid for by the State (not illegal of course but definitely sleazy) my blood boils. But Britain and Italy are very different places:
1 Martin Luther. The Catholic countries of Europe, France, Italy and Spain, never got the Puritan morality thrust on them: ‘this is a sin and must be denounced!’. You would never get the typical News of the World headline ‘X in three-in-a-bed shame’. Here if someone gets into bed with a couple of supermodels it is not a cause for shame: good on him. Equally if you manage to screw something out of the state good luck.
2 Jealousy. I think this rather springs from the Catholic/protestant argument above. I remember Jeremy Clarkson having parked a brand new Ferrari convertible outside a pub and returning to find it full of spittle. Here if you have a nice car, people say ‘Complimenti’. They think that someone important should travel in a Maserati and have a supermodel on his arm. This is La Bella Figura. Not to do so would count against him.
3 For obvious reasons after the war the Italian Constitution did not place too much power centrally. Ironically giving powers to the regions has meant there are very few controls on the use of power centrally (and almost none in the regions where corruption is rife)
4 There is so much organised crime here that people can’t get excited about a bit of sleaze.
Lastly I think Britain should be an example of honesty and straight dealing. So I shall go on shooting my mouth off about sleaze whether it’s in Italy, England or anywhere else.
03 February, 2008
I am not a crook
There’s a lot of weasel words going on about parliamentary sleaze at the moment and I think it is time to be clear on at least the basics.
The Guy Fawkes blog has been making the running on this and today he lists five current investigations. There will be more, I think we all know that. And politicians run around like headless chickens wondering why hardly anyone votes! People think that one lot is as bad as another so what’s the point?
Now we are getting the sly mitigation. Ian Dale, a decent man, wonders whether Mr Conway – suspended from parliament and the whip withdrawn – hasn’t suffered enough, whether we shouldn’t call an end to the witch-hunt. Conway himself in the Sunday Mail says he has done nothing wrong (inadvertently copying the ‘I am not a crook’ line from Richard Nixon); Wendy Alexander says no useful purpose would result from her resigning.
This is where we have to be clear. Nothing can be above parliament in a parliamentary democracy so we must let them rule themselves. This takes a leap of faith on the part of the populace, particularly now, but we can do it. In return we require absolute scrupulousness. These people knew they were doing wrong – Conway, Hain, Alexander, the rest – but they thought they’d get away with it.
Parliament rules itself – no problem with that – but the burden of proof must be on our politicians to show they are without sin, otherwise they will not be allowed to make laws over us. Even if Conway were innocent – and frankly I don’t believe for a moment that he is – he should have been so scared of opprobrium that he kept proper records of his family’s work.
In the meantime we must root out every single instance of this, or the very foundation of our democracy – people going out to vote – will be at risk.
The Guy Fawkes blog has been making the running on this and today he lists five current investigations. There will be more, I think we all know that. And politicians run around like headless chickens wondering why hardly anyone votes! People think that one lot is as bad as another so what’s the point?
Now we are getting the sly mitigation. Ian Dale, a decent man, wonders whether Mr Conway – suspended from parliament and the whip withdrawn – hasn’t suffered enough, whether we shouldn’t call an end to the witch-hunt. Conway himself in the Sunday Mail says he has done nothing wrong (inadvertently copying the ‘I am not a crook’ line from Richard Nixon); Wendy Alexander says no useful purpose would result from her resigning.
This is where we have to be clear. Nothing can be above parliament in a parliamentary democracy so we must let them rule themselves. This takes a leap of faith on the part of the populace, particularly now, but we can do it. In return we require absolute scrupulousness. These people knew they were doing wrong – Conway, Hain, Alexander, the rest – but they thought they’d get away with it.
Parliament rules itself – no problem with that – but the burden of proof must be on our politicians to show they are without sin, otherwise they will not be allowed to make laws over us. Even if Conway were innocent – and frankly I don’t believe for a moment that he is – he should have been so scared of opprobrium that he kept proper records of his family’s work.
In the meantime we must root out every single instance of this, or the very foundation of our democracy – people going out to vote – will be at risk.
La premiere dame
Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni are married. She will be the best looking First Lady since Marie-Antoinette, and the first to sing in an advert for a foreign car.
Don't forget Sarkozy is not just head of the executive but head of state; one wonders what the British reaction would be if the Duke of Edinburgh were in an advert for Peugeot. On balance I think it would be a lot more entertaining than Ms Bruni singing 'Bang Bang My Baby Shot me down', particularly if, to make the comparison fair, HRH were singing the same song.
Don't forget Sarkozy is not just head of the executive but head of state; one wonders what the British reaction would be if the Duke of Edinburgh were in an advert for Peugeot. On balance I think it would be a lot more entertaining than Ms Bruni singing 'Bang Bang My Baby Shot me down', particularly if, to make the comparison fair, HRH were singing the same song.
02 February, 2008
Italian News - Volare Special
The song known to millions as Volare (oh-oh-oh-oh) is 50 years old this week. It is the most popular Italian song ever, except for the ice cream advert one.
This week at the San Remo festival there will be the unmissable treat of a lengthy tribute to the song.
Its proper name is Nel Blu dipinto di blu (in the blue painted blue)
The song concerns a dream in which the protagonist paints his face and hands blue and flies.
The composer says it was inspired by Marc Chagall’s painting Le coq rouge (the red cock – not easy this is it?).
The State broadcaster refused to broadcast the first performance, at the San Remo festival, saying the words were incomprehensible, but it is suspected because Italian singers at that time were supposed to stand still, whereas Domenico Modugno waved his hands in the air (imagine an Italian doing that)
In other news,
A museum dedicated to Benito Mussolini has been opened in response to requests by German tourists. The museum in Salò, on the shores of Lake Garda, examines the last days of fascism in the town that Mussolini used as his headquarters in the final 19 months of the Second World War.
The Pope graciously received the Anglican Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who graciously presented him with a bottle of beer, brewed in Yorkshire and called The Holy Grail.
A Milan court cleared Silvio Berlusconi of false accounting in the 1980s. The charge had been invalidated by the fact that as Prime Minister in 2002 Berlusconi changed the law to make false accounting no longer a crime.
The Italian bee population fell by almost half in 2007 as 200,000 hives disappeared. As well as the drop in honey production a third of all farm produce depends on insect pollination, and around 80% of this is carried out by bees.
Real estate prices in Italy fell by an average of 2.4% in 2007.
The President asked Vice President Franco Marini to try to form a government after the collapse of the Prodi administration.
Mr Berlusconi made an impassioned plea for an election but it was dismissed on the grounds that the words were incomprehensible and he was waving his hands in the air.
This week at the San Remo festival there will be the unmissable treat of a lengthy tribute to the song.
Its proper name is Nel Blu dipinto di blu (in the blue painted blue)
The song concerns a dream in which the protagonist paints his face and hands blue and flies.
The composer says it was inspired by Marc Chagall’s painting Le coq rouge (the red cock – not easy this is it?).
The State broadcaster refused to broadcast the first performance, at the San Remo festival, saying the words were incomprehensible, but it is suspected because Italian singers at that time were supposed to stand still, whereas Domenico Modugno waved his hands in the air (imagine an Italian doing that)
In other news,
A museum dedicated to Benito Mussolini has been opened in response to requests by German tourists. The museum in Salò, on the shores of Lake Garda, examines the last days of fascism in the town that Mussolini used as his headquarters in the final 19 months of the Second World War.
The Pope graciously received the Anglican Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who graciously presented him with a bottle of beer, brewed in Yorkshire and called The Holy Grail.
A Milan court cleared Silvio Berlusconi of false accounting in the 1980s. The charge had been invalidated by the fact that as Prime Minister in 2002 Berlusconi changed the law to make false accounting no longer a crime.
The Italian bee population fell by almost half in 2007 as 200,000 hives disappeared. As well as the drop in honey production a third of all farm produce depends on insect pollination, and around 80% of this is carried out by bees.
Real estate prices in Italy fell by an average of 2.4% in 2007.
The President asked Vice President Franco Marini to try to form a government after the collapse of the Prodi administration.
Mr Berlusconi made an impassioned plea for an election but it was dismissed on the grounds that the words were incomprehensible and he was waving his hands in the air.
31 January, 2008
Italy: a new government?
Franco Marini is a white haired, sprightly 74, a former trade unionist turned centre-left politician. He has belonged to four different political parties, as is the way in Italy, and held a variety of senior posts in the turbulent 1990s. He was made Speaker of the Upper House by Prodi, which in turn carries with it the position of Deputy President.
It seems odd at first that President Napolitano should ask this man to try to form a government when, following the failure of the previous one under Romano Prodi, a second, Berlusconi’s Casa delle Libertà coalition, is waiting in the wings, with opinion polls saying it would win handsomely.
I have written before that the answer lies in electoral reform (in Britain this usually means proportional representation but in Italy it means moving away from it: Prodi has said that PR has made Italy ungovernable) but the constitutional background is interesting. This could happen in very few other countries.
The Italian Constitution, just 60 years old this month, deliberately, following the excesses of the 30s and 40s, weakened the power of central government and therefore made provision for what would happen if it failed. It foresaw the possibility of repeated election of weak governments and provided a series of options of government in the national interest, (what was in the national interest to be decided by the president). These are
Institutional Government, where the President appoints someone whose principal purpose, above party politics, is the maintenance of the institutions of State.
Technical Government: a non party government, full of technocrats
Fixed Term government: a temporary government, an example being the ‘swimming governments’ of 1963 an ’68, just to tide things over the summer holidays when everyone was at the beach and no one wanted an election
Government of National Unity where everyone is encouraged to put principal before politics
At present Marini’s mandate appears to be an explorative one, where he finds out the intentions of the parties and works towards some sort of solution, in this case nominally to get an electoral law passed. Yet it may come to look as if Marini’s real task might be to keep the centre left in power, organise a rimpasto of the parties, literally kneading the dough again. There’s a lot more to come in this story. We tend to forget that in a Republic, the President is a politician, too.
It seems odd at first that President Napolitano should ask this man to try to form a government when, following the failure of the previous one under Romano Prodi, a second, Berlusconi’s Casa delle Libertà coalition, is waiting in the wings, with opinion polls saying it would win handsomely.
I have written before that the answer lies in electoral reform (in Britain this usually means proportional representation but in Italy it means moving away from it: Prodi has said that PR has made Italy ungovernable) but the constitutional background is interesting. This could happen in very few other countries.
The Italian Constitution, just 60 years old this month, deliberately, following the excesses of the 30s and 40s, weakened the power of central government and therefore made provision for what would happen if it failed. It foresaw the possibility of repeated election of weak governments and provided a series of options of government in the national interest, (what was in the national interest to be decided by the president). These are
Institutional Government, where the President appoints someone whose principal purpose, above party politics, is the maintenance of the institutions of State.
Technical Government: a non party government, full of technocrats
Fixed Term government: a temporary government, an example being the ‘swimming governments’ of 1963 an ’68, just to tide things over the summer holidays when everyone was at the beach and no one wanted an election
Government of National Unity where everyone is encouraged to put principal before politics
At present Marini’s mandate appears to be an explorative one, where he finds out the intentions of the parties and works towards some sort of solution, in this case nominally to get an electoral law passed. Yet it may come to look as if Marini’s real task might be to keep the centre left in power, organise a rimpasto of the parties, literally kneading the dough again. There’s a lot more to come in this story. We tend to forget that in a Republic, the President is a politician, too.
29 January, 2008
Transparency
I am just reading that the leaders of the large countries of Europe, meeting in London, have called for greater transparency from financial institutions.
Can we see the minutes of this meeting? No? What about the minutes of the meetings of the European Council?
Oh. Not for everyone, this transparency thing, is it?
Can we see the minutes of this meeting? No? What about the minutes of the meetings of the European Council?
Oh. Not for everyone, this transparency thing, is it?
BBC
I have never been reluctant to give my view of the BBC as an overstaffed, leftist, pro-European multiculturalist racket, and realise that I have just done so again, but it must be praised where praise is due.
The programme Soul Music on Radio 4 deals with emotive pieces of music and what they mean to various people and has just come out with a charming little piece on Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium.
If you get the chance to hear it on the 'Listen again' service, I advise you to do so.
After that it was the Archers ZZZZZzzzzzzzz
The programme Soul Music on Radio 4 deals with emotive pieces of music and what they mean to various people and has just come out with a charming little piece on Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium.
If you get the chance to hear it on the 'Listen again' service, I advise you to do so.
After that it was the Archers ZZZZZzzzzzzzz
Italy voting
Italy, like Belgium, is without a government – or at least without a regularly constituted one. It is worth pointing out that cries of ‘Italy in political crisis’ spring to commentators’ lips a little readily: in the absence of parliamentary support President Napolitano has asked the incumbent Romano Prodi to carry on as a caretaker. The difference with Belgium is that this has been going on for a few days in Italy and several months in Belgium.
The problem in Italy is electoral law – the system under which a new government would be elected. At the last moment under Berlusconi’s premiership he changed the law towards an increased level of Proportional Representation. This was an entirely cynical act by Berlusconi, in that he thought – incorrectly as it turns out – that this would prevent Prodi winning. The feeling in the country now seems to be that a return to some more open system might be in order, and Napolitano wants this change to be enacted before the election. So he is therefore thinking of inviting some outsider to form a government of national unity while they change the electoral law.
In defence of Berlusconi, he may be a spiv but he has the people on his side: opinion polls say he would win handsomely. He was pipped at the post in the election, that government as now failed, he is entitled to an election. If a government fails it ceases to have the right to put its policies into practice, surely?
This is a simplified view – to explain the Italian voting system and the possible options would be the subject of a book – but that’s how it seems to me. Alle urne! To the Polls! It may be that with a decent majority Berlusconi might this time actually do something for his country rather than bend the rules to keep himself out of jail. We shall see.
The problem in Italy is electoral law – the system under which a new government would be elected. At the last moment under Berlusconi’s premiership he changed the law towards an increased level of Proportional Representation. This was an entirely cynical act by Berlusconi, in that he thought – incorrectly as it turns out – that this would prevent Prodi winning. The feeling in the country now seems to be that a return to some more open system might be in order, and Napolitano wants this change to be enacted before the election. So he is therefore thinking of inviting some outsider to form a government of national unity while they change the electoral law.
In defence of Berlusconi, he may be a spiv but he has the people on his side: opinion polls say he would win handsomely. He was pipped at the post in the election, that government as now failed, he is entitled to an election. If a government fails it ceases to have the right to put its policies into practice, surely?
This is a simplified view – to explain the Italian voting system and the possible options would be the subject of a book – but that’s how it seems to me. Alle urne! To the Polls! It may be that with a decent majority Berlusconi might this time actually do something for his country rather than bend the rules to keep himself out of jail. We shall see.
Southern Rock?
No, not a banking crisis in the Home Counties. News is that Spanish Banks have trousered some €53 billion in the last three months alone from the European Central Bank (ECB). Spain, as many Brit holiday home owners know, has been in the midst of a property crisis for some months and there are no signs of it getting any better (being in the euro, the Spanish can’t reduce interest rates).
Interestingly there is no provision for the ECB to act as lender of last resort, as the Bank of England does (you can imagine what the Germans felt about the idea of Mediterranean Banks having their madness and corruption underwritten from Frankfurt) and so, like so much in the EU, this has been done on the quiet. The Banks have issued promissory notes to the ECB which has not sold them on (no one would want to buy them).
My view is that if you’re going to have a disaster let it be out in the open.
Credit to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the story.
Interestingly there is no provision for the ECB to act as lender of last resort, as the Bank of England does (you can imagine what the Germans felt about the idea of Mediterranean Banks having their madness and corruption underwritten from Frankfurt) and so, like so much in the EU, this has been done on the quiet. The Banks have issued promissory notes to the ECB which has not sold them on (no one would want to buy them).
My view is that if you’re going to have a disaster let it be out in the open.
Credit to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the story.
Jamie? Hugh?
Samak Sundaravej presents a TV cookery programme on Thai food called ‘Tasting, Grumbling’. He is the new Prime Minister of Thailand, and will do both jobs simultaneously.
I just wonder how long it will be before we go the same way.
I just wonder how long it will be before we go the same way.
26 January, 2008
Italian News 26 Jan
Italy celebrated the 60th anniversary of its constitution. The first words are ‘Italy is a democratic Republic, founded on work’
The first words of the European Constitution are ‘His Majesty the King of the Belgians’
200 tonnes of undelivered letters were found in a store in Roserio, Lombardy
High drama in the Italian Senate as the government falls. Some senators opened bottles of champagne. Sen. Nuccio Cusumano, who intended supporting Prodi against the wishes of his own party, was verbally
assaulted by colleagues and burst into tears. He then appeared to faint and was carried out.
Baroness Clara said she did not believe Romano Prodi’s story that the cheque he posted was held up at Roserio.
The first words of the European Constitution are ‘His Majesty the King of the Belgians’
200 tonnes of undelivered letters were found in a store in Roserio, Lombardy
High drama in the Italian Senate as the government falls. Some senators opened bottles of champagne. Sen. Nuccio Cusumano, who intended supporting Prodi against the wishes of his own party, was verbally
assaulted by colleagues and burst into tears. He then appeared to faint and was carried out.This is the 61st Italian government since the war, but, interestingly the first to fall to a vote of no confidence
The soi-disant “Baroness” Clara Romano, a faith healer and football adviser, was placed under house arrest in Ancona. Investigators found an uncashed cheque made out to her from Sven-Goran Eriksson, former England football manager, which she kept as a souvenir. She promised Inter Milan they would win the championship if they paid her 6 million euros (they say they paid less) and claims that in the 1998 World cup the Italian team refused her demands and lost to France on penalties.
The soi-disant “Baroness” Clara Romano, a faith healer and football adviser, was placed under house arrest in Ancona. Investigators found an uncashed cheque made out to her from Sven-Goran Eriksson, former England football manager, which she kept as a souvenir. She promised Inter Milan they would win the championship if they paid her 6 million euros (they say they paid less) and claims that in the 1998 World cup the Italian team refused her demands and lost to France on penalties.
An Alfa Romeo sports car that once belonged to Benito Mussolini is expected to fetch nearly £1 million at auction
Venice has established a water bus service for residents only – no tourists. 60,000 people live in central Venice and receive an average of 20 million tourists a year
Church cleaners had to put in an extra shift on Monday after many pets and farm animals couldn't contain themselves at Italy's annual Blessing of the Animals. ''I think you could say the spirit moved them a bit too much,'' said Gianfranco Martella, parish priest at the church of St Eusebius in Rome, where animals stretched out in the aisles for mass before being blessed in the square outside with a shower of holy water by Father Martella. ''It might have been a better idea to use a hose,'' he said.
Wool Group, of Signa, near Florence, will launch a knitwear line made of yarn spun from 100% milk. It will be called Milky Wear. It requires 100 pounds of skimmed milk to make 3 pounds of fibre
Venice has established a water bus service for residents only – no tourists. 60,000 people live in central Venice and receive an average of 20 million tourists a year
Church cleaners had to put in an extra shift on Monday after many pets and farm animals couldn't contain themselves at Italy's annual Blessing of the Animals. ''I think you could say the spirit moved them a bit too much,'' said Gianfranco Martella, parish priest at the church of St Eusebius in Rome, where animals stretched out in the aisles for mass before being blessed in the square outside with a shower of holy water by Father Martella. ''It might have been a better idea to use a hose,'' he said.Wool Group, of Signa, near Florence, will launch a knitwear line made of yarn spun from 100% milk. It will be called Milky Wear. It requires 100 pounds of skimmed milk to make 3 pounds of fibre
The Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, in Pisa, has organized the first Masters Degree in Waste Management. At least it wasn’t in Naples
Italy's underground economy is estimated to have generated around 549 bln euros in 2007, equal to at least 35.5% of Italy's gross domestic product (GDP). Together with the money generated by criminal activities in Italy, and the earnings of Baroness Clara, the total comes to nearly half the economy.
60 supporters of a far-right political party, waving fire crackers and carrying a banner reading "A home is no game", attacked and burst a four metre high transparent plastic bubble set up near Rome’s Milvian bridge to house aspiring Big Brother (Grande Fratello) contestants. One of the occupants, a student, was voted into the Big Brother house, joining an entire Sicilian family and a transsexual from north Italy. He attributes his close escape to Baroness Clara cutting it a bit fine.
The government of Romano Prodi which was defeated in the Senate on Thursday lasted a total of 615 days, making it the seventh-longest in the history of the Italian Republic. The shortest was headed by Giulio Andreotti, only ten days from February 17 to 26, 1972, the longest Silvio Berlusconi's second government , lasting 1,410 days.
Italy's underground economy is estimated to have generated around 549 bln euros in 2007, equal to at least 35.5% of Italy's gross domestic product (GDP). Together with the money generated by criminal activities in Italy, and the earnings of Baroness Clara, the total comes to nearly half the economy.
60 supporters of a far-right political party, waving fire crackers and carrying a banner reading "A home is no game", attacked and burst a four metre high transparent plastic bubble set up near Rome’s Milvian bridge to house aspiring Big Brother (Grande Fratello) contestants. One of the occupants, a student, was voted into the Big Brother house, joining an entire Sicilian family and a transsexual from north Italy. He attributes his close escape to Baroness Clara cutting it a bit fine.
The government of Romano Prodi which was defeated in the Senate on Thursday lasted a total of 615 days, making it the seventh-longest in the history of the Italian Republic. The shortest was headed by Giulio Andreotti, only ten days from February 17 to 26, 1972, the longest Silvio Berlusconi's second government , lasting 1,410 days.
Baroness Clara said she did not believe Romano Prodi’s story that the cheque he posted was held up at Roserio.
24 January, 2008
Coffee in England
I posted in an Italian News about Starbucks not having a branch in Italy. The prices for Starbucks Coffee are £1.40 for an espresso and £2.29 for a Capucino. In my local bar (same as most places in Italy) the prices changed into £ are £0.60 and £0.75 respectively, for, by all accounts, better coffee.
Neither country grows coffee, both countries produce their own milk.
Tim Hedges' First Law says people will be ripped off until they refuse to be ripped off.
Neither country grows coffee, both countries produce their own milk.
Tim Hedges' First Law says people will be ripped off until they refuse to be ripped off.
Peter Hain and others
Well, he's gone. A combination of the Prime Minister giving his full support (always a bad sign) and my saying it wasn't so bad seems to have done for him. Oh, and the police being involved.
The part played by super blogger Guido Fawkes in all this should not be underestimated. Is this the first ministerial casualty to fall to the blogosphere? Sterling work, Guido.
We ought now to see the resignations of Harriet Harman and Wendy Alexander guilty of the same thing but don't hold your breath.
And Jacqui Smith, described as Home Secretary. Here is what she said on the radio about hypothetical occurrences
"It won't be hypothetical if and when it occurs. We are not legislating now on the basis that we are bringing it in now for something that might happen in the future; we are bringing it in now for something that might happen in the future; we are bringing in a position for if it becomes unhypothetical. If, unfortunately I and many other experts are right and we do need it in the future it is in place."
Gloss over the fact that she describes herself as an expert (what on?); this is drivel from a third rate mind. Would you have expected this from Michael Howard or Jack Straw? We are entitled to expect that senior posts are filled by people of a certain level. She ain't.
(Hat-tip for quote: Ben Brogan)
The part played by super blogger Guido Fawkes in all this should not be underestimated. Is this the first ministerial casualty to fall to the blogosphere? Sterling work, Guido.
We ought now to see the resignations of Harriet Harman and Wendy Alexander guilty of the same thing but don't hold your breath.
And Jacqui Smith, described as Home Secretary. Here is what she said on the radio about hypothetical occurrences
"It won't be hypothetical if and when it occurs. We are not legislating now on the basis that we are bringing it in now for something that might happen in the future; we are bringing it in now for something that might happen in the future; we are bringing in a position for if it becomes unhypothetical. If, unfortunately I and many other experts are right and we do need it in the future it is in place."
Gloss over the fact that she describes herself as an expert (what on?); this is drivel from a third rate mind. Would you have expected this from Michael Howard or Jack Straw? We are entitled to expect that senior posts are filled by people of a certain level. She ain't.
(Hat-tip for quote: Ben Brogan)
Free Pants
Well, half price. Reader and pants couturier extraordinaire Dominic Hazelhurst of Sunspel says contact his website http://www.sunspel.com and use the voucher code Paxo Challenge and some cheapie a la mode Y-fronts can be yours.
Gives a new meaning to Customer support
Gives a new meaning to Customer support
23 January, 2008
Eyeless in Gaza
Amidst all the hoo-ha, particularly from the BBC and the European Union, about callousness by Israel, it is worth remembering that Gaza's border with Egypt had also been closed. Egypt didn't even have the excuse that militants were firing rockets into its territory.
A couple of days ago Egyptian police fired on 60 Palestinian women who tried to rush the border in order to purchase supplies.
Now militants have blown the border open.
This is a far from pleasant situation. Let's keep the reporting accurate.
A couple of days ago Egyptian police fired on 60 Palestinian women who tried to rush the border in order to purchase supplies.
Now militants have blown the border open.
This is a far from pleasant situation. Let's keep the reporting accurate.
The Crash
Much soul searching in the papers about the cause of the stock market crash, if crash isn’t too shocking a word (and it isn’t for most of our papers) including an interesting but in my view narrowly complex article by Martin Wolf in the FT. Wolf says the cause of the astonishing boom, followed by the crash is “the massive flows of surplus capital from Asian emerging economies (notably China), oil exporters and a few high-income countries”
And then “Surplus savings meant not only low real interest rates, but a need to generate high levels of offsetting demand in capital-importing countries, of which the US was much the most important”
So in a word there were massive amounts of money in these Asian countries keeping interest rates artificially low – hence the boom. Now it is perhaps tempting for us in the West to say it was all the fault of the Asians but I rather think this has some merit. China booms because it pays its citizens very low wages and they produce very cheap goods. People internationally buy them. So far so good. Now what would you expect to happen? People owning the factories get rich and buy lots of things: some Rolls Royces and houses in Malibu but lots of things in China, too. Others get rich supplying those things, and the wage rates rise.
Not so in China however where the State holds down pay rises, controls where people can set up factories and stops entrepreneurs benefitting from their earnings by making them sell all the foreign currency at a lousy rate to the State, and making sure there’s nothing for them to spend it on in China. Similarly in oil producing countries the money goes into the hands not of the spending public but of a few families or corrupt officials. So massive surpluses are built up in State entities (Sovereign Wealth Funds are what we call them now) and invested in America.
If these countries had not been dictatorships (not too strong a word either for China or most of the Middle East) there wouldn’t have been the boom and bust in the USA but there would have been a relative increase in wealth and importance of the Far East. This last is now probably going to happen anyway, but the hard way, and without the citizens of these countries benefitting.
And then “Surplus savings meant not only low real interest rates, but a need to generate high levels of offsetting demand in capital-importing countries, of which the US was much the most important”
So in a word there were massive amounts of money in these Asian countries keeping interest rates artificially low – hence the boom. Now it is perhaps tempting for us in the West to say it was all the fault of the Asians but I rather think this has some merit. China booms because it pays its citizens very low wages and they produce very cheap goods. People internationally buy them. So far so good. Now what would you expect to happen? People owning the factories get rich and buy lots of things: some Rolls Royces and houses in Malibu but lots of things in China, too. Others get rich supplying those things, and the wage rates rise.
Not so in China however where the State holds down pay rises, controls where people can set up factories and stops entrepreneurs benefitting from their earnings by making them sell all the foreign currency at a lousy rate to the State, and making sure there’s nothing for them to spend it on in China. Similarly in oil producing countries the money goes into the hands not of the spending public but of a few families or corrupt officials. So massive surpluses are built up in State entities (Sovereign Wealth Funds are what we call them now) and invested in America.
If these countries had not been dictatorships (not too strong a word either for China or most of the Middle East) there wouldn’t have been the boom and bust in the USA but there would have been a relative increase in wealth and importance of the Far East. This last is now probably going to happen anyway, but the hard way, and without the citizens of these countries benefitting.
21 January, 2008
Pantso
Diverted by Microsoft (at least its Chairman has had the decency to resign) I find I have missed the most important news item of the year so far: Jeremy Paxman's courageous crusade against Marks and Spencers' underwear.
But aren't we missing something here? Might it be, not that the pants are getting bigger, but that the contents are getting smaller? Happens to us all eventually, Paxo.
Jeremy Paxman is 57.
But aren't we missing something here? Might it be, not that the pants are getting bigger, but that the contents are getting smaller? Happens to us all eventually, Paxo.
Jeremy Paxman is 57.
Lunch in Orvieto
The days between the Christmas / New Year holiday and the planting and vine pruning season are when we do our tourism bit. The bars and restaurants are full of Italians and even the well trodden tourist path is fairly deserted (late January – mid February is the best time to see Venice or Florence). Here in central Italy the days are characterised by misty mornings, four hours or so of bright sunshine and cool nights. We headed up into the hills behind Orvieto, in search of long views across a deserted landscape and lunch.
The sight of Orvieto across the valley is almost exactly as the pilgrims would have seen it: the mass of volcanic rock rising high from the plain, and perhaps the most beautiful cathedral facade in the world. Pope Gregory XIII (I am sure I shall be corrected on this) said that if God came down from Heaven the only one of man’s works he would take back with him was Orvieto Cathedral.
We found a roadside trattoria we had earmarked on a previous trip. I find I can no longer eat a full Italian lunch so if we go out I tend to have antipasto and main course (unless there is something interesting on the pasta list, in which case no main course). This time we had starters of raw fennel in a peppery pinzimonio sauce and pressed goose with toast, followed by a pork chop and pieces of fillet steak wrapped in pig’s caul and barbecued, turnip tops blanched and sautéed in oil. This with a very decent bottle of mature Montalcino, coffee and tip cost €50 for two.
We had the roof down on the car while up in the hills but descending at around 4 pm hit a wall of dense, damp fog. A short but fun outing; always something new to see.
The sight of Orvieto across the valley is almost exactly as the pilgrims would have seen it: the mass of volcanic rock rising high from the plain, and perhaps the most beautiful cathedral facade in the world. Pope Gregory XIII (I am sure I shall be corrected on this) said that if God came down from Heaven the only one of man’s works he would take back with him was Orvieto Cathedral.
We found a roadside trattoria we had earmarked on a previous trip. I find I can no longer eat a full Italian lunch so if we go out I tend to have antipasto and main course (unless there is something interesting on the pasta list, in which case no main course). This time we had starters of raw fennel in a peppery pinzimonio sauce and pressed goose with toast, followed by a pork chop and pieces of fillet steak wrapped in pig’s caul and barbecued, turnip tops blanched and sautéed in oil. This with a very decent bottle of mature Montalcino, coffee and tip cost €50 for two.
We had the roof down on the car while up in the hills but descending at around 4 pm hit a wall of dense, damp fog. A short but fun outing; always something new to see.
Windows Vista
Blogging has been and will be light due to having a new computer with Windows Vista, which appears never to have been tested on humans. Would any other industry allow a half built product to be sold on the promise that they'd get it right eventually? A car with three wheels? a cooker made of a substance that melted?
It keeps saying 'Microsoft Windows Search Indexer has ceased functioning'. Anyone know what it means?
It keeps saying 'Microsoft Windows Search Indexer has ceased functioning'. Anyone know what it means?
Royal Pager
News from Sam Coates' Red Box blog that Labour MPs are having their pagers replaced with Blackberries reminds me of an amusing story. Claire Short was in a Privy Council Meeting when her pager went off. All proceedings were held up as the thing got louder and louder and she rummaged frantically in her handbag to find it. Eventually she pulled it out but it stopped. 'Oh Dear' said the Queen 'I do hope it wasn't anyone important'
19 January, 2008
Italian News
One Italian male in 10 gets a university degree, half the European average. Nine percent are on in-work training courses, compared to the European average of 23%.Women comprise 1.9% of the board members of Italian companies. The European average is 8.5%.
Italy has no Starbucks, Pizza Hut or Kentucky Fried Chicken. The founder of Starbucks admitted they cannot compete with the Italian bar.
The Northern town of Livigno makes 8 tonnes of bresaola a week
Naples remains clogged with refuse this week, with 7,000 tonnes still piled up on the streets. Fears of dioxins in the air and contamination of the water system have resulted in a 40 per cent drop in sales of Mozzarella di bufala. However fears are groundless: the local mafia is known to have dumped hazardous factory waste in areas of wilderness decades ago.
Graziano Cecchini, who last year poured red dye into the Trevi Fountain, has released half a million coloured balls on the Spanish Steps, confusing the carabinieri.
A bad week for Clemente Mastella: his wife, Sandra Lonardo, who leads the council in Italy's Campania region, has been placed under house arrest and he has resigned as Justice Minister, following news that he is under investigation for a corrupt appointment at a state hospital in Caserta near Naples.
Salvatore Cuffaro, president of Sicily, after a three year trial has been found guilty of assisting the Mafia and sentenced to five years in prison. Mr Cuffaro has been freed pending an appeal, which may take years. Although he has also been banned from public office, he is refusing to step down as the sentence is not confirmed.
Italians have the cleanest homes in Europe. A report by Datamonitor found that Italians cleaned their homes an average of four times a week
Carla Bruni who may or may not be France’s First Lady will appear in an advert for Lancia cars singing ‘Bang bang, my baby shot me down’
In Brazil Dante's Divina Comedia is the most widely read book by students preparing for the country's general examination for university admission.
DNA studies carried out in Sardinia, whose inhabitants tend to be short, have helped identify only the second human 'height gene' known to science. The gene, GDF5, appears to have two versions: one, connected to arthritis, which adds height; and another, connected to Silvio Berlusconi, which takes it away.
A planned visit by Pope Benedict to the ceremony for the new academic year at La Sapienza University has been cancelled following protests from scientists there who are offended by his position on Galileo’s trial in 1633
The ceremony was not without interest however. A work to rule by nude models involved them adopting the poses of various famous art works, including Botticelli’s Venus, Degas’ ballerinas and Rodin’s The Thinker, with their clothes on.
16 January, 2008
Peter Hain: in mitigation
I want to say a word in mitigation of Peter Hain.
Yes, he seems almost certain to be in breach of an electoral law. Yes, his defence that he was incompetent sounds ill coming from a cabinet minister. Yes, it appears he was so arrogant that he thought the law didn’t apply to him, like Leona Helmsley saying taxes were for little people. Yes, he seems to have tried to confuse the matter by setting up a pointless think tank to collect money in secret. All this is on the charge sheet and it seems clear to me, and everyone else, that he must resign. We must have some sort of standards after all.
And yet....this was a campaign not for public office or some position of power but for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party. Let’s suppose for a moment that the Labour Party went all democratic and there was an election for the post of who should put up the no smoking signs at the conference, or who should lead the singing. Would it matter if one of the candidates had raised a vast amount of money for his campaign from all sorts of plutocrats and then failed to account for it? It would not because it was unimportant.
Similarly this job is a nothing job. If Gordon Brown were to fall under the proverbial bus (quite easy in London these days) his replacement would not be the Deputy Leader but whoever Her Majesty chose to recognise as carrying most support in parliament (certainly not Harriet Harman for example).
If the Labour Party doesn’t mind having an incompetent spiv in a senior internal position (and the evidence from looking at the others is that it doesn’t), let it.
Yes, he seems almost certain to be in breach of an electoral law. Yes, his defence that he was incompetent sounds ill coming from a cabinet minister. Yes, it appears he was so arrogant that he thought the law didn’t apply to him, like Leona Helmsley saying taxes were for little people. Yes, he seems to have tried to confuse the matter by setting up a pointless think tank to collect money in secret. All this is on the charge sheet and it seems clear to me, and everyone else, that he must resign. We must have some sort of standards after all.
And yet....this was a campaign not for public office or some position of power but for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party. Let’s suppose for a moment that the Labour Party went all democratic and there was an election for the post of who should put up the no smoking signs at the conference, or who should lead the singing. Would it matter if one of the candidates had raised a vast amount of money for his campaign from all sorts of plutocrats and then failed to account for it? It would not because it was unimportant.
Similarly this job is a nothing job. If Gordon Brown were to fall under the proverbial bus (quite easy in London these days) his replacement would not be the Deputy Leader but whoever Her Majesty chose to recognise as carrying most support in parliament (certainly not Harriet Harman for example).
If the Labour Party doesn’t mind having an incompetent spiv in a senior internal position (and the evidence from looking at the others is that it doesn’t), let it.
US Elections
I must say this is the first interesting primaries season I can remember, and it is as gripping as one of those slick American series like West Wing. Three Republicans and two Democrats seem serious possible victors.
A while back I wrote that two of the Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, were mad. I meant for their religious beliefs (creationist and mormon respectively) but now some people are describing Huckabee's economic policy as mad , too. It is to replace income tax with a sales tax, coupled with a spot of negative income tax (that is to say that if your income is below a certain level you get a rebate).
I have been saying this for years, although I never believed you could get rid of income tax competely - the rich would have to pay something and some of the poor would have to receive a lot. All that would happen is the Government imposed a minimum wage - not forcing employers to pay it, which causes unemployment - but a level below which you receive money and above which you pay it. Most of the taxes would be collected by shopkeepers as a sales tax.
Perhaps Huckabee's not mad after all. Oh,yes... the creationism.
A while back I wrote that two of the Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, were mad. I meant for their religious beliefs (creationist and mormon respectively) but now some people are describing Huckabee's economic policy as mad , too. It is to replace income tax with a sales tax, coupled with a spot of negative income tax (that is to say that if your income is below a certain level you get a rebate).
I have been saying this for years, although I never believed you could get rid of income tax competely - the rich would have to pay something and some of the poor would have to receive a lot. All that would happen is the Government imposed a minimum wage - not forcing employers to pay it, which causes unemployment - but a level below which you receive money and above which you pay it. Most of the taxes would be collected by shopkeepers as a sales tax.
Perhaps Huckabee's not mad after all. Oh,yes... the creationism.
12 January, 2008
Italian News
This week marks the 279th anniversary of the birth of Lazaro Spallanzani, a chemist who showed that contact by semen is necessary for development of the egg, and who achieved the first successful artificial insemination of a dog.
The Pope has reportedly told the Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, that parts of the city are in a degraded state.
Not as bad as Naples, however, where the army has been brought out to reopen the schools which had been closed due to the rubbish piled outside. All Naples’ rubbish tips are full, having been taken over by the Camorra, the local mafia, which ran them as a business.
Lufthansa has denied press speculation that it would ally itself with Italy's biggest private airline, Air One, in an attempt to acquire a controlling stake in Italian national carrier Alitalia. Failing a last minute bid from Indonesia’s Air Garuda it looks as if they’re stuck with the French
Officials in Verona have imposed a graffiti ban at Juliet’s house. Visitors were invited to leave messages of love by email and SMS to be shown on a screen inside. To the astonishment of the Council, people found this unromantic and have taken to sticking notes to the marble walls with chewing gum. The house is being frantically cleaned in time for Valentines Day. It is thought to be good luck to caress the right breast of the statue of Juliet, which presumably keeps that, at least, clean.
Italy's new waste czar is the ex-national police chief Gianni De Gennaro. Interestingly Naples’ patron saint is San Gennaro so the Pope may have been involved after all. Legend has it that on his feast day Gennaro’s dried blood liquefies, although a way will be found to throw this away, too.
Speaking after his first day on the job, the earthly Gennaro said he would approach his task ''with the conviction that problems can be solved with a rationale of common sense, balance, dialogue and direct and transparent communication''. Nothing about actually throwing the stuff away.
The puzzle of where the mysterious antimatter at the heart of our galaxy comes from has finally been solved, according to Giovanni Fabrizio Bignami, head of the Italian Space Agency, who has collaborated with the international group of scientists which has just published a paper outlining the answer. It appears it is the latest attempt to solve Naples’ rubbish crisis.
The traders who sell pigeon food to tourists in St Mark's Square Venice expressed anguish on Thursday after city hall passed a measure banning them from ever doing so again.
The regrouping techniques of Rome's starlings could offer lessons for students of unpredictable behaviour like investor trends and consumer fads, a new Italian-led study says. Early reports are that the birds squawk with a Venetian accent, and are asking the way to Naples.
The famous volcanic eruption in which Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum was so powerful that some of the ash and lava ended up in Greece, according to researchers at Thessaloniki University. An expert from the Aristotle University was quoted as saying the layer of volcanic ash and rock was three metres deep in places, studded with spaghetti wrappers and empty tins of tomato.
Latest reports are that the Waste Czar has finally located a rubbish free spot. In Verona.
The Pope has reportedly told the Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, that parts of the city are in a degraded state.
Not as bad as Naples, however, where the army has been brought out to reopen the schools which had been closed due to the rubbish piled outside. All Naples’ rubbish tips are full, having been taken over by the Camorra, the local mafia, which ran them as a business.
Lufthansa has denied press speculation that it would ally itself with Italy's biggest private airline, Air One, in an attempt to acquire a controlling stake in Italian national carrier Alitalia. Failing a last minute bid from Indonesia’s Air Garuda it looks as if they’re stuck with the French
Officials in Verona have imposed a graffiti ban at Juliet’s house. Visitors were invited to leave messages of love by email and SMS to be shown on a screen inside. To the astonishment of the Council, people found this unromantic and have taken to sticking notes to the marble walls with chewing gum. The house is being frantically cleaned in time for Valentines Day. It is thought to be good luck to caress the right breast of the statue of Juliet, which presumably keeps that, at least, clean.
Italy's new waste czar is the ex-national police chief Gianni De Gennaro. Interestingly Naples’ patron saint is San Gennaro so the Pope may have been involved after all. Legend has it that on his feast day Gennaro’s dried blood liquefies, although a way will be found to throw this away, too.
Speaking after his first day on the job, the earthly Gennaro said he would approach his task ''with the conviction that problems can be solved with a rationale of common sense, balance, dialogue and direct and transparent communication''. Nothing about actually throwing the stuff away.
The puzzle of where the mysterious antimatter at the heart of our galaxy comes from has finally been solved, according to Giovanni Fabrizio Bignami, head of the Italian Space Agency, who has collaborated with the international group of scientists which has just published a paper outlining the answer. It appears it is the latest attempt to solve Naples’ rubbish crisis.
The traders who sell pigeon food to tourists in St Mark's Square Venice expressed anguish on Thursday after city hall passed a measure banning them from ever doing so again.
The regrouping techniques of Rome's starlings could offer lessons for students of unpredictable behaviour like investor trends and consumer fads, a new Italian-led study says. Early reports are that the birds squawk with a Venetian accent, and are asking the way to Naples.
The famous volcanic eruption in which Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum was so powerful that some of the ash and lava ended up in Greece, according to researchers at Thessaloniki University. An expert from the Aristotle University was quoted as saying the layer of volcanic ash and rock was three metres deep in places, studded with spaghetti wrappers and empty tins of tomato.
Latest reports are that the Waste Czar has finally located a rubbish free spot. In Verona.
11 January, 2008
Who are these people?
It seems Peter Hain, a cabinet minister, either failed to declare to or hoped to conceal from the Electoral Commission some £103,000 of donations in support of his campaign for the Deputy Leadership. I know I always say this, but I assume even a member of this government will resign after such admissions.
Hain came fifth out of sixth in the contest. Hilary Benn only raised £4,000.
But apparently after the campaign was over and he knew that the Labour Party didn't want or trust him, he discovered £70,000 of unpaid bills and more than half the undeclared money is from the time he went around trying to get donations to cover this.
What I want to know is what sort of person, confronted by begging from a man who had already lost and lost badly, to cover money he had imprudently already spent, actually coughed up. Would you?
Hain came fifth out of sixth in the contest. Hilary Benn only raised £4,000.
But apparently after the campaign was over and he knew that the Labour Party didn't want or trust him, he discovered £70,000 of unpaid bills and more than half the undeclared money is from the time he went around trying to get donations to cover this.
What I want to know is what sort of person, confronted by begging from a man who had already lost and lost badly, to cover money he had imprudently already spent, actually coughed up. Would you?
10 January, 2008
MPs' pay
I know it's not fashionable but I don't think MPs are overpaid. In fact I think they are underpaid.
The best graduate trainees - 21 and never worked - get £45,000 these days. Maybe bonuses too. I remember my first job in a merchant bank: I could have got more training to be a traffic warden. But things are different now. To run the country we need to attract our best people - actually it would be better if they had worked for a few years before becoming MPs - so I think we need a salary of at least £100,000.
We must avoid attracting the mediocre, who see £65,ooo as a pretty good life. The alternative is to pay them nothing, which would mean they would have had to have done something lucrative first in order to afford it. But this would exclude too many good people who weren't money-focussed. So let's pay them properly.
If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. There's a fair few monkeys.........
The best graduate trainees - 21 and never worked - get £45,000 these days. Maybe bonuses too. I remember my first job in a merchant bank: I could have got more training to be a traffic warden. But things are different now. To run the country we need to attract our best people - actually it would be better if they had worked for a few years before becoming MPs - so I think we need a salary of at least £100,000.
We must avoid attracting the mediocre, who see £65,ooo as a pretty good life. The alternative is to pay them nothing, which would mean they would have had to have done something lucrative first in order to afford it. But this would exclude too many good people who weren't money-focussed. So let's pay them properly.
If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. There's a fair few monkeys.........
Marks and Sparks
A lot of talk about the M&S results and its share price. And the pound falling. Why? If there is a slow down in America and in the rest of the world the only thing that will keep British factories open is British consumer demand. In the past we have spent so frantically that we ironed out the troughs of threatened recessions. Is it coming to an end? Has the great British consumer got enough stuff?
I rather think the markets are being overly pessimistic. I don’t think the Bank of England will panic, either. We should avoid disaster, but in any case it is too early to tell.
I rather think the markets are being overly pessimistic. I don’t think the Bank of England will panic, either. We should avoid disaster, but in any case it is too early to tell.
None of the above
I must say I have never liked the cut of Hillary Clinton’s jib; there was the business about some property in the south back when she was a lawyer, the failure at healthcare, I don’t know, there’s something not quite right. I ask myself whether there isn’t a bit of sexism in my view – do we set different standards for members of the opposite sex? Is this why I am disturbed that she is always photographed with a manic look, pointing and with her mouth open, like a crazed football referee? And Obama, well he seems out of his depth, doesn’t he? Mr Nice Guy who, when asked, said he would unilaterally invade Pakistan if he thought Osama bin Laden was there (well, he’s not in Philadelphia, Barack).
Is it in the interests of Americans, to say nothing of the rest of us, that this election seems to be about security? There were whisperings that the US needed someone tougher than Clinton on the nuclear button (although she looks to me as if she would nuke you as soon as say good morning), Barack makes this macho posturing, MacCain is doing well because of his security experience.
I am reminded that when George W Bush came into office (it seems a long time ago now) the big worry internationally was that his would be an isolationist presidency, that because he had never been abroad (except once to China with is father) he would be more interested in US Farm Payroll numbers than what happened in the outside world. And yet what will Bush be remembered for? And isn’t what we, the outside world, would like now a quiet President who got the economy working again and left the outside world alone?
It seems easy to carp about the quality of presidential candidates – Nixon the crook, Ford the idiot, Carter the peanut farmer, Reagan the B-movie actor etc - but the person has to be a human being and will have failings. The only one I can recall who seemed qualified for the job, who had been Ambassador to the UN, Head of the CIA, Vice President, was George Bush Snr, who was a disaster.
Hey-ho. Let’s hope for the best
Is it in the interests of Americans, to say nothing of the rest of us, that this election seems to be about security? There were whisperings that the US needed someone tougher than Clinton on the nuclear button (although she looks to me as if she would nuke you as soon as say good morning), Barack makes this macho posturing, MacCain is doing well because of his security experience.
I am reminded that when George W Bush came into office (it seems a long time ago now) the big worry internationally was that his would be an isolationist presidency, that because he had never been abroad (except once to China with is father) he would be more interested in US Farm Payroll numbers than what happened in the outside world. And yet what will Bush be remembered for? And isn’t what we, the outside world, would like now a quiet President who got the economy working again and left the outside world alone?
It seems easy to carp about the quality of presidential candidates – Nixon the crook, Ford the idiot, Carter the peanut farmer, Reagan the B-movie actor etc - but the person has to be a human being and will have failings. The only one I can recall who seemed qualified for the job, who had been Ambassador to the UN, Head of the CIA, Vice President, was George Bush Snr, who was a disaster.
Hey-ho. Let’s hope for the best
09 January, 2008
Trafalgar Square
A new row has erupted about the spare plinth in Trafalgar Sq, Ken Livingston suggesting amongst others a burnt-out car and little meerkats made in the name of Tracey Emin.
Boris Johnson should enter this fray and he would be best advised to support a statue of Edward Jenner, the discoverer of the smallpox vaccine and saver of literally millions of lives. Interestingly there used to be a statue of Jenner in Trafalgar Sq but it was moved to Kensington Gardens. Boris should have it put back, at minimal expense.
Boris Johnson should enter this fray and he would be best advised to support a statue of Edward Jenner, the discoverer of the smallpox vaccine and saver of literally millions of lives. Interestingly there used to be a statue of Jenner in Trafalgar Sq but it was moved to Kensington Gardens. Boris should have it put back, at minimal expense.
08 January, 2008
The Church, the dimwits and the atheists
It used to be said of a politician that he approached every problem with an open mouth, but it seems the same can be said of bishops, too. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, such a dithering disaster in his job you would have thought he would have retired quietly into private life, has made a thought-free statement about blasphemy. He is accompanied by Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford (of course) together with an assortment of lefties and atheists including Ricky Gervais, Richard Dawkins and Peter Tatchell. They write in the Telegraph in support of an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill by Evan Harris, Frank Dobson and David Wilshire, the three great statesmen.
Their case is that the blasphemy laws serve no useful purpose "The ancient common law of blasphemous libel purports to protect beliefs rather than people or communities. Most religious commentators are of the view that the Almighty does not need the "protection" of such a law," .....”It is discriminatory in that it only covers attacks on Christianity and Church of England tenets”.
The purpose the blasphemy law serves is this. Britain is one of the few countries in the world with an established religion. The others are usually Islamic. France and Italy, for example, despite being Catholic, draw clear lines between Church and State. We do not – you can say what you like (within the other laws) about Islam and Judaism. Another example of this is that Carey and Harries get to sit in the House of Lords (although I think Harries may be there because he was a Blair toady).
As we moved against multiculturalism in the last couple of years, people even on the left were saying that there must be some Britishness that the immigrants should be able to cling to; if you like, you can say they came here because of that Britishness and we shouldn’t suddenly take it away for fear they might not like it. They should accept the whole package. One aspect of that Britishness is the fact we have an established church and religion, which you don’t have to join but which is there at all times.
Now I am a disestablishmentarian. I believe that it is not in the interests of the Church to be associated with the government and it was one of my wishes for 2008 that it should take steps to disestablish itself. But the call should come from the Church. And the Church’s position in our society should not be chipped away, it should be reconsidered as a whole, as an important constitutional element.
This recent blast is the last call of the manic multiculturalists and they should be exposed for what they are.
Their case is that the blasphemy laws serve no useful purpose "The ancient common law of blasphemous libel purports to protect beliefs rather than people or communities. Most religious commentators are of the view that the Almighty does not need the "protection" of such a law," .....”It is discriminatory in that it only covers attacks on Christianity and Church of England tenets”.
The purpose the blasphemy law serves is this. Britain is one of the few countries in the world with an established religion. The others are usually Islamic. France and Italy, for example, despite being Catholic, draw clear lines between Church and State. We do not – you can say what you like (within the other laws) about Islam and Judaism. Another example of this is that Carey and Harries get to sit in the House of Lords (although I think Harries may be there because he was a Blair toady).
As we moved against multiculturalism in the last couple of years, people even on the left were saying that there must be some Britishness that the immigrants should be able to cling to; if you like, you can say they came here because of that Britishness and we shouldn’t suddenly take it away for fear they might not like it. They should accept the whole package. One aspect of that Britishness is the fact we have an established church and religion, which you don’t have to join but which is there at all times.
Now I am a disestablishmentarian. I believe that it is not in the interests of the Church to be associated with the government and it was one of my wishes for 2008 that it should take steps to disestablish itself. But the call should come from the Church. And the Church’s position in our society should not be chipped away, it should be reconsidered as a whole, as an important constitutional element.
This recent blast is the last call of the manic multiculturalists and they should be exposed for what they are.
Racism - the new paradigm
Indian protesters in Australia have been complaining against the 3 match ban given to Harbajan Singh for calling Andrew Symonds, a British born Australian player, a monkey.
Now, aside from the issue of racist slur between one coloured man and another, which I suppose must go on all the time, this seems to be the first time there have been demonstrations, not against racism, but against someone being punished for it. What are the implications of this?
It seems to take the problem to a whole new level.
Now, aside from the issue of racist slur between one coloured man and another, which I suppose must go on all the time, this seems to be the first time there have been demonstrations, not against racism, but against someone being punished for it. What are the implications of this?
It seems to take the problem to a whole new level.
06 January, 2008
Pseudo-Science
I read a report some years ago that solar panels are so inefficient that they never generate enough electricity in their lifetime to compensate for the environmental cost of making them. Perhaps things have improved since then although I have not heard some great announcement to this effect. But now I read the following in the Observer:
“Home wind turbines are significantly underperforming and in the worst cases generating less than the electricity needed to power a single light bulb, according to the biggest study of its kind carried out in Britain.
An interim report revealed that homeowners could be being misled by the official figures for wind speeds because they are consistently overestimating how much wind there is - sometimes finding that real speeds are only one third of those forecast. In the worst case scenario, the figures indicate that it would take more than 15 years to generate enough 'clean' energy to compensate for the manufacture of the turbine in the first place.”
Of course the things won’t last for 15 years so you are doing the environment a disservice if you buy one. And of course the problem is not just caused by the misjudgment of wind speeds, as any paper other than the Guardian/Observer or the Independent would have told you: it is the miscalculation of how much scarce resource was used to make the things. Obviously the manufacturer isn’t going to tell you and no ‘independent’ scientist ever got a grant by saying we might just as well use coal.
And on top of that, because even the pseudo-scientists agree that sometimes there isn’t any wind, but you might want some electricity (and the same goes for solar panels: not too effective at night) the fossil fuel power stations have to be fired up and running all the time anyway.
So actually these pseudo environmentalists are causing net damage to the environment. Yes, Mr Cameron?
But bit by bit the truth will out. More pseudo science during the course of the year.
“Home wind turbines are significantly underperforming and in the worst cases generating less than the electricity needed to power a single light bulb, according to the biggest study of its kind carried out in Britain.
An interim report revealed that homeowners could be being misled by the official figures for wind speeds because they are consistently overestimating how much wind there is - sometimes finding that real speeds are only one third of those forecast. In the worst case scenario, the figures indicate that it would take more than 15 years to generate enough 'clean' energy to compensate for the manufacture of the turbine in the first place.”
Of course the things won’t last for 15 years so you are doing the environment a disservice if you buy one. And of course the problem is not just caused by the misjudgment of wind speeds, as any paper other than the Guardian/Observer or the Independent would have told you: it is the miscalculation of how much scarce resource was used to make the things. Obviously the manufacturer isn’t going to tell you and no ‘independent’ scientist ever got a grant by saying we might just as well use coal.
And on top of that, because even the pseudo-scientists agree that sometimes there isn’t any wind, but you might want some electricity (and the same goes for solar panels: not too effective at night) the fossil fuel power stations have to be fired up and running all the time anyway.
So actually these pseudo environmentalists are causing net damage to the environment. Yes, Mr Cameron?
But bit by bit the truth will out. More pseudo science during the course of the year.
05 January, 2008
Italian News
Italian families can expect to spend over 1,000 euros more next year for food, utilities and fuel, according to the consumer rights group Codacons.
Police in Rome seized 2.2 tons of Chinese fireworks which had counterfeit authorization labels and had higher amounts of explosive power than what had been written on the packages. Value for money!
Among those arrested for illegal possession of fireworks was a 38-year-old man in Brindisi who was taken to jail after police found 120kg of illegal fireworks in his home. He was at home because he was under house arrest for possession of, yes, 400kg of illegal fireworks.
There has not been a single firework-related fatality in Italy since New Year's Eve 2000: most are so powerful they explode in neighbouring countries.
Discussion of El Sobrepaso continues. At present the EU and the Spanish believe Spain has overtaken Italy in GDP per head while the IMF and the Italians believe it has not. In absolute terms, all agree that average income in Italy is higher than in Spain by 25,263 euros to 22,294 euros.
Rubbish has been heaped in the streets in and around Naples for days and many piles set alight on New Year's Eve were still smoking on Wednesday, sending toxic fumes across the city.Elsewhere, police had to move in to break up a renewed protest against a new rubbish incinerator and all six waste-disposal plants in the Campania region had to close down because of demonstrators stopping the packed rubbish leaving their gates.European Commission Environment Spokesman Stavros Dimas – incredibly they have selected someone from the only European city that is worse - said there were ''dangerous'' levels of dioxin in the air and they will weigh whether to take action in the coming days
Pope Benedict, who had a tough act to follow, appears to be an unexpected success. Nearly three million pilgrims came to Rome in 2007 to hear the weekly audiences and Sunday addresses which compares favourably with the numbers that came to hear his Polish predecessor. The 'Peter's Pence' offerings made by lay Catholics to support the upkeep of the Holy See. In 2007 the total nearly doubled to 102 million dollars. Meanwhile, Vatican Radio said on Thursday that sales of Benedict's last book, Jesus of Nazareth, have now reached two million. By the end of 2008 the volume will be on sale in 50 countries. That’s what comes of having a German in charge.
The news agency ANSA reported on the same day that Italy's annual inflation rate dropped to an eight-year-low of 1.8% in 2007 and that inflation rose to a four-year high of 2.6% in December. Both are true.
Italian Tocai wine has been without a name for several months after it was banned for sounding like Hungarian Tokay. It is now agreed that wine produced for export will be called 'Friulano', while wine for domestic consumption can be called either 'Tocai Friulano' or just Friulano, the choice up to the producer. Clear?
The Ecopass – a tax on driving polluting vehicles in the city centre - has been introduced in Milan. However, most left it to the last minute to apply, by internet or phone line, and both payment channels promptly broke down under the weight of calls. But Transport Police admitted the key test would come on Monday 7th when the city really returned to work. ''It's going to be much more hectic. Then we'll be dancing a tarantella,'' said one officer.
Italians gained an average of between two and three kilos over the Christmas and New Year's holidays and will now have to stick to a fruit and vegetable diet and take more exercise if they want to lose the undesired weight, said officials. Dancing the tarantella with the traffic police is not recommended.
A manufacturer of torrone – like nougat - is putting together a 400m-long torrone snake which it aims to wind through the streets of Camerino (Marche) on January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, when Italian children receive a second helping of sweets and gifts from a legendary witch called the Befana.The Torrone Francucci shop is bidding for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest calorie tarantella ever performed.
Police in Rome seized 2.2 tons of Chinese fireworks which had counterfeit authorization labels and had higher amounts of explosive power than what had been written on the packages. Value for money!
Among those arrested for illegal possession of fireworks was a 38-year-old man in Brindisi who was taken to jail after police found 120kg of illegal fireworks in his home. He was at home because he was under house arrest for possession of, yes, 400kg of illegal fireworks.
There has not been a single firework-related fatality in Italy since New Year's Eve 2000: most are so powerful they explode in neighbouring countries.
Discussion of El Sobrepaso continues. At present the EU and the Spanish believe Spain has overtaken Italy in GDP per head while the IMF and the Italians believe it has not. In absolute terms, all agree that average income in Italy is higher than in Spain by 25,263 euros to 22,294 euros.
Rubbish has been heaped in the streets in and around Naples for days and many piles set alight on New Year's Eve were still smoking on Wednesday, sending toxic fumes across the city.Elsewhere, police had to move in to break up a renewed protest against a new rubbish incinerator and all six waste-disposal plants in the Campania region had to close down because of demonstrators stopping the packed rubbish leaving their gates.European Commission Environment Spokesman Stavros Dimas – incredibly they have selected someone from the only European city that is worse - said there were ''dangerous'' levels of dioxin in the air and they will weigh whether to take action in the coming days
Pope Benedict, who had a tough act to follow, appears to be an unexpected success. Nearly three million pilgrims came to Rome in 2007 to hear the weekly audiences and Sunday addresses which compares favourably with the numbers that came to hear his Polish predecessor. The 'Peter's Pence' offerings made by lay Catholics to support the upkeep of the Holy See. In 2007 the total nearly doubled to 102 million dollars. Meanwhile, Vatican Radio said on Thursday that sales of Benedict's last book, Jesus of Nazareth, have now reached two million. By the end of 2008 the volume will be on sale in 50 countries. That’s what comes of having a German in charge.
The news agency ANSA reported on the same day that Italy's annual inflation rate dropped to an eight-year-low of 1.8% in 2007 and that inflation rose to a four-year high of 2.6% in December. Both are true.
Italian Tocai wine has been without a name for several months after it was banned for sounding like Hungarian Tokay. It is now agreed that wine produced for export will be called 'Friulano', while wine for domestic consumption can be called either 'Tocai Friulano' or just Friulano, the choice up to the producer. Clear?
The Ecopass – a tax on driving polluting vehicles in the city centre - has been introduced in Milan. However, most left it to the last minute to apply, by internet or phone line, and both payment channels promptly broke down under the weight of calls. But Transport Police admitted the key test would come on Monday 7th when the city really returned to work. ''It's going to be much more hectic. Then we'll be dancing a tarantella,'' said one officer.
Italians gained an average of between two and three kilos over the Christmas and New Year's holidays and will now have to stick to a fruit and vegetable diet and take more exercise if they want to lose the undesired weight, said officials. Dancing the tarantella with the traffic police is not recommended.
A manufacturer of torrone – like nougat - is putting together a 400m-long torrone snake which it aims to wind through the streets of Camerino (Marche) on January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, when Italian children receive a second helping of sweets and gifts from a legendary witch called the Befana.The Torrone Francucci shop is bidding for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest calorie tarantella ever performed.
04 January, 2008
Ducking and diving (2)
A friend tells me that if you don't like the idea of these barometric passports (biometric is the word they use, and it means...er...measuring your face, distance between the eyes etc) here's a wheeze. You are perfectly entitled to take the picture yourself as long as it is in the prescribed format) but the lens on your camera (usually used for longer distances than the length of your arms) is different to the one in the photo booth (always short distances) so the photo is microscopically biothingily different and the state will have recorded inaccurate information.
I couldn't possibly comment.
I couldn't possibly comment.
Ducking and diving
If you are scared the NHS won't treat you because you are a smoker or overweight, get an EU Health card - it used to be called E101 but now its called ECICS or something of that nature and can last up to ten years: longer than your life expectancy if you visit an NHS hospital anyway.
03 January, 2008
The Demon Drink
My first reaction to a report in the Independent that Gordon Brown was taking charge of the campaign against (binge) drinking was 'that's OK, nothing will be done'. But there's more: they plan to base the duty on units of alcohol. This is about the silliest thing I've heard: it means that the price of whisky will be dramatically reduced relative to that of beer, which is surely not what they want. It will in any case not be permitted by the EU.
Apparently the Home Secretary (the appalling Jaqui Smith) and the culture secretary, whose name I've already forgotten, will draw up a plan. Oh dear.
The first mistake is to assume that the drunks in the street are in any way connected to the price of drink. Here in Italy where wine costs about 50p a bottle you never see public drunkenness, because the Italians know it is unattractive and they would be letting their families down if caught. Britain needs to undergo a complete cultural shift to make this change.
The second mistake is to assume government action can do anything. Alcohol Disorder Zones are the latest and they will be a failure just like Tony Blair's initiative.
Something they might (but won't) try is punishing parents for the behaviour of their children.
Apparently the Home Secretary (the appalling Jaqui Smith) and the culture secretary, whose name I've already forgotten, will draw up a plan. Oh dear.
The first mistake is to assume that the drunks in the street are in any way connected to the price of drink. Here in Italy where wine costs about 50p a bottle you never see public drunkenness, because the Italians know it is unattractive and they would be letting their families down if caught. Britain needs to undergo a complete cultural shift to make this change.
The second mistake is to assume government action can do anything. Alcohol Disorder Zones are the latest and they will be a failure just like Tony Blair's initiative.
Something they might (but won't) try is punishing parents for the behaviour of their children.
01 January, 2008
Pakistan
I have written that Benazir Bhutto’s death leaves the West in a difficult predicament and it seems important now to have a look at just what that predicament is. Franklin D Roosevelt said of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, "He may be a sonofabitch, but he's our sonofabitch." Change him for her and you have what our policy for Pakistan was. Benazir was venal, said to have trousered (or shalwar kameezed) at least $1.5bn but she would have listened to the Western governments – indeed our security services probably have enough on her un-Moslem lifestyle to have kept her obedient for years. And now she is dead.
To see what has been going on - and it has the imprimatur of the West all over it – just imagine if when John Smith died in 1994 it emerged that he had taken the Labour party funds and distributed them among his family and friends, opening accounts in exotic locations, in several of which he was wanted for fraud. And then, in his will, he decrees who the next leader of the Labour Party would be (it would have been Gordon, all those years ago).
After Benazir’s death there will be no leadership election for the Pakistan Peoples Party: it has some talented people but Benazir, described by several newspapers as a martyr for democracy, the woman who said democracy will defeat terrorism, has decided it will be her son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who will lead. Actually young Billy, who is also full of crap about the value of democracy, is a 19 year old student at university (Oxford) so in the meantime the party will be run by Benazir’s husband (Asif Ali Zardari, a former jailbird, wanted for fraud in several financial centres, known in his (wife’s) heyday in Pakistan as Mr 10%). Oh and a couple of others who will have been paid by the Bhutto family.
The importance of Pakistan, it need hardly be mentioned, is that it is a Muslim country of 165 million people, 70% Sunni, 20% Shia, bordering Afghanistan, the likely home of Osama bin Laden, and it has a nuclear bomb.
But perhaps it isn’t so bad after all: the policy had been to maintain in power an intelligent, educated woman who we thought would do anything the West wanted as long as she was maintained in power. Yes she had a back-story of helping to install the Taliban in Afghanistan but we could forget that (even while British servicemen are dying as a result). No she never did anything for Pakistanis, not even repealing the Hudud law which means a woman who has been raped can be convicted of adultery, but we never cared about Pakistanis or foreign women. Benazir was our sonofabitch.
Now we have a 19 year old, with a Regent who will do what anybody wants as long as there is a billion and a new passport at the end of it. Perhaps western diplomatic policy has come out of this rather well.
But….I just ask…. Is this what we want of our foreign policy? Is it what the people of Pakistan need?
To see what has been going on - and it has the imprimatur of the West all over it – just imagine if when John Smith died in 1994 it emerged that he had taken the Labour party funds and distributed them among his family and friends, opening accounts in exotic locations, in several of which he was wanted for fraud. And then, in his will, he decrees who the next leader of the Labour Party would be (it would have been Gordon, all those years ago).
After Benazir’s death there will be no leadership election for the Pakistan Peoples Party: it has some talented people but Benazir, described by several newspapers as a martyr for democracy, the woman who said democracy will defeat terrorism, has decided it will be her son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who will lead. Actually young Billy, who is also full of crap about the value of democracy, is a 19 year old student at university (Oxford) so in the meantime the party will be run by Benazir’s husband (Asif Ali Zardari, a former jailbird, wanted for fraud in several financial centres, known in his (wife’s) heyday in Pakistan as Mr 10%). Oh and a couple of others who will have been paid by the Bhutto family.
The importance of Pakistan, it need hardly be mentioned, is that it is a Muslim country of 165 million people, 70% Sunni, 20% Shia, bordering Afghanistan, the likely home of Osama bin Laden, and it has a nuclear bomb.
But perhaps it isn’t so bad after all: the policy had been to maintain in power an intelligent, educated woman who we thought would do anything the West wanted as long as she was maintained in power. Yes she had a back-story of helping to install the Taliban in Afghanistan but we could forget that (even while British servicemen are dying as a result). No she never did anything for Pakistanis, not even repealing the Hudud law which means a woman who has been raped can be convicted of adultery, but we never cared about Pakistanis or foreign women. Benazir was our sonofabitch.
Now we have a 19 year old, with a Regent who will do what anybody wants as long as there is a billion and a new passport at the end of it. Perhaps western diplomatic policy has come out of this rather well.
But….I just ask…. Is this what we want of our foreign policy? Is it what the people of Pakistan need?
My forecasts for 2008
Forecasts:
1. Oil price in decline to below $75.
Dollar falls a further 10% against € past 1.60
£ interest rates fall to 4.5%
FTSE has a bad year but a late burst ends at 7250
2. European growth rate slows, calls for protectionism and political control of Central Bank
3. A major bank and a US car company will fail but be taken over
4. Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman, Rupert Murdoch, Hugo Chavez do not resign
5. Giuliani beats Hillary in tight vote
6. UK Parties at year end Lab 37 Cons 40 LibDem 20
7. UK House prices fall 5% over the year
8. Boris wins but turns out to be just as crap as Red Ken
1. Oil price in decline to below $75.
Dollar falls a further 10% against € past 1.60
£ interest rates fall to 4.5%
FTSE has a bad year but a late burst ends at 7250
2. European growth rate slows, calls for protectionism and political control of Central Bank
3. A major bank and a US car company will fail but be taken over
4. Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman, Rupert Murdoch, Hugo Chavez do not resign
5. Giuliani beats Hillary in tight vote
6. UK Parties at year end Lab 37 Cons 40 LibDem 20
7. UK House prices fall 5% over the year
8. Boris wins but turns out to be just as crap as Red Ken
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