Vicenzo Barlotti, a surgeon from Capaccio Scalo, has sued the Italian State on the grounds that his patients are uncivil. He clams 2 million euros to rebuild his life after the great suffering, disorder and degradation in which he was constrained to live.
Extensive testing on nearly 1,000 buffalo herds has ensured that buffalo mozzarella is once again completely safe to eat, outgoing Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro has said.
Italy was responsible for almost a quarter of all workplace deaths within the European Union with 918, compared to Germany 678, Spain 662, France 593 and Britain (where almost no mozzarella is eaten at work) 209.
Unexpectedly, the Italian Tax Office put the details of all Italian taxpayers on the internet, a move described by the outgoing minister as ‘in the spirit of openness’. Beppe Grillo commented ''madness, pure madness. After the pardon which emptied the nations' jails, this imbecile outgoing government is offering criminals information on taxpayers' incomes and giving them their addresses''. After a day the privacy watchdog ordered the information to be removed.
But not before we discovered that out of a total of 40.74 million Italians filing tax returns, over 22 million (more than half) declared an income of between 1,200 and 1,300 euros a month (£11,160 - £12,180 p.a.). Just over 300,000 declared earnings of over 100,000 euros (£78,000) a year, equal to 0.74% of tax payers. More than half of Italian companies claimed to have broken even or declared losses.
The Tuscan city of Capannori claims to have the world’s highest rates of recycling and is aiming for ‘zero garbage by 2020’.
A survey of 13,000 people in nine countries found that just 14% of Italians were able to correctly answer basic questions relating to the Bible. Among questions frequently failed: whether Jesus helped write the Bible, whether the Gospels were part of the Bible and whether Moses or Paul appeared in the Old Testament.
More correct answers were given by Poland at 20%, but even fewer by France (11%) and Spain (8%). 27% of Italians said they had read a passage from the bible over the last year, against 75% in the USA. 79% of Italians thought God was watching over them, similar to Poland and Russia, slightly lower than in the US (86%), and far more than in France (47%). There again, God isn’t watching over France.
88% of Italians claim to be catholic.
The latest 31 recruits to join the Swiss Guards, the Vatican's private army, will swear their oath of allegiance on May 6th, anniversary of the heroic deaths of 147 guards defending the Medici pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome by Emperor Charles V in 1527.
The Swiss Guard was founded in 1506 by Pope Julius II, and numbers 110. Most will take their oath in German, while 11 will do so in French, one in Italian and one in Ladin, the Romansh language spoken in the Engadine.
Rome’s third Film Festival may be different to the first two. Founded by Walter Veltroni, the outgoing mayor, who was a film buff, it is thought by the new mayor to be a waste of money, celebrating Hollywood A-listers rather than the Italian film industry.
Southern Italy's Paglicci Cave, one of the most important Stone Age sites in Europe, may soon collapse if repairs are not made, archaeologists have warned. The Paleolithic settlement in Puglia's Gargano peninsula is thought to have been continually inhabited by early man between 200,000 and 11,000 years ago.
The Pope failed to make Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Those who did make it include the Dalai Lama, the Patriarch of Constantinople, George Clooney, Andre Agassi, Mariah Carey and Miley Cyrus, an actress.
The saga of Venice’s pigeons continues: after the ban on feeding them was extended to St Mark’s Square, animal rights campaigners have stepped in after two days to distribute 30 kilos of birdseed to the hungry creatures. There had been 19 licensed birdseed sellers in St Mark’s Square alone.
The Rome mayoral race was won by Giovanni Alemanno, 50, an environmental engineer from Bari. Alemanno was formerly head of Fronte della Gioventù, the youth movement of the fascist Italian Social Movement MSI. He is a former agriculture minister, praised for his opposition to genetically modified organisms, his efforts to boost the export of Italian quality foods and his defence of authentic national products against foreign counterfeits.
The main subject of debate in the election was the high levels of petty crime popularly believed to be committed by camps of illegal immigrants along the banks of the Tiber.
Former foreign minister Gianfranco Fini has been appointed House Speaker. The former fascist leader of AN is the first right winger to hold the post since the war.
Italy's new government will be up and running within two weeks, Premier-elect Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday, making just under a month since the election. There are unconfirmed reports that the new governmental team will contain ‘zero garbage by 2020’
03 May, 2008
01 May, 2008
Oil Prices
Anatole Kaletsky has been hitting some good form recently, after what I at least regarded as a suspect phase a couple of years ago (economic analysis well past its sell-by date) and he has a good article in the Times today reminding us that wheat and several other commodities have come sharply off their peak prices and the same may well happen to oil in the near future.
Someone recently said to me that the oil prices were driven by speculators and I had to ask ‘but why aren’t the speculators selling rather than buying?’ Now we may be seeing the first signs that they are.
Someone recently said to me that the oil prices were driven by speculators and I had to ask ‘but why aren’t the speculators selling rather than buying?’ Now we may be seeing the first signs that they are.
London Elections
It is the day of the London Elections and the candidates will be waiting earnestly to hear whom this blog endorses.
First, it has become increasingly apparent that Ken Livingstone must go. He has been there too long, there are reports, if not of corruption, of less than scrupulous usage of the citizens’ taxes and of his obscure obsessions being given greater licence as his power became unassailable. The Labour Party in happier times might have worked this out – after all they got rid of the party leader in order to undergo some sort of renewal, but they were powerless before Great Ken (another reason he should go).
It is equally apparent that if it is not to be Ken it will be Alexander (Boris) Johnson. But I do not find him a wholly attractive proposition. The man is shambolic, an actor, and with the attention span of a butterfly. He will make an adequate mayor if he knows how to delegate and is able to make mature character judgments of the people he is delegating to. But we know nothing of this. And we must start punishing people for not using their proper names; it is as if they are avoiding their creditors.
Accordingly this blog recommends that you show your displeasure at Boris by voting for one of the protest candidates, Brian Paddick if you like him, Gerrard Batten the UKIP candidate if, like me, you find that important, the Green (she is very good looking) or whatever. And that you give your second preference to Boris. Scraping in on the second preferences will at least indicate to Boris that this is not a lifetime sinecure and that he will have to do something positive.
First, it has become increasingly apparent that Ken Livingstone must go. He has been there too long, there are reports, if not of corruption, of less than scrupulous usage of the citizens’ taxes and of his obscure obsessions being given greater licence as his power became unassailable. The Labour Party in happier times might have worked this out – after all they got rid of the party leader in order to undergo some sort of renewal, but they were powerless before Great Ken (another reason he should go).
It is equally apparent that if it is not to be Ken it will be Alexander (Boris) Johnson. But I do not find him a wholly attractive proposition. The man is shambolic, an actor, and with the attention span of a butterfly. He will make an adequate mayor if he knows how to delegate and is able to make mature character judgments of the people he is delegating to. But we know nothing of this. And we must start punishing people for not using their proper names; it is as if they are avoiding their creditors.
Accordingly this blog recommends that you show your displeasure at Boris by voting for one of the protest candidates, Brian Paddick if you like him, Gerrard Batten the UKIP candidate if, like me, you find that important, the Green (she is very good looking) or whatever. And that you give your second preference to Boris. Scraping in on the second preferences will at least indicate to Boris that this is not a lifetime sinecure and that he will have to do something positive.
30 April, 2008
LSD - obit
Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died aged 102.
Doesn't seem to have done him any harm.
Doesn't seem to have done him any harm.
29 April, 2008
The Mwa-Mwa
I’ve done a lot of social kissing recently (Italian wedding, still recovering) and I pass on this interesting exposé from a female friend.
When they started trying to sell perfume to men, in the 60s and 70s, they were afraid the men would find it a bit feminine and embarrassing, so they called it aftershave, as if it were some skin treatment rather than just perfume. Accordingly the men put it on their cheeks, and still do, whereas a woman puts perfume on her neck, behind her ears and on her arms.
So when my friend goes to a party and does the Mwa-Mwa which convention requires, she ends up with ten different sorts of perfume on her face, making her smell like a cheap hooker (she didn’t say that last bit).
We men should copy the ladies and put it on discreetly.
When they started trying to sell perfume to men, in the 60s and 70s, they were afraid the men would find it a bit feminine and embarrassing, so they called it aftershave, as if it were some skin treatment rather than just perfume. Accordingly the men put it on their cheeks, and still do, whereas a woman puts perfume on her neck, behind her ears and on her arms.
So when my friend goes to a party and does the Mwa-Mwa which convention requires, she ends up with ten different sorts of perfume on her face, making her smell like a cheap hooker (she didn’t say that last bit).
We men should copy the ladies and put it on discreetly.
28 April, 2008
Rome
Berlusconi's party has won Rome, the first centre right party to do so since the war (and the one before the war wasn't exactly centre right). Must say I didn't think he'd do it but well done Mr Allemanno (now can we have the cobble stones outside our flat fixed?)
27 April, 2008
St Joanna
There is a campaign in the Independent promoted by Joanna Lumley against battery eggs, with Good Egg awards to people and businesses she likes and Rotten Eggs (Watch out!) for people she doesn’t.
Much though I like the idea of supporting something with Miss Lovely on board I can’t help wondering how this is going to resonate outside the rarefied atmosphere of the Independent. We must use eggs from more humane systems, and watch out for cakes, flans and custards: ‘hidden eggs are easy to miss!’, admonishes Nanny Joanna.
And this is the point, isn’t it? She wants more humane systems but hens aren’t humans, are they, Joanna darling? And free range eggs are too expensive for poor people, didn’t you know? And the idea that, while Britain is increasing taxes on the poor and there is no petrol, we should go chasing round supermarkets asking how the eggs in Bird’s Custard were produced, is detached from reality. Which is what rich actresses tend to be.
And, sorry to say this Jo-lovey, but I am getting a little bit fed up with celebrities telling me how to lead a better life, particularly after we found out that Sting and his rather peculiar wife, while lecturing us on being greener and better, think nothing of jumping on a plane whenever it suits them, because it is supposed to be me, not them, who saves the planet.
A plague on the lot of them, Sting, Lumley and the ghastly self-important Bono. Stick to what you do best, which isn’t being normal.
Much though I like the idea of supporting something with Miss Lovely on board I can’t help wondering how this is going to resonate outside the rarefied atmosphere of the Independent. We must use eggs from more humane systems, and watch out for cakes, flans and custards: ‘hidden eggs are easy to miss!’, admonishes Nanny Joanna.
And this is the point, isn’t it? She wants more humane systems but hens aren’t humans, are they, Joanna darling? And free range eggs are too expensive for poor people, didn’t you know? And the idea that, while Britain is increasing taxes on the poor and there is no petrol, we should go chasing round supermarkets asking how the eggs in Bird’s Custard were produced, is detached from reality. Which is what rich actresses tend to be.
And, sorry to say this Jo-lovey, but I am getting a little bit fed up with celebrities telling me how to lead a better life, particularly after we found out that Sting and his rather peculiar wife, while lecturing us on being greener and better, think nothing of jumping on a plane whenever it suits them, because it is supposed to be me, not them, who saves the planet.
A plague on the lot of them, Sting, Lumley and the ghastly self-important Bono. Stick to what you do best, which isn’t being normal.
Humph
'When a great man dies we are all diminished' - said, if I recall correctly, of a largely useless but fabulously wealthy aristocrat, the Duke of Newcastle. But it is not often one can say reading the obits that someone's death will affect you for the worse. Such however is the case with Humphrey Littleton, whose unique broadcasting style was the voice tinged with regret that he had ever had anything to do with it.
End of an era.
End of an era.
26 April, 2008
Italian News: Liberation Special
25th April was Liberation Day, the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Italy from the Germans, marking the end of the Resistance War between September 1943 and April 1945.
Liberazione is one of only three Civil Public Holidays in Italy, the others being Festival of Work (when no one works) on 1st May and Republic Day on 2nd June. There are a further eight religious or semi religious official national holidays making a total of 11, compared to 8 in the UK
With the May Day holiday (Festa di Lavoro) next week some 5.25 million Italians are expected to make a ‘ponte’ or bridge through to Monday 5th May. Most go to the seaside; 25% of those travelling stay in their own holiday home. Italians will spend an average of 329 euros a day on the 10 day break.
Liberation Day was also the occasion of Beppe Grillo’s V-2 Day (F*** off Day 2). He held a rally of 45,000 in Turin and in 400 other locations throughout Italy it is thought that 140,000 have signed his referendum petitions against ‘information fascism’.
There are three referendum petitions: for cancelling the Gasparri Law which regulates the media and permits Berlusconi to control TV channels; abolishing the state controlled union of journalists; stopping state funding of the press, believed to be 1 billion euros a year.
With perhaps a hint of tautology, Grillo described his movement as the ''start of a new Renaissance''. Grillo has been banned from the airwaves since 1987 for upsetting the then leader Bettino Craxi - six years before the late Socialist leader's downfall for corruption.
Liberazione is one of only three Civil Public Holidays in Italy, the others being Festival of Work (when no one works) on 1st May and Republic Day on 2nd June. There are a further eight religious or semi religious official national holidays making a total of 11, compared to 8 in the UK
With the May Day holiday (Festa di Lavoro) next week some 5.25 million Italians are expected to make a ‘ponte’ or bridge through to Monday 5th May. Most go to the seaside; 25% of those travelling stay in their own holiday home. Italians will spend an average of 329 euros a day on the 10 day break.
Liberation Day was also the occasion of Beppe Grillo’s V-2 Day (F*** off Day 2). He held a rally of 45,000 in Turin and in 400 other locations throughout Italy it is thought that 140,000 have signed his referendum petitions against ‘information fascism’.
There are three referendum petitions: for cancelling the Gasparri Law which regulates the media and permits Berlusconi to control TV channels; abolishing the state controlled union of journalists; stopping state funding of the press, believed to be 1 billion euros a year.
With perhaps a hint of tautology, Grillo described his movement as the ''start of a new Renaissance''. Grillo has been banned from the airwaves since 1987 for upsetting the then leader Bettino Craxi - six years before the late Socialist leader's downfall for corruption.
In 2005, American magazine Time named Grillo one of its European heroes of the year.
The comedian received a bad press in the traditional media, il Giornale running an exposé of his sex life. Il Giornale is owned by Berlusconi’s brother. ‘The sewer rats are leaving the sinking ship’ he said. ‘To find the truth, look at the foreign media and the internet.’ Grillo’s blog is one of the 20 most read in the world.
San Giovanni Rotondo, Puglia: more than 700,000 people have already registered to shuffle past the exhumed and embalmed body of Padre Pio, who died 40 years ago and was canonised in 2002. Padre Pio is even now an enormously popular figure in Italy; his image is displayed in homes, shops, garages, vehicles and piazzas throughout the country. He was said to have stigmata on his hands and feet, although these are apparently not visible on the corpse, to be able to tell the future and to appear in two places at the same time.
Padre Pio is big business in Puglia, worth perhaps 100 million euros per year, employing 7,000 people and involving 140 buildings to receive the 7 million faithful who visit his tomb each year.
‘This is not state aid’, said a spokesman as he confirmed that the State had aided Alitalia by granting it a 300 million euro loan, when its banks refused to lend any more. Ryan Air have made a formal complaint to the EU
Silvio Berlusconi is to resign as the president of Milan next month when he begins his third spell as prime minister of Italy.
He has nearly picked the names of his cabinet, two weeks after the election.
A severed horse’s head and two bullets had been left on the staircase of the office of Vincenzo Pomes, deputy mayor of Ostuni, Puglia. He said he could not explain why such a thing could happen..
The final run off to the elections for Rome’s mayor takes place this Sunday and Monday. In the primary election the centre left candidate Francesco Rutelli (nicknamed ‘Cicciobello’, the name of a popular baby doll) had a modest lead over the Centre Right candidate Gianni Allemanno but insufficient to prevent a second contest. If Alemanno wins it will be the first tie since the war that Rome has not had a left-wing government.
The priceless marble head of Roman Empress Faustina the Elder, adoptive mother of Marcus Aurelius, is among pieces that went on show in Rome on Thursday as part of an annual exhibition dedicated to stolen works recovered by Italian art police. Around 100 valuable paintings, statues and manuscripts including a letter by 19th-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi and a drawing by Vincent Van Gogh are on display at Castel Sant'Angelo.
A series of graffiti portraits of fugitive Mafia head Matteo Messina Denaro have appeared on a back wall of Palermo cathedral. The four portraits were in the style of Andy Warhol’s portraits of Marilyn Monroe.
The comedian received a bad press in the traditional media, il Giornale running an exposé of his sex life. Il Giornale is owned by Berlusconi’s brother. ‘The sewer rats are leaving the sinking ship’ he said. ‘To find the truth, look at the foreign media and the internet.’ Grillo’s blog is one of the 20 most read in the world.
San Giovanni Rotondo, Puglia: more than 700,000 people have already registered to shuffle past the exhumed and embalmed body of Padre Pio, who died 40 years ago and was canonised in 2002. Padre Pio is even now an enormously popular figure in Italy; his image is displayed in homes, shops, garages, vehicles and piazzas throughout the country. He was said to have stigmata on his hands and feet, although these are apparently not visible on the corpse, to be able to tell the future and to appear in two places at the same time.
Padre Pio is big business in Puglia, worth perhaps 100 million euros per year, employing 7,000 people and involving 140 buildings to receive the 7 million faithful who visit his tomb each year.
‘This is not state aid’, said a spokesman as he confirmed that the State had aided Alitalia by granting it a 300 million euro loan, when its banks refused to lend any more. Ryan Air have made a formal complaint to the EU
Silvio Berlusconi is to resign as the president of Milan next month when he begins his third spell as prime minister of Italy.
He has nearly picked the names of his cabinet, two weeks after the election.
A severed horse’s head and two bullets had been left on the staircase of the office of Vincenzo Pomes, deputy mayor of Ostuni, Puglia. He said he could not explain why such a thing could happen..
The final run off to the elections for Rome’s mayor takes place this Sunday and Monday. In the primary election the centre left candidate Francesco Rutelli (nicknamed ‘Cicciobello’, the name of a popular baby doll) had a modest lead over the Centre Right candidate Gianni Allemanno but insufficient to prevent a second contest. If Alemanno wins it will be the first tie since the war that Rome has not had a left-wing government.
The priceless marble head of Roman Empress Faustina the Elder, adoptive mother of Marcus Aurelius, is among pieces that went on show in Rome on Thursday as part of an annual exhibition dedicated to stolen works recovered by Italian art police. Around 100 valuable paintings, statues and manuscripts including a letter by 19th-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi and a drawing by Vincent Van Gogh are on display at Castel Sant'Angelo.
A series of graffiti portraits of fugitive Mafia head Matteo Messina Denaro have appeared on a back wall of Palermo cathedral. The four portraits were in the style of Andy Warhol’s portraits of Marilyn Monroe.
The Isle of Capri will host its first Cow Parade exhibition of contemporary art. A total of 26 life-sized fibreglass cows will be strategically placed by emerging artists, especially from the Campania region.
Scientists hunting ‘dark matter’, an invisible substance that holds galaxies together, claim to have found it underneath the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, together with the rest of Berlusconi’s cabinet.
Scientists hunting ‘dark matter’, an invisible substance that holds galaxies together, claim to have found it underneath the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, together with the rest of Berlusconi’s cabinet.
25 April, 2008
Liberation Day
Today is the Festa della Liberazione and with warm weather forecast many will be making a long weekend of it with more than 10 million cars on the roads.
Millions of people are forecast to be in the streets in protest for Beppe Grillo's V-2 day, which this year concentrates on the desire for a free press. Grillo has come under heavy attack in il Giornale, which is run by the new prime minister's brother.
More details in 'Italian News' on this blog tomorrow morning.
Millions of people are forecast to be in the streets in protest for Beppe Grillo's V-2 day, which this year concentrates on the desire for a free press. Grillo has come under heavy attack in il Giornale, which is run by the new prime minister's brother.
More details in 'Italian News' on this blog tomorrow morning.
24 April, 2008
Star Wars
According to reports, Barney Jones and his cousin Michael have set up on the island of Anglesey a Jedi Church, worshipping the characters in the Star Wars films, with a congregation of 30.
While practising with their light sabres, presumably a religious ritual, in the garden of their home, one Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, from Holyhead, dressed in a black bin bag and shouting ‘Darth Vader’ jumped over the garden wall and attacked them, interestingly with a crutch, hitting one over the head and causing a headache and the other on the thigh, causing a bruise. He has been charged with assault, and has said he was drunk at the time.
It is a thing I should have been pleased to do have done sober. This blog does not condone crime, oh no, but I can’t help hoping we see rather more of Mr Hughes in the future, and rather less of the Jones cousins.
While practising with their light sabres, presumably a religious ritual, in the garden of their home, one Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, from Holyhead, dressed in a black bin bag and shouting ‘Darth Vader’ jumped over the garden wall and attacked them, interestingly with a crutch, hitting one over the head and causing a headache and the other on the thigh, causing a bruise. He has been charged with assault, and has said he was drunk at the time.
It is a thing I should have been pleased to do have done sober. This blog does not condone crime, oh no, but I can’t help hoping we see rather more of Mr Hughes in the future, and rather less of the Jones cousins.
Inflation and the Teachers
I haven’t seen this explanation anywhere else so perhaps it’s worth looking at. With heavy increases in government spending when he was Chancellor Gordon Brown obviously caused some inflation. What he did to circumvent it was to fiddle the index.
Inflation is measured as a rise in the price of a basket of goods and services and obviously you can have different things in the basket. When Brown was getting worried he changed the index, from RPI (retail price index) which included mortgage payments, council tax and other things, to CPI (consumer price index) which didn’t. Suddenly inflation was lower! Brilliant economics by the Iron Chancellor!
No, trickery. This is where the teachers come in. Their salaries were reviewed 'independently' according to the CPI and they were given 2.5% but their costs go up with the RPI which is 4%. One teacher interviewed on Sky said her student loan was being repaid in accordance with RPI but her salary had gone up with the lower CPI. All in the same paycheck!
My gut reaction to a teacher’s strike is to condemn it: our children are suffering enough with the appalling education system without being cheated from their schooling by bolshie teachers.
But actually the teachers have a point. To make it they should withdraw from the political levy for the Labour Party and vote for anyone else, Conservative, Liberal, UKIP whatever. They have been shafted to make Brown look good, just as the 10p tax payers have. That's how to make the point.
Inflation is measured as a rise in the price of a basket of goods and services and obviously you can have different things in the basket. When Brown was getting worried he changed the index, from RPI (retail price index) which included mortgage payments, council tax and other things, to CPI (consumer price index) which didn’t. Suddenly inflation was lower! Brilliant economics by the Iron Chancellor!
No, trickery. This is where the teachers come in. Their salaries were reviewed 'independently' according to the CPI and they were given 2.5% but their costs go up with the RPI which is 4%. One teacher interviewed on Sky said her student loan was being repaid in accordance with RPI but her salary had gone up with the lower CPI. All in the same paycheck!
My gut reaction to a teacher’s strike is to condemn it: our children are suffering enough with the appalling education system without being cheated from their schooling by bolshie teachers.
But actually the teachers have a point. To make it they should withdraw from the political levy for the Labour Party and vote for anyone else, Conservative, Liberal, UKIP whatever. They have been shafted to make Brown look good, just as the 10p tax payers have. That's how to make the point.
23 April, 2008
Europe madness
The Mail and the Sun have a story that Brussels is going to divide Europe up into regions, including an Atlantic one stretching from NW Scotland down to Portugal, and a Channel one with Kent and Sussex and a part of Belgium.
Now, I am as eurosceptic as the next man, but this has just a whiff of the April Fool to me, and that not being the date (in fact it’s St George’s Day) I suspect this is a leak designed to embarrass fervent anti-Europeans by tempting them into apoplexy.
The W Midlands doesn’t seem to get into anyone’s region at all, lucky chaps
Now, I am as eurosceptic as the next man, but this has just a whiff of the April Fool to me, and that not being the date (in fact it’s St George’s Day) I suspect this is a leak designed to embarrass fervent anti-Europeans by tempting them into apoplexy.
The W Midlands doesn’t seem to get into anyone’s region at all, lucky chaps
22 April, 2008
Education and Labour
Many of the blogsites, particularly Guido, have been amusing on this. Labour's election site is headlined 'Excellance (sic) for all'.
Which pretty well sums up the whole damn thing.
Which pretty well sums up the whole damn thing.
Alitalia
News that AirFrance has pulled out of their Alitalia bid must surely start people wondering whether Italy needs an airline at all. It has always had union troubles (it used to be that all the staff had to live in Rome, and were flown up to Milan and back every day!) and indeed failure to obtain union assurances was one of AF-KLM’s reasons. But there are others.
Alitalia loses money, its planes are out of date, the baggage handling is awful and it is impossible to use it for business because its timekeeping is so erratic.
It is being kept going as a matter of pride, but it is a pride that Italy can no longer afford.
Alitalia loses money, its planes are out of date, the baggage handling is awful and it is impossible to use it for business because its timekeeping is so erratic.
It is being kept going as a matter of pride, but it is a pride that Italy can no longer afford.
21 April, 2008
Happy Birthday Rome
Rome celebrates its 2,761st birthday today.
Italians sing Happy Birthday to you to the same tune as the British, their words being 'Tanti auguri a te'.
In fact the date was calculated roughly using estimated times for the kings to have reigned before the founding of the Republic, then the historian Varro in the 1st century AD plucked a date out of thin air, but it got imperial approval so must have been right.
In fact there are traces of settlements in the area as much as 10,000 years old.
Italians sing Happy Birthday to you to the same tune as the British, their words being 'Tanti auguri a te'.
In fact the date was calculated roughly using estimated times for the kings to have reigned before the founding of the Republic, then the historian Varro in the 1st century AD plucked a date out of thin air, but it got imperial approval so must have been right.
In fact there are traces of settlements in the area as much as 10,000 years old.
19 April, 2008
Italian News - Post Election Fever!
The election was comprehensively won by Silvio Berlusconi with substantial majorities in both houses. Umberto Bossi’s Lega Nord, part of the Berlusconi coalition, did well with 8% of the vote.
Extreme parties from left and right were eliminated, giving Italy effectively a two party system for the first time in its history.
Jostling for ministries has begun, but Berlusconi is out of contact at his Sardinian villa with Vladimir Putin.
Berlusconi has made his position on women clear. The women of the right are more attractive than those of the left. His Spanish counterpart Zapatero has too many women in his administration making it impossible to govern. He will have four women out of twelve top posts. Tipped for promotion are the lawyer Giulia Buongiorno and the former Miss Italy contestant Mara Carfagna.
The timetable from here is not frantic: two weeks after the election, on April 29th will be the first session of Parliament. At this time MPs elected in more than one constituency must decide which they intend to represent. Then there’s the May Day holiday and a couple of extra days off. After that, on May 5, Government consultations begin. Given this time frame, Italy should have a new government raring to go by the middle of May.
The election for Rome’s mayor will go to a run-off between Francesco Rutelli of the left and Gianni Allemanno of the Right.
Former health minister Girolamo Sirchia, the man behind Italy's smoking ban, has been convicted of accepting kickbacks in a trial into corruption at a hospital in Milan.
Several Italian papers published a picture which purported to show a friend of Miuccia Prada, the head of the fashion house and left wing supporter, unable to reach the steps of her private plane, getting his bodyguard to lie on the ground and stepping on him. The tale was strongly denied by a Prada spokesman.
A man from Lecco has been sentenced to ten days in prison and fined 40 euros for ogling a woman on a train. She claims his looks were offensive, he claims he could not help looking at her because they were in the same compartment.
Every newspaper in Italy is given a subsidy by the State, which costs a total of 1 billion euros per year
Guinness World Records have confirmed that an American health food supermarket has entered the record books for the largest number of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese wheels cracked open simultaneously, 270. The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium decrees that the cheeses should be prised open rather than cut, and that five different knives are used in the process. Shortest time taken was 81 seconds. The cheeses weigh around 40 kilos.
The most recent figures also show that 20% of all smokers in Italy are aged between 15 and 24, numbering more than 1.2 million in total.
The Court of Cassation said living together outside wedlock offended none of society's rules or customs and broke no Italian law. Nearly half of all young couples setting up home for the first time have not yet taken their vows and have no immediate plans to do so.
There were 250,000 weddings in 2005 compared to 419,000 in 1972. This may be due to the high cost of marriage, which has increased by 40% in the last seven years to an average of 27,000 euros.
Further development of Rome’s newest underground line has been halted by the discovery of an ancient marble staircase underneath the Piazza Venezia, the square where Benito Mussolini gave his speeches.
Vincenzo Di Costanzo, a former church custodian of Forli’ is on trial for faking an incident in which a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood in the city's Santa Lucia Church in March 2006. Police say Di Costanzo dripped his own blood onto the face of the statue in an attempt to simulate a miracle.
There has been a number of such attempts in recent years including one couple who tried to charge people to see a weeping statue in their garden.
Only 43% of businesses and 34% of households regularly use the internet in Italy, putting it 4th from bottom in the EU tables, ahead only of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. The number of schools connected was however higher than the EU average.
In 1970 30% of university teachers were over 45; today that figure is 70%.
Both Japan and China have lifted their bans on Mozzarella.
The Palazzo Guinigi in Lucca is staging an exhibition ‘The Greatest Italian Comic Artists’ but have been reminded the election was last week.
Extreme parties from left and right were eliminated, giving Italy effectively a two party system for the first time in its history.
Jostling for ministries has begun, but Berlusconi is out of contact at his Sardinian villa with Vladimir Putin.
Berlusconi has made his position on women clear. The women of the right are more attractive than those of the left. His Spanish counterpart Zapatero has too many women in his administration making it impossible to govern. He will have four women out of twelve top posts. Tipped for promotion are the lawyer Giulia Buongiorno and the former Miss Italy contestant Mara Carfagna.
The timetable from here is not frantic: two weeks after the election, on April 29th will be the first session of Parliament. At this time MPs elected in more than one constituency must decide which they intend to represent. Then there’s the May Day holiday and a couple of extra days off. After that, on May 5, Government consultations begin. Given this time frame, Italy should have a new government raring to go by the middle of May.
The election for Rome’s mayor will go to a run-off between Francesco Rutelli of the left and Gianni Allemanno of the Right.
Former health minister Girolamo Sirchia, the man behind Italy's smoking ban, has been convicted of accepting kickbacks in a trial into corruption at a hospital in Milan.
Several Italian papers published a picture which purported to show a friend of Miuccia Prada, the head of the fashion house and left wing supporter, unable to reach the steps of her private plane, getting his bodyguard to lie on the ground and stepping on him. The tale was strongly denied by a Prada spokesman.
A man from Lecco has been sentenced to ten days in prison and fined 40 euros for ogling a woman on a train. She claims his looks were offensive, he claims he could not help looking at her because they were in the same compartment.
Every newspaper in Italy is given a subsidy by the State, which costs a total of 1 billion euros per year
Guinness World Records have confirmed that an American health food supermarket has entered the record books for the largest number of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese wheels cracked open simultaneously, 270. The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium decrees that the cheeses should be prised open rather than cut, and that five different knives are used in the process. Shortest time taken was 81 seconds. The cheeses weigh around 40 kilos.
The most recent figures also show that 20% of all smokers in Italy are aged between 15 and 24, numbering more than 1.2 million in total.
The Court of Cassation said living together outside wedlock offended none of society's rules or customs and broke no Italian law. Nearly half of all young couples setting up home for the first time have not yet taken their vows and have no immediate plans to do so.
There were 250,000 weddings in 2005 compared to 419,000 in 1972. This may be due to the high cost of marriage, which has increased by 40% in the last seven years to an average of 27,000 euros.
Further development of Rome’s newest underground line has been halted by the discovery of an ancient marble staircase underneath the Piazza Venezia, the square where Benito Mussolini gave his speeches.
Vincenzo Di Costanzo, a former church custodian of Forli’ is on trial for faking an incident in which a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood in the city's Santa Lucia Church in March 2006. Police say Di Costanzo dripped his own blood onto the face of the statue in an attempt to simulate a miracle.
There has been a number of such attempts in recent years including one couple who tried to charge people to see a weeping statue in their garden.
Only 43% of businesses and 34% of households regularly use the internet in Italy, putting it 4th from bottom in the EU tables, ahead only of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. The number of schools connected was however higher than the EU average.
In 1970 30% of university teachers were over 45; today that figure is 70%.
Both Japan and China have lifted their bans on Mozzarella.
The Palazzo Guinigi in Lucca is staging an exhibition ‘The Greatest Italian Comic Artists’ but have been reminded the election was last week.
18 April, 2008
Inflation
The Daily Mail points out that food costs are rising by 15% while inflation is under 3%. This is happening all over Europe. The reason is that the inflation index includes lots of electronic products made in China which have fallen in price, keeping the average low, whilst the Chinese have to eat, pushing food process up.
I once wrote to the Telegraph suggesting they should publish, jointly with an accountancy firm, a number of inflation indices according to what different types of people spent their money on – middle class retired, young families on benefits etc. They talked the idea up for a while (claiming it as their own, natch) then did nothing. It would be interesting reading.
Unfortunately 3% inflation is already too high, and since Central Banks have to target headline rates, they raise (or don’t sufficiently lower) interest rates. Thus while the amount households have available to spend is falling (by £2,000 a year, some estimates say) governments impose a restrictive, deflationary regime on the economy, just when we don’t need it!
The solution? The Chinese should start growing food, and stop making plastic toys.
I once wrote to the Telegraph suggesting they should publish, jointly with an accountancy firm, a number of inflation indices according to what different types of people spent their money on – middle class retired, young families on benefits etc. They talked the idea up for a while (claiming it as their own, natch) then did nothing. It would be interesting reading.
Unfortunately 3% inflation is already too high, and since Central Banks have to target headline rates, they raise (or don’t sufficiently lower) interest rates. Thus while the amount households have available to spend is falling (by £2,000 a year, some estimates say) governments impose a restrictive, deflationary regime on the economy, just when we don’t need it!
The solution? The Chinese should start growing food, and stop making plastic toys.
Mr Brown
Amidst all the talk about Gordon Brown it is worth remembering that it can’t be easy being a long-serving deputy. You have supported your predecessor through thick and thin, and when the time comes to take over you find it difficult to look like something new. And you are, in part, responsible for whatever mire the country is in.
The last fifty years have thrown up four dominant figures in British politics: Macmillan, Wilson, Thatcher and Blair, all succeeded by weak administrations: Eden, Callaghan, Major and Brown. And each long serving Prime Minister, succeeded by a weak deputy, has given way to a long serving one from the other side.
Good omen for Mr Cameron?
The last fifty years have thrown up four dominant figures in British politics: Macmillan, Wilson, Thatcher and Blair, all succeeded by weak administrations: Eden, Callaghan, Major and Brown. And each long serving Prime Minister, succeeded by a weak deputy, has given way to a long serving one from the other side.
Good omen for Mr Cameron?
Thunder
Watching a thunder sorm, I reflected that as a child I was told to count the seconds affter the lightning and when you heard the thunder that was how many miles away the storm was. Utter tosh, I now find.
For our purposes the speed of light, at 300,000 km per second is infinite. Sound (thunder) travels at 344 metres a second, so it is about a mile for every 5 seconds.
Apologies if you knew this already
For our purposes the speed of light, at 300,000 km per second is infinite. Sound (thunder) travels at 344 metres a second, so it is about a mile for every 5 seconds.
Apologies if you knew this already
16 April, 2008
Mr Brown visits America
This is what we know about Gordon Brown's trip to the US.
1 In trouble at home he decides to look the world statesman and copy Tony Blair’s shtik about being a bridge between Europe and America. Assumes neither Bush nor Merkel have a 'phone.
2 Neither the Foreign Office (which used to be described as the Rolls Royce of civil service) nor the hordes of highly paid minions Brown-nosing the PM have realised that this is the time of the Pope’s visit to the US, a guy who can draw crowds in the millions.
3 There is no plane, not even a British Airways one, so they hire something which seems to have both the setting sun and half the European flag painted on it
4 Arriving he makes a speech saying he wants America to show the sort of world leadership it showed after the war. Calculated (or more probably clumsy) insult to Bush. As one US website said, ‘Expect Bush to respond by paying a lot more attention to the Pope.’
Mr Brown made p12 of the Washington Post. How do you feel about this man representing you?
1 In trouble at home he decides to look the world statesman and copy Tony Blair’s shtik about being a bridge between Europe and America. Assumes neither Bush nor Merkel have a 'phone.
2 Neither the Foreign Office (which used to be described as the Rolls Royce of civil service) nor the hordes of highly paid minions Brown-nosing the PM have realised that this is the time of the Pope’s visit to the US, a guy who can draw crowds in the millions.
3 There is no plane, not even a British Airways one, so they hire something which seems to have both the setting sun and half the European flag painted on it
4 Arriving he makes a speech saying he wants America to show the sort of world leadership it showed after the war. Calculated (or more probably clumsy) insult to Bush. As one US website said, ‘Expect Bush to respond by paying a lot more attention to the Pope.’
Mr Brown made p12 of the Washington Post. How do you feel about this man representing you?
Italy's Election Results
Italy’s Election Results
It’s worth having a look at the scale of Berlusconi’s success, if only because it doesn’t seem to be understood by much of the foreign media. He said yesterday that Italy could function like a proper Western democracy, with one large party in government and one large party in opposition. Let’s see.
At the last election, in the House of Deputies 37 parties stood, and 13 achieved some representation. This time 30 stood and 7 are represented. The extreme right and the extreme left have been obliterated, the communists without a seat for the first time since the war.
Berlusconi’s dominance is clear. Whilst Michael Moore writes in today’s Telegraph ‘Silvio Berlusconi knows he cannot govern without Bossi's support’ the picture is much more in the PM’s favour. In the House, Berlusconi’s PdL and the tiny MpA have 280 seats. He will not need Bossi’s Lega Nord’s 60 seats to beat the others: the PD, IdV and others can total only 277. In the Senate the story is the same. Berlusconi without Bossi can muster 143 seats whereas the others between them make 133.
Only Bossi voting with the left is going to upset Berlusconi. But he won’t do that. Silvio is safely in.
It’s worth having a look at the scale of Berlusconi’s success, if only because it doesn’t seem to be understood by much of the foreign media. He said yesterday that Italy could function like a proper Western democracy, with one large party in government and one large party in opposition. Let’s see.
At the last election, in the House of Deputies 37 parties stood, and 13 achieved some representation. This time 30 stood and 7 are represented. The extreme right and the extreme left have been obliterated, the communists without a seat for the first time since the war.
Berlusconi’s dominance is clear. Whilst Michael Moore writes in today’s Telegraph ‘Silvio Berlusconi knows he cannot govern without Bossi's support’ the picture is much more in the PM’s favour. In the House, Berlusconi’s PdL and the tiny MpA have 280 seats. He will not need Bossi’s Lega Nord’s 60 seats to beat the others: the PD, IdV and others can total only 277. In the Senate the story is the same. Berlusconi without Bossi can muster 143 seats whereas the others between them make 133.
Only Bossi voting with the left is going to upset Berlusconi. But he won’t do that. Silvio is safely in.
15 April, 2008
Spring is springing
Bursting out all over, here in Umbria. The pictures show sangiovese vines (ie Chianti, Brunello) coming into leaf and a vineyard which needs ploughing.
Something I have seen nowhere other than Italy is wild asparagus, which is in season now. Thinner and with a stronger flavour than the cultivated, it grows on the edge of woodland and whole families go out hunting it. A local farmer brought me a large bunch with some fresh eggs to make an omelette, frittata degli asparagi selvatici; food for the Gods!
For more about gardens and agriculture in Italy see http://giardinoumbro.blogspot.com/
A big win for Silvio
Whilst everyone had been saying that he might fluke a win in the lower house but that the electoral system would never permit someone a clear majority to govern, Silvio Berlusconi has confounded them all. A clear majority in both houses, the far left wiped out.
We must hope he uses this majority to do something for Italy, this time.
We must hope he uses this majority to do something for Italy, this time.
13 April, 2008
Labour elections?
The Sunday papers are full of who might succeed Gordon Brown. Nonsense is what I say.
Replacing him would have to be done in October. In the meantime even the working up of a stalking horse will drag Labour through the mire in the press. Don’t forget Murdoch likes to back winners. Then the scrabbling for candidacy to let the public see the sheer staggering mediocrity of the competition: Harriet Harman, Blinky Balls, the peculiar Milliband, Jacqui Smith, the chap who used to be a postman; then the election itself (don’t expect Gordon Brown to say ‘well, actually I am a bit of a prat’ and withdraw) with speeches against each other and backbench MPs making heartfelt deliberations on the pages of the Rotherham Evening Argus; then someone emerges blinking into the sunlight as the new leader having upset all the other big beasts. It is the end of 2008 and he or she has one year before another general election has to be called, to capture the public mood, turn policy around and get a war chest together.
I am sure the Labour rank and file doesn’t have the stomach – or, by the way the money – for this fight. And they have too much good sense. They will duck it and reluctantly play the cards they have dealt themselves. And it isn’t too strong a hand.
Replacing him would have to be done in October. In the meantime even the working up of a stalking horse will drag Labour through the mire in the press. Don’t forget Murdoch likes to back winners. Then the scrabbling for candidacy to let the public see the sheer staggering mediocrity of the competition: Harriet Harman, Blinky Balls, the peculiar Milliband, Jacqui Smith, the chap who used to be a postman; then the election itself (don’t expect Gordon Brown to say ‘well, actually I am a bit of a prat’ and withdraw) with speeches against each other and backbench MPs making heartfelt deliberations on the pages of the Rotherham Evening Argus; then someone emerges blinking into the sunlight as the new leader having upset all the other big beasts. It is the end of 2008 and he or she has one year before another general election has to be called, to capture the public mood, turn policy around and get a war chest together.
I am sure the Labour rank and file doesn’t have the stomach – or, by the way the money – for this fight. And they have too much good sense. They will duck it and reluctantly play the cards they have dealt themselves. And it isn’t too strong a hand.
12 April, 2008
Italian News Election Special
Ballot boxes at 61,225 voting stations across the country will be open from 8am on Sunday to 3pm on Monday April 14. Of Italy's 58.2 million population, 47.3 million are entitled to vote for the House and 43.3 million for the Senate (for which you have to be over 25). They cannot vote for a candidate, but for a grouping or a party within a grouping.
A total of 32 candidates are standing for premier, among whom
Silvio Berlusconi who has said he will introduce sanity tests for judges.
Self-professed Fascist Daniela Santanche' who believes the 71-year-old Berlusconi has an ''obsession'' with her. She has told her supporters, however, that she will never give herself to him. So no luck, there, Silvio.
Giuliano Ferrara, 58, a former communist, standing on an atheist, anti-abortion ticket. In Bologna, Ferrara was pelted with eggs and fruit and had to be rescued by police.
Renzo Rabellino, whose party is The List of the Talking Cricket-No Euro. This refers to the insect, otherwise it would receive this blog’s undiluted endorsement. He also campaigns to reopen brothels and bring back military service.
The Leader of the Green Party and former Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio is under investigation for corruption after allegedly accepting free trips and hotel rooms.
Milly d’Abbraccio (literally Milly of the embrace, her real name is Emilia Cucciniello) a 44 year old surgically enhanced porn star who is standing for the Socialists in Rome has adopted for her posters the catchphrase ‘Enough of these Bum-Heads’ accompanied by a picture of her bottom.
In Other News,
The dish of Linguine ai datteri (sea dates), banned ten years ago because the molluscs bury into the sea-floor which is then destroyed by explosives in order to harvest them, is back on the menu. Fishermen have encouraged them to burrow into newly laid cement which can therefore be destroyed with impunity.
Caterina Annarumma, from Naples, conducted a 30-year affair with a married man and secretly bore him 12 children, selling them for £250 each to wealthy couples. She has now confessed to police.
Gambero Rosso, the restaurant review, conducted a competition for the best carbonara (pasta, eggs, pecorino cheese and cured pig cheek). The winner was Nabil Hadj Hassen, a Tunisian, of Antico Forno Roscioli; second was an Indian.
Italy consumes 48,000 tonnes of garlic a year, which equates to a small clove a day for every man, woman and child.
Investigators have discovered 70 million litres of illegal wine for sale at 70 euro cents (56p) per litre. It contained only 20-40% wine with the rest made up of water, sugar, fertilizers, manure and acids. No reports as to how it tasted.
Italian confectionery giant Ferrero has won a long-running case against a Chinese producer that copied its Ferrero Rocher chocolates, incredibly.
South Korea has lifted its ban on the import and sale of buffalo milk Mozzarella from Italy
Luca Luciani, general manager of Telecom Italia, told sales staff to take Napoleon as their role model, in particular l’Empereur’s performance at the Battle of Waterloo. ‘Everybody thought Napoleon had had it, beaten by the supremacy of his adversaries.’ runs the You Tube capture, ‘He had five great nations against him... but with strategy, clear ideas, determination and strength, Napoleon made Waterloo his masterpiece’. He finished with ‘Go ahead and score like Napoleon at Waterloo’. TI sales are reported to be flat, except in Elba.
A thief in Bologna smashed a car window, reached in and snatched the watch from the wrist of a 73-year-old man, but realising it wasn't a Rolex he threw it back and rode off.
Professor Aldo Di Carlo of Rome's Tor Vergata University is leading a drive to produce medical and security scanning waves that could be a better and safer alternative to X-rays. Teraherz-waves could scan an entire airport lobby without causing tissue damage to the people.
Devil worshippers have stolen at least 30 black cats to use in Black Masses in Pisa.
Mussolini's grandson is trying to have Il Duce’s execution declared illegal, while Alessandra, a granddaughter, is standing for parliament again, as a Fascist.
57% of Italians would sacrifice some pay if this meant they had more time to read, according to a poll.
Harry’s Bar in Venice is offering a 20% discount to Americans, making a dry martini as cheap as a car.
There was a minor earthquake in Rome this morning, making a contrast to the dull election campaign.
A total of 32 candidates are standing for premier, among whom
Silvio Berlusconi who has said he will introduce sanity tests for judges.
Self-professed Fascist Daniela Santanche' who believes the 71-year-old Berlusconi has an ''obsession'' with her. She has told her supporters, however, that she will never give herself to him. So no luck, there, Silvio.
Giuliano Ferrara, 58, a former communist, standing on an atheist, anti-abortion ticket. In Bologna, Ferrara was pelted with eggs and fruit and had to be rescued by police.
Renzo Rabellino, whose party is The List of the Talking Cricket-No Euro. This refers to the insect, otherwise it would receive this blog’s undiluted endorsement. He also campaigns to reopen brothels and bring back military service.
The Leader of the Green Party and former Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio is under investigation for corruption after allegedly accepting free trips and hotel rooms.
Milly d’Abbraccio (literally Milly of the embrace, her real name is Emilia Cucciniello) a 44 year old surgically enhanced porn star who is standing for the Socialists in Rome has adopted for her posters the catchphrase ‘Enough of these Bum-Heads’ accompanied by a picture of her bottom.
In Other News,
The dish of Linguine ai datteri (sea dates), banned ten years ago because the molluscs bury into the sea-floor which is then destroyed by explosives in order to harvest them, is back on the menu. Fishermen have encouraged them to burrow into newly laid cement which can therefore be destroyed with impunity.
Caterina Annarumma, from Naples, conducted a 30-year affair with a married man and secretly bore him 12 children, selling them for £250 each to wealthy couples. She has now confessed to police.
Gambero Rosso, the restaurant review, conducted a competition for the best carbonara (pasta, eggs, pecorino cheese and cured pig cheek). The winner was Nabil Hadj Hassen, a Tunisian, of Antico Forno Roscioli; second was an Indian.
Italy consumes 48,000 tonnes of garlic a year, which equates to a small clove a day for every man, woman and child.
Investigators have discovered 70 million litres of illegal wine for sale at 70 euro cents (56p) per litre. It contained only 20-40% wine with the rest made up of water, sugar, fertilizers, manure and acids. No reports as to how it tasted.
Italian confectionery giant Ferrero has won a long-running case against a Chinese producer that copied its Ferrero Rocher chocolates, incredibly.
South Korea has lifted its ban on the import and sale of buffalo milk Mozzarella from Italy
Luca Luciani, general manager of Telecom Italia, told sales staff to take Napoleon as their role model, in particular l’Empereur’s performance at the Battle of Waterloo. ‘Everybody thought Napoleon had had it, beaten by the supremacy of his adversaries.’ runs the You Tube capture, ‘He had five great nations against him... but with strategy, clear ideas, determination and strength, Napoleon made Waterloo his masterpiece’. He finished with ‘Go ahead and score like Napoleon at Waterloo’. TI sales are reported to be flat, except in Elba.
A thief in Bologna smashed a car window, reached in and snatched the watch from the wrist of a 73-year-old man, but realising it wasn't a Rolex he threw it back and rode off.
Professor Aldo Di Carlo of Rome's Tor Vergata University is leading a drive to produce medical and security scanning waves that could be a better and safer alternative to X-rays. Teraherz-waves could scan an entire airport lobby without causing tissue damage to the people.
Devil worshippers have stolen at least 30 black cats to use in Black Masses in Pisa.
Mussolini's grandson is trying to have Il Duce’s execution declared illegal, while Alessandra, a granddaughter, is standing for parliament again, as a Fascist.
57% of Italians would sacrifice some pay if this meant they had more time to read, according to a poll.
Harry’s Bar in Venice is offering a 20% discount to Americans, making a dry martini as cheap as a car.
There was a minor earthquake in Rome this morning, making a contrast to the dull election campaign.
11 April, 2008
Vote Italy!
Confusing problems with symptoms
The Italian voter has heard enough about Italy’s problems – they’ve been all over the press and, he is aware, the foreign media, for years. Organised crime, a collapsed legal system, the bloated public sector with its concomitant soaring debt, most people can recite them. And they see little for all that public expenditure: Italy has low growth, high unemployment but no unemployment benefit. Wages and pensions are low. Prices are rising. To all this, a range of solutions is offered the voter each time he goes to the polls. This to an extent was what Prodi’s outgoing government was about: with little political baggage he wanted to put himself across as a technocrat who could solve the problems, one by one. And indeed a couple of reforms were implemented. But it was tinkering. You can now have a haircut on a Monday.
But the laundry list of problems has been known about for years; nothing ever seems to be done about them. Are we perhaps confusing problems with symptoms? Are they the result of some more basic malaise? Is the root of it all much deeper? This, I think, is the stage of reasoning that the Italian voter has reached. No further, regrettably, but it is a start. The first, delicate whiff of change is in the air.
Last year there emerged a new movement on the Italian political scene. It was started by a man who had had enough and was prepared to say so. His name is Beppe Grillo, a popular comedian, and he called the movement ‘Vaffanculo’ which means more or less F*** Off. The movement is an expression of rage, often more lucid than the title suggests, against Italy’s bloated, corrupt political institutions. Grillo will not field any candidates but will not endorse, for example, anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime (at least 10% of MPs have).
If it has taken a comic to instigate the climate of change in Italy, a country which has traditionally had an unhealthy respect for its rulers, others are joining. A book by two journalists ‘La Casta’, describing in excruciating detail countless examples of the dishonesty and venality of Italy’s ruling caste, its political elite, became a best seller overnight. Stories started to emerge, such as that of the senator who demanded free ice cream to help him think. Clemente Mastella, Justice Minister and head of a small party in the Prodi coalition, was found to have taken his nephew to a football match at the taxpayers expense using the presidential plane and helicopter. After an investigation into his affairs (which included those of his wife) he was forced to resign and brought the government down.
The outgoing Prodi administration is now seen as having been a function of the problem. It was a rag-tag coalition, which never really agreed on anything and therefore had no policies. It owed its existence to horsetrading and was doomed to failure, as, with hindsight, most Italian governments have been: part of the system, not a solution to it.
The present election begins in this novel political climate. Two new, larger parties are slugging it out and both quickly latched on to the new mood. Both promise a reduction in government, moving it closer to the people. This is the right talk, but who will the voters believe? Walter Veltroni, the uncharismatic but honest looking former communist youth leader, latterly mayor of Rome, or Silvio Berlusconi the billionaire property and media mogul suspected of mafia links and a regular in the courts?
Much of the foreign press, wrongly in my view, sees Berlusconi’s lead in the polls as Italy choosing the soft option: falling for the knockabout charm, hoping that the man who made billions for himself can magic up a result for them. The foreign media will be publicly outraged if he wins (although privately pleased because he is at least good copy) and will suggest Italy has become some sort of pariah. In Britain or Germany a short, slightly vulgar right wing billionaire, who sometimes seemed more of a comic turn than a serious act and did nothing in his last term except keep himself out of prison, would be an unlikely candidate. He would certainly not have the youth vote sewn up. And yet this, incredibly, is what Berlusconi has managed, and what most of Europe can’t grasp.
Young people in Italy see Veltroni as an insider, the sort of politician Italy has produced for years. Worthy, perhaps, but almost whatever he says he cannot be seen as the herald of the change they want. Against that, Berlusconi might be just like he was last time: he might talk a lot and change nothing. But, then again, he just might. He just might.
The Italian voter has heard enough about Italy’s problems – they’ve been all over the press and, he is aware, the foreign media, for years. Organised crime, a collapsed legal system, the bloated public sector with its concomitant soaring debt, most people can recite them. And they see little for all that public expenditure: Italy has low growth, high unemployment but no unemployment benefit. Wages and pensions are low. Prices are rising. To all this, a range of solutions is offered the voter each time he goes to the polls. This to an extent was what Prodi’s outgoing government was about: with little political baggage he wanted to put himself across as a technocrat who could solve the problems, one by one. And indeed a couple of reforms were implemented. But it was tinkering. You can now have a haircut on a Monday.
But the laundry list of problems has been known about for years; nothing ever seems to be done about them. Are we perhaps confusing problems with symptoms? Are they the result of some more basic malaise? Is the root of it all much deeper? This, I think, is the stage of reasoning that the Italian voter has reached. No further, regrettably, but it is a start. The first, delicate whiff of change is in the air.
Last year there emerged a new movement on the Italian political scene. It was started by a man who had had enough and was prepared to say so. His name is Beppe Grillo, a popular comedian, and he called the movement ‘Vaffanculo’ which means more or less F*** Off. The movement is an expression of rage, often more lucid than the title suggests, against Italy’s bloated, corrupt political institutions. Grillo will not field any candidates but will not endorse, for example, anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime (at least 10% of MPs have).
If it has taken a comic to instigate the climate of change in Italy, a country which has traditionally had an unhealthy respect for its rulers, others are joining. A book by two journalists ‘La Casta’, describing in excruciating detail countless examples of the dishonesty and venality of Italy’s ruling caste, its political elite, became a best seller overnight. Stories started to emerge, such as that of the senator who demanded free ice cream to help him think. Clemente Mastella, Justice Minister and head of a small party in the Prodi coalition, was found to have taken his nephew to a football match at the taxpayers expense using the presidential plane and helicopter. After an investigation into his affairs (which included those of his wife) he was forced to resign and brought the government down.
The outgoing Prodi administration is now seen as having been a function of the problem. It was a rag-tag coalition, which never really agreed on anything and therefore had no policies. It owed its existence to horsetrading and was doomed to failure, as, with hindsight, most Italian governments have been: part of the system, not a solution to it.
The present election begins in this novel political climate. Two new, larger parties are slugging it out and both quickly latched on to the new mood. Both promise a reduction in government, moving it closer to the people. This is the right talk, but who will the voters believe? Walter Veltroni, the uncharismatic but honest looking former communist youth leader, latterly mayor of Rome, or Silvio Berlusconi the billionaire property and media mogul suspected of mafia links and a regular in the courts?
Much of the foreign press, wrongly in my view, sees Berlusconi’s lead in the polls as Italy choosing the soft option: falling for the knockabout charm, hoping that the man who made billions for himself can magic up a result for them. The foreign media will be publicly outraged if he wins (although privately pleased because he is at least good copy) and will suggest Italy has become some sort of pariah. In Britain or Germany a short, slightly vulgar right wing billionaire, who sometimes seemed more of a comic turn than a serious act and did nothing in his last term except keep himself out of prison, would be an unlikely candidate. He would certainly not have the youth vote sewn up. And yet this, incredibly, is what Berlusconi has managed, and what most of Europe can’t grasp.
Young people in Italy see Veltroni as an insider, the sort of politician Italy has produced for years. Worthy, perhaps, but almost whatever he says he cannot be seen as the herald of the change they want. Against that, Berlusconi might be just like he was last time: he might talk a lot and change nothing. But, then again, he just might. He just might.
08 April, 2008
Policing
Reduced to typing with one hand at the moment due to illness, just wondered if anyone could help me with this. The Olympic torch comes to London and the eyes of the world are on us and everyone knows that Londoners travel in big red buses and the policemen wear tall blue helmets. OK I know the buses have gone. But our boys appear in poofy white designer cycle helmets. Why?
And that’s aside from the question of why police from another country were let in to muscle the citizens about. Were they armed? Who took the decision to allow it? The Home Secretary?
And that’s aside from the question of why police from another country were let in to muscle the citizens about. Were they armed? Who took the decision to allow it? The Home Secretary?
05 April, 2008
Italian News 5th April
No opinion polls in the run up to the April 13th election but Berlusconi’s party People of Freedom is widely reported to be ahead, albeit by varying margins. There is a rumour however that the Church is withdrawing its support in favour of Pier Ferdinando Casini’s UDC party.
It is thought that perhaps one fifth of Italian voters will vote on religious lines
The Democrazia Cristiana party (DC) which was banned from the election for having a similar symbol to that of the UDC (a white shield with a red cross) has won its right to compete and claimed the election should be postponed to give it its statutory 30 days campaigning. They have now agreed to run a shortened campaign.
The DC is led by a Sig. Giuseppe Pizza.
British Airways is offloading thousands of suitcases to a warehouse in Italy in an attempt to cope with the backlog of 19,000 bags at Terminal Five, perhaps aware that stuffing the suitcases into a warehouse instead of handing them to their owners is an Italian speciality.
To the horror of her relatives, graphic pictures of the dead body of Meredith Kercher, murdered in Perugia last year have been shown on Italian TV
Italian fashion house Prada saw its best year ever in 2007 and is now waiting for the right moment to enter the stock market, CEO Patrizio Bertelli said
The 42nd Vinitaly, Italy's trade fair for wine and grappa, is being held in Verona until 7th April. Over 150,000 visitors from more than 100 countries are expected to attend.
A man shot an illegal dentist in Rome after an operation worsened his toothache. The impersonator, who practised in his ex-wife’s flat, pretended to have been robbed so he could continue his trade. Police have not traced the assailant.
Franco D'Eusanio, a winemaker from the Abruzzo, makes specialist wines for the male, the female and the ''ambiguous''. He says that everyone is not just male or female and that these aspects of their personality can be identified through their sense of taste.
In Turin the local government is expecting to save 30,000 euros in gardeners’ fees by grazing sheep in the city’s parks. Two herds will graze in the parks for two months.
The Supreme Council of Magistrates has given a reprieve to Judge Edi Pinatto, after the Justice Minister requested his immediate suspension. Pinatto allowed Mafia bosses free because he failed to write up their sentence for eight years
Maurizio Prato, chairman of Alitalia, resigned after the collapse of the talks with Air France saying "This airline is cursed. Only an exorcist can save it."
A woman from La Spezia fell for an exorcist during sessions to drive out a demon and made his life hell after he rejected her. When the priest refused to see her again she sent him ''indecent and dangerous'' love letters and threw fits outside his door, sparking protests from his neighbours. He finally reported her to the police when she set fire to his doorbell.
A priest in Florence, together with 13 of his associates, are under investigation for fraud by performing fake exorcisms. Prosecutors said that Father Francesco Saverio Bazzoffi would stage shows at the ‘House of the Sainted Archangels’.
During the events, which regularly attracted crowds of over 400 people, a number of associates would pretend to be possessed by demons and Fr Bazzoffi would ‘exorcise’ them, often chanting in Aramaic.
He would then offer to "heal" members of the audience who were sick, and solicit donations to his organisation. Fr Bazzoffi was found to have 5 million euros in his bank account, more than enough to save Alitalia.
It is thought that perhaps one fifth of Italian voters will vote on religious lines
The Democrazia Cristiana party (DC) which was banned from the election for having a similar symbol to that of the UDC (a white shield with a red cross) has won its right to compete and claimed the election should be postponed to give it its statutory 30 days campaigning. They have now agreed to run a shortened campaign.
The DC is led by a Sig. Giuseppe Pizza.
British Airways is offloading thousands of suitcases to a warehouse in Italy in an attempt to cope with the backlog of 19,000 bags at Terminal Five, perhaps aware that stuffing the suitcases into a warehouse instead of handing them to their owners is an Italian speciality.
To the horror of her relatives, graphic pictures of the dead body of Meredith Kercher, murdered in Perugia last year have been shown on Italian TV
Italian fashion house Prada saw its best year ever in 2007 and is now waiting for the right moment to enter the stock market, CEO Patrizio Bertelli said
The 42nd Vinitaly, Italy's trade fair for wine and grappa, is being held in Verona until 7th April. Over 150,000 visitors from more than 100 countries are expected to attend.
A man shot an illegal dentist in Rome after an operation worsened his toothache. The impersonator, who practised in his ex-wife’s flat, pretended to have been robbed so he could continue his trade. Police have not traced the assailant.
Franco D'Eusanio, a winemaker from the Abruzzo, makes specialist wines for the male, the female and the ''ambiguous''. He says that everyone is not just male or female and that these aspects of their personality can be identified through their sense of taste.
In Turin the local government is expecting to save 30,000 euros in gardeners’ fees by grazing sheep in the city’s parks. Two herds will graze in the parks for two months.
The Supreme Council of Magistrates has given a reprieve to Judge Edi Pinatto, after the Justice Minister requested his immediate suspension. Pinatto allowed Mafia bosses free because he failed to write up their sentence for eight years
Maurizio Prato, chairman of Alitalia, resigned after the collapse of the talks with Air France saying "This airline is cursed. Only an exorcist can save it."
A woman from La Spezia fell for an exorcist during sessions to drive out a demon and made his life hell after he rejected her. When the priest refused to see her again she sent him ''indecent and dangerous'' love letters and threw fits outside his door, sparking protests from his neighbours. He finally reported her to the police when she set fire to his doorbell.
A priest in Florence, together with 13 of his associates, are under investigation for fraud by performing fake exorcisms. Prosecutors said that Father Francesco Saverio Bazzoffi would stage shows at the ‘House of the Sainted Archangels’.
During the events, which regularly attracted crowds of over 400 people, a number of associates would pretend to be possessed by demons and Fr Bazzoffi would ‘exorcise’ them, often chanting in Aramaic.
He would then offer to "heal" members of the audience who were sick, and solicit donations to his organisation. Fr Bazzoffi was found to have 5 million euros in his bank account, more than enough to save Alitalia.
03 April, 2008
Alitalia - the end?
I mentioned on 17th March that the deal between Air France-KLM and Alitalia seemed far from a sure thing and now it seems to have got seriously iffy. Silvio Berlusconi has said he would not support the deal – that is presumably to say that he would not agree to sell the government stake in the airline – and it looks as if he will be Prime Minister within a fortnight. Naturally the purchasers want a little more security than this but it is in part their fault for being so slow. Now the unions have refused to accept the 2,100 redundancies proposed by Air France and the French have pulled out of talks, leaving their offer on the table. The airline has run out of money; it must find a buyer, which would trigger a state funded bridging loan, or go into administration, within days.
This is a country where last minute surprises often emerge from the hat, and Europe has no more skilled prestidigitator than Silvio Berlusconi, but it does seem as if a bitter awakening is taking place here in Italy, this following the news that Spain has overtaken it in GDP per head, the Neapolitan rubbish and mozzarella scandals and so on. On this issue Italy should be pragmatic: if the people wake up one morning to find there is no national airline it will be a blow to their pride, but one that is easily overcome. Life will go on.
The next government must seek to manage expectations, however, because there will be more surprises like this one. I was disappointed to hear some of the rash, unaffordable promises made in the election campaign. Caution is needed right now, not brash posturing. Rude awakenings, if they happen at all, should happen gradually.
This is a country where last minute surprises often emerge from the hat, and Europe has no more skilled prestidigitator than Silvio Berlusconi, but it does seem as if a bitter awakening is taking place here in Italy, this following the news that Spain has overtaken it in GDP per head, the Neapolitan rubbish and mozzarella scandals and so on. On this issue Italy should be pragmatic: if the people wake up one morning to find there is no national airline it will be a blow to their pride, but one that is easily overcome. Life will go on.
The next government must seek to manage expectations, however, because there will be more surprises like this one. I was disappointed to hear some of the rash, unaffordable promises made in the election campaign. Caution is needed right now, not brash posturing. Rude awakenings, if they happen at all, should happen gradually.
31 March, 2008
Stonehenge
Oh no. The BBC reports that there will be new investigations into this wonderful place, this Wiltshire landmark which English Heritage wants to turn into some beastly viewer experience and the government wants to bugger up with its lack of roads policy.
Only one question about the mystery of Stonehenge will not be answered: why won't they just leave it alone, as a mystery?
Only one question about the mystery of Stonehenge will not be answered: why won't they just leave it alone, as a mystery?
Roma v Man Utd
I don't suppose many Man Utd fans will be reading this but could they please, please stay out of the centre of Rome which is full of priceless things, many of them even older than Man Utd FC.
The police here are very tolerant of the generally law abiding but very intolerant of thuggery, and if they see fans cavorting in a Bernini fountain they are likely to shoot. And I for one wouldn't blame them.
Yes I know the Italian fans are also vile, but if they smashed up the centre of Manchester it would probably be a improvement (oh dear, did I write that?)
The police here are very tolerant of the generally law abiding but very intolerant of thuggery, and if they see fans cavorting in a Bernini fountain they are likely to shoot. And I for one wouldn't blame them.
Yes I know the Italian fans are also vile, but if they smashed up the centre of Manchester it would probably be a improvement (oh dear, did I write that?)
Max Mosley
Other than the holocaust and other murderous crimes, one of the most conceptually horrifying works of the Nazis was called the Sippenhaas. This law allowed whole families to be prosecuted – persecuted – for the crimes of one of them.
Max Mosley, the son of Sir Oswald has been caught with a couple of tarts dressing up as Nazis and concentration camp victims. If he had been doing something else with the hookers, it would barely have aroused comment. If it had been anyone else, it would barely have aroused comment. This is a case of the sins of the father being visited on the son, and is as shabby a piece of journalism as you are likely to see.
If the two scrubbers were paid out of after tax income, and any rubbish arising from the meeting was thrown away in the correct bin, he should be left alone.
Max Mosley, the son of Sir Oswald has been caught with a couple of tarts dressing up as Nazis and concentration camp victims. If he had been doing something else with the hookers, it would barely have aroused comment. If it had been anyone else, it would barely have aroused comment. This is a case of the sins of the father being visited on the son, and is as shabby a piece of journalism as you are likely to see.
If the two scrubbers were paid out of after tax income, and any rubbish arising from the meeting was thrown away in the correct bin, he should be left alone.
29 March, 2008
Indian cricket
Of the six batsmen who have exceeded 10,000 test runs, three: Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and now Rahul Dravid, are Indian (the last two are still playing). Virender Sehwag, who scored 319 in the latest test, the fastest 300 ever, looks as if he might one day join them. Of the five bowlers to have taken more than 500 test wickets, Anil Kumble, still playing, is on 606.
Oh, and they just bought Jaguar and Land Rover.
Oh, and they just bought Jaguar and Land Rover.
Italian News 29th March
S. Korea, a nation which has as its national dish rotten cabbage fermented with chilli, has banned imports of Italian buffalo mozzarella.
The European Commission has announced it is satisfied with Italian action on the mozzarella dioxin scare. Dioxin levels just over the legal limit are thought to be from cattle feed, the chemicals coming from illegal mafia dumping in the countryside. The public are assured mozzarella in the shops is safe to eat. The same cannot be said of kimchi.
Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy where two teenage Bulgarian girls were forced to swim with piranhas and lie covered with snakes and tarantulas in front of a paying audience.
Dr Lina Carcuro, a medical practitioner and participant in Italy's Big Brother house, has been seen by millions of Italians having sex with another contestant, a Milanese businessman who was engaged to another woman. The Naples medical association is considering striking her off for failing to observe "decorous conduct". The scene was broadcast in full on Berlusconi's pay-per-view channel.
Some 3,000 visitors a year are to be allowed on to Montecristo, the Tuscan island at the heart of Alexandre Dumas's famous book. The island is a wildlife reserve with a unique snake, the Montecristo viper.
Police in Ancona are trying to trace a bearded man who allegedly hypnotised a supermarket cashier into handing over 800 Euros without her realising what was happening.
A thief who stole the five-tonne safe from a fast food restaurant in Casamassima using a forklift, was crushed to death when it fell on him
Agip and Esso petrol stations in the Arcella area of Padua have installed machines distributing sex toys and hardcore DVDs to passing drivers. You have to insert your ID card to get the DVDs. It is not known how popular the scheme will be.
Italy is Europe's second market for heroin, after Britain.
The small Socialist Party has put pictures of Jesus in its adverts claiming he was the first socialist in history. The move does not have the support of the Church since the party is opposed to public funding for private Catholic schools and campaigns for more liberal laws on assisted fertility and the rights of gay couples.
Work has begun in Venice to fit a titanium belt to the bell-tower in St Mark's Square. Experts were called in after a survey revealed the 99-metre bell-tower is sloping by seven centimetres. Surveyors also reckon the foundations of the tower are cracking by a millimetre a year.
The people of Lucca buy some 5,000 litres of unpasteurized milk per week from automatic distributors set up in the town.
An anti-Mafia street market in Palermo is set to tour the squares of Italy's largest cities in the latest bid to persuade shopkeepers and businessmen to stand up to mobsters demanding protection money. Only food produced by businesses who have refused to pay the 'pizzo' is on sale at the market,
Thousands have queued in the rain to see Augustus's House on Rome’s Palatine Hill, on view for first time in 25 years.
Having been baptised by the Pope over Easter, former Muslim Magdi Allam, a prominent Italian journalist, wrote an article denouncing Islam as intrinsically violent. His views have been rejected by the Vatican. Mr Allam lives under 24 hour police protection.
Italy’s first large scale event dedicated to coffee, from bean selection to roasting to brewing, Caffestival, will take place in the Umbrian town of Spello in May.
Alano Maffucci, one of the people investigated for having an account in Liechtenstein, has declared that it must be someone else with the same name
Electricity generators claim that changing the hour on Sunday will save 84 million euros, some €1.40 per person
Opinion polls are banned in Italy for a fortnight before the elections. The last ones suggest Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) coalition ahead of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) but it may not be enough to win a majority in the Senate, following rule changes made last time by Berlusconi himself.
Donatella Marazziti, a psychiatry lecturer at Pisa University believes she has discovered brain mechanisms that make people want to continue gambling even when the odds are against them and the consequences are disastrous. She is thought to have been studying the campaign of the Democratic Party.
The European Commission has announced it is satisfied with Italian action on the mozzarella dioxin scare. Dioxin levels just over the legal limit are thought to be from cattle feed, the chemicals coming from illegal mafia dumping in the countryside. The public are assured mozzarella in the shops is safe to eat. The same cannot be said of kimchi.
Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy where two teenage Bulgarian girls were forced to swim with piranhas and lie covered with snakes and tarantulas in front of a paying audience.
Dr Lina Carcuro, a medical practitioner and participant in Italy's Big Brother house, has been seen by millions of Italians having sex with another contestant, a Milanese businessman who was engaged to another woman. The Naples medical association is considering striking her off for failing to observe "decorous conduct". The scene was broadcast in full on Berlusconi's pay-per-view channel.
Some 3,000 visitors a year are to be allowed on to Montecristo, the Tuscan island at the heart of Alexandre Dumas's famous book. The island is a wildlife reserve with a unique snake, the Montecristo viper.
Police in Ancona are trying to trace a bearded man who allegedly hypnotised a supermarket cashier into handing over 800 Euros without her realising what was happening.
A thief who stole the five-tonne safe from a fast food restaurant in Casamassima using a forklift, was crushed to death when it fell on him
Agip and Esso petrol stations in the Arcella area of Padua have installed machines distributing sex toys and hardcore DVDs to passing drivers. You have to insert your ID card to get the DVDs. It is not known how popular the scheme will be.
Italy is Europe's second market for heroin, after Britain.
The small Socialist Party has put pictures of Jesus in its adverts claiming he was the first socialist in history. The move does not have the support of the Church since the party is opposed to public funding for private Catholic schools and campaigns for more liberal laws on assisted fertility and the rights of gay couples.
Work has begun in Venice to fit a titanium belt to the bell-tower in St Mark's Square. Experts were called in after a survey revealed the 99-metre bell-tower is sloping by seven centimetres. Surveyors also reckon the foundations of the tower are cracking by a millimetre a year.
The people of Lucca buy some 5,000 litres of unpasteurized milk per week from automatic distributors set up in the town.
An anti-Mafia street market in Palermo is set to tour the squares of Italy's largest cities in the latest bid to persuade shopkeepers and businessmen to stand up to mobsters demanding protection money. Only food produced by businesses who have refused to pay the 'pizzo' is on sale at the market,
Thousands have queued in the rain to see Augustus's House on Rome’s Palatine Hill, on view for first time in 25 years.
Having been baptised by the Pope over Easter, former Muslim Magdi Allam, a prominent Italian journalist, wrote an article denouncing Islam as intrinsically violent. His views have been rejected by the Vatican. Mr Allam lives under 24 hour police protection.
Italy’s first large scale event dedicated to coffee, from bean selection to roasting to brewing, Caffestival, will take place in the Umbrian town of Spello in May.
Alano Maffucci, one of the people investigated for having an account in Liechtenstein, has declared that it must be someone else with the same name
Electricity generators claim that changing the hour on Sunday will save 84 million euros, some €1.40 per person
Opinion polls are banned in Italy for a fortnight before the elections. The last ones suggest Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) coalition ahead of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) but it may not be enough to win a majority in the Senate, following rule changes made last time by Berlusconi himself.
Donatella Marazziti, a psychiatry lecturer at Pisa University believes she has discovered brain mechanisms that make people want to continue gambling even when the odds are against them and the consequences are disastrous. She is thought to have been studying the campaign of the Democratic Party.
26 March, 2008
Conscience
All the papers report that Brown has allowed a free vote on the Embryology Bill. But I wonder if they have read the small print – always important when dealing with Brown. He says that if the Bill is passed – and it will be, the protesters are in a minority – they will be expected to vote for the Bill at its final reading.
So it isn’t a free vote at all. Ruth Kelly, for example, who has welcomed the concession, will find herself voting against the clauses her conscience does not permit her to support, then voting in favour of them a few days later, in order to keep her salary. Is this where Brown’s moral compass has led him? Is this where Ruth Kelly’s conscience has led her?
So it isn’t a free vote at all. Ruth Kelly, for example, who has welcomed the concession, will find herself voting against the clauses her conscience does not permit her to support, then voting in favour of them a few days later, in order to keep her salary. Is this where Brown’s moral compass has led him? Is this where Ruth Kelly’s conscience has led her?
Clinton and the sniper
Hillary Clinton, trying to pass herself off as experienced, said she had come under sniper fire on her visit to Bosnia in 1990. This turned out to be nonsense – there is film footage of her walking calmly from the plane – and she has..well, would you call it fessing up? She said she misstated it.
What the hell does that mean: ‘misstated’? Either she misremembered it – thought she had come under sniper fire but that turned out to be not the case, which seems scarcely credible form someone supposed to be intelligent, or she was lying.
Lying to the people she wants to represent. John McCain will be quietly taking notes.
What the hell does that mean: ‘misstated’? Either she misremembered it – thought she had come under sniper fire but that turned out to be not the case, which seems scarcely credible form someone supposed to be intelligent, or she was lying.
Lying to the people she wants to represent. John McCain will be quietly taking notes.
25 March, 2008
Bear and Moral Hazard
The news that the American bank which drew the short straw and was told to rescue Bear Stearns, JP Morgan Chase, is upping its offer to five times what it originally offered has caused a fair bit of confusion among financial commentators. One pointed out that under the original terms Bear was worth less than David Beckham, which must have been wrong, although he didn’t say why. Some say it is welcome and it must be.. what? About right now? Others say Bear screwed up and it is the shareholders who must suffer.
When the Northern Rock debacle broke, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, introduced us to the concept of moral hazard. This dictum is that if a bank screws up there must be suffering, otherwise other banks will free to do as they wish, confident in the knowledge that if they blow it all the taxpayer will come to the rescue. And it is the taxpayer in the case of Bear Stearns: the Federal Reserve are supplying JP Morgan with the money; JPM will ‘only’ take the first billion dollars of risk.
There is an interesting stance taken by Anatole Kaletsky in the Times however. He points out that the last couple of hedge funds to go bust had in fact called the subprime crisis right. They had gone into quality investments but couldn’t find the funding for them. The same appears to be true in large part of Bear Stearns: even though it pretty well invented the subprime market it had a largely high quality investment portfolio. What has sent them under is that there is no liquidity in the market. No one wants to lend against even top quality security.
Now this is a different matter. I am not saying they are completely not to blame, but the element of moral hazard, the morality of the thing, is different. Northern Rock didn’t go under because it had invested in rubbish – its assets were largely high quality British mortgages. Its problem was that it had borrowed in the short term money markets and these had dried up, so it simply ran out of money. So it was partly to blame for having a borrow short – lend long business model, but not to blame for the money markets collapsing. It is the job of a central bank to keep the markets open.
So how much should shareholders suffer? Fortunately there is no court to apportion blame, like in an industrial injury case. It is in the public, and therefore the taxpayer’s interest that the markets remain open, so the Central Bank should supply plenty of short term money against the security of long term assets and keep the banks trading. The shareholders suffer a low valuation and lose something but not all. The USA seems to have got this about right. The British didn’t get it right, in part because the government, with no business people in it, panicked that a bank might go under in an area full of Labour seats. Add to that Gordon Brown’s tripartite scheme for overseeing banks so that nobody knew who was in charge and you have the worst financial disaster Europe has seen.
Let’s keep the politicians out of this; I think that's the first lesson we have to learn from the USA.
When the Northern Rock debacle broke, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, introduced us to the concept of moral hazard. This dictum is that if a bank screws up there must be suffering, otherwise other banks will free to do as they wish, confident in the knowledge that if they blow it all the taxpayer will come to the rescue. And it is the taxpayer in the case of Bear Stearns: the Federal Reserve are supplying JP Morgan with the money; JPM will ‘only’ take the first billion dollars of risk.
There is an interesting stance taken by Anatole Kaletsky in the Times however. He points out that the last couple of hedge funds to go bust had in fact called the subprime crisis right. They had gone into quality investments but couldn’t find the funding for them. The same appears to be true in large part of Bear Stearns: even though it pretty well invented the subprime market it had a largely high quality investment portfolio. What has sent them under is that there is no liquidity in the market. No one wants to lend against even top quality security.
Now this is a different matter. I am not saying they are completely not to blame, but the element of moral hazard, the morality of the thing, is different. Northern Rock didn’t go under because it had invested in rubbish – its assets were largely high quality British mortgages. Its problem was that it had borrowed in the short term money markets and these had dried up, so it simply ran out of money. So it was partly to blame for having a borrow short – lend long business model, but not to blame for the money markets collapsing. It is the job of a central bank to keep the markets open.
So how much should shareholders suffer? Fortunately there is no court to apportion blame, like in an industrial injury case. It is in the public, and therefore the taxpayer’s interest that the markets remain open, so the Central Bank should supply plenty of short term money against the security of long term assets and keep the banks trading. The shareholders suffer a low valuation and lose something but not all. The USA seems to have got this about right. The British didn’t get it right, in part because the government, with no business people in it, panicked that a bank might go under in an area full of Labour seats. Add to that Gordon Brown’s tripartite scheme for overseeing banks so that nobody knew who was in charge and you have the worst financial disaster Europe has seen.
Let’s keep the politicians out of this; I think that's the first lesson we have to learn from the USA.
22 March, 2008
Italian News Easter Edition
This Easter is the earliest since 1913 and there will not be another as early until 2160.
It has caused a problem in Italy in that Italians usually go away for Easter, and the weather is less clement than in mid-late April. Next year it will fall on April 12th
Over seven million Italians have left their homes for the long weekend. 85% will stay in Italy of which more than a third will go to the seaside. Nearly a quarter of Italian holidaymakers go to their own holiday home.
Italian animal rights associations have launched their annual plea for people to leave lamb and goat off the menu at Easter and eat sheep made of marzipan instead. Italians eat 536,000 lambs, 72,000 adult sheep and 56,000 goats over Easter.
Italy has more school caretakers than carabinieri, numbering 167,000. That is more than 15 per school and an average of more than two per class.
Florentine magistrates are investigating whether God exists, in pursuit of a claim of false exorcism against a priest for giving the benediction in church. Last year magistrates in Chiavari investigated what was meant by ‘art’. There is a huge backlog of cases in Italy, investigating magistrates claiming they don’t have enough time.
Silvio Berlusconi said he would veto Air France’s takeover of Alitalia if elected. He has urged an Italian solution, saying his children would participate.
Berlusconi declared an income of 139,245,570 euros last year, almost five times more than he declared a year earlier. The poorest political leader was Communist Refoundation secretary Franco Giordano, who in 2006 declared an income of 126,802 euros.
Researchers from the universities of Turin and Parma have developed a new form of aspirin which does not attack the stomach lining.
Italian researchers have developed a pill to cure chocolate cravings. They say 40% of women in western countries are chocoholics.
A prisoner from the Abruzzo given special dispensation to travel to Rome to attend a papal audience escaped from St Peter's Square. Magistrates will investigate whether the Pope exists.
The Apennine mountains are moving north-east to south-west at a rate of between one and three millimetres a year.
22 private investigators, accused of planting bugs in or under cars to get proof of marital infidelity, have been acquitted on the grounds that a car is not a residence and the privacy laws do not apply.
According to a study by Censis, in the forthcoming elections half the electorate will decide their vote on the values and principals of the parties or candidates. Party policies decide the vote for only a quarter while the personality of the leader is important for less than 14%. More than 40% of young people base their vote on the quality of the campaign.
Silvio Berlusconi is still ahead in the polls.
Researchers have discovered that coffee dregs can be used as a clean organic fuel.''The dregs make ideal fuel for stoves and boilers,'' said Roberto Lavecchia and Antonio Zuorro of Rome's La Sapienza University. The coffee residue was also useful in the removal of heavy metals, the researchers said. Around 70 million cups of coffee are drunk in Italy daily.
Two people have bought helicopters with interior design by Versace, one of them Ion Tiriac the former tennis champion
Italy exported over two million Parma hams last year, but more than three quarters of production was eaten in Italy
Italy's first university campus has been inaugurated at Pisa, one of the most important universities in the country. Pisa numbers 55,000 students, small by Italian standards (La Sapienza in Rome has over 200,000, mostly studying coffee dregs, whereas Oxford has fewer than 20,000). There will be beds for just 800 students of which 260 will be doubles. The rest will continue to commute
The interest on Italy’s national debt amounts to 70 billion euros a year
Pirated handbags and DVDs account for £5bn of Mafia income and the food industry £5.2bn, according to Tano Grasso, the head of Italy's anti-racketeering commission.
Gaetano Bastianelli, 57, is trying to overturn his purchase of an Umbrian farmhouse, on the grounds that the vendors should have told him it was haunted. According to his lawyer he has witnessed ''strange occurrences'' such as banging on the walls, furniture falling over without being touched and objects bursting into flame although these symptoms can be caused by the local grappa.
The names of Italian holders of Liechtenstein bank accounts being leaked to the press include Senator Luigi Grillo, EuroMP Vito Bonsignore, and a dog called Gunther.
Tuscany has passed a new law allowing pets into art galleries, theatres, restaurants, cinemas, post offices, museums and beaches. Gunther has to spend his money somewhere.
It has caused a problem in Italy in that Italians usually go away for Easter, and the weather is less clement than in mid-late April. Next year it will fall on April 12th
Over seven million Italians have left their homes for the long weekend. 85% will stay in Italy of which more than a third will go to the seaside. Nearly a quarter of Italian holidaymakers go to their own holiday home.
Italian animal rights associations have launched their annual plea for people to leave lamb and goat off the menu at Easter and eat sheep made of marzipan instead. Italians eat 536,000 lambs, 72,000 adult sheep and 56,000 goats over Easter.
Italy has more school caretakers than carabinieri, numbering 167,000. That is more than 15 per school and an average of more than two per class.
Florentine magistrates are investigating whether God exists, in pursuit of a claim of false exorcism against a priest for giving the benediction in church. Last year magistrates in Chiavari investigated what was meant by ‘art’. There is a huge backlog of cases in Italy, investigating magistrates claiming they don’t have enough time.
Silvio Berlusconi said he would veto Air France’s takeover of Alitalia if elected. He has urged an Italian solution, saying his children would participate.
Berlusconi declared an income of 139,245,570 euros last year, almost five times more than he declared a year earlier. The poorest political leader was Communist Refoundation secretary Franco Giordano, who in 2006 declared an income of 126,802 euros.
Researchers from the universities of Turin and Parma have developed a new form of aspirin which does not attack the stomach lining.
Italian researchers have developed a pill to cure chocolate cravings. They say 40% of women in western countries are chocoholics.
A prisoner from the Abruzzo given special dispensation to travel to Rome to attend a papal audience escaped from St Peter's Square. Magistrates will investigate whether the Pope exists.
The Apennine mountains are moving north-east to south-west at a rate of between one and three millimetres a year.
22 private investigators, accused of planting bugs in or under cars to get proof of marital infidelity, have been acquitted on the grounds that a car is not a residence and the privacy laws do not apply.
According to a study by Censis, in the forthcoming elections half the electorate will decide their vote on the values and principals of the parties or candidates. Party policies decide the vote for only a quarter while the personality of the leader is important for less than 14%. More than 40% of young people base their vote on the quality of the campaign.
Silvio Berlusconi is still ahead in the polls.
Researchers have discovered that coffee dregs can be used as a clean organic fuel.''The dregs make ideal fuel for stoves and boilers,'' said Roberto Lavecchia and Antonio Zuorro of Rome's La Sapienza University. The coffee residue was also useful in the removal of heavy metals, the researchers said. Around 70 million cups of coffee are drunk in Italy daily.
Two people have bought helicopters with interior design by Versace, one of them Ion Tiriac the former tennis champion
Italy exported over two million Parma hams last year, but more than three quarters of production was eaten in Italy
Italy's first university campus has been inaugurated at Pisa, one of the most important universities in the country. Pisa numbers 55,000 students, small by Italian standards (La Sapienza in Rome has over 200,000, mostly studying coffee dregs, whereas Oxford has fewer than 20,000). There will be beds for just 800 students of which 260 will be doubles. The rest will continue to commute
The interest on Italy’s national debt amounts to 70 billion euros a year
Pirated handbags and DVDs account for £5bn of Mafia income and the food industry £5.2bn, according to Tano Grasso, the head of Italy's anti-racketeering commission.
Gaetano Bastianelli, 57, is trying to overturn his purchase of an Umbrian farmhouse, on the grounds that the vendors should have told him it was haunted. According to his lawyer he has witnessed ''strange occurrences'' such as banging on the walls, furniture falling over without being touched and objects bursting into flame although these symptoms can be caused by the local grappa.
The names of Italian holders of Liechtenstein bank accounts being leaked to the press include Senator Luigi Grillo, EuroMP Vito Bonsignore, and a dog called Gunther.
Tuscany has passed a new law allowing pets into art galleries, theatres, restaurants, cinemas, post offices, museums and beaches. Gunther has to spend his money somewhere.
21 March, 2008
Embryology
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is getting its first airing. The bill proposes permitting human/animal mix embryos. The idea is that they mix the genes of humans and, say, moles, creating a man/mole creature, mess around with it and then destroy it.
The Roman Catholic Church is against it, although I have heard nothing about the Church of England’s position on the matter. Its website says ’Research using human embryos donated by IVF patients.... is acceptable but using human embryos created specifically for research from donated eggs and sperm is not.’ Which would seem to suggest it is against the bill but not against the general idea of making and killing embryos. I will try to find out but they don’t answer the phone on Good Friday.
Most astonishing is that the government will not allow a free vote of its MPs. Surely if there is one thing that is a matter of conscience it is this. I find it incredible that Gordon Brown (who always wants to portray himself as a son of the Manse, with a moral compass) not only should feel that this legislation is OK, but should be so insensitive as to think nobody else’s views matter. Labour MPs are thus reduced to mere political fodder: they are being told that they are not there to represent their constituencies, they are not there because they are deemed to be people to whom the governance of the nation should be entrusted, they are just robots who do as they are told. For all their scope for free thinking they might be half mole already.
For myself, and many others, this is not really a religious matter, and I hope it will not be portrayed as religious, despite the fact that the Church of Rome is leading the opposition. For many of us who have looked at this on humanitarian grounds, life begins at conception. For us there is no moral difference between killing a 14 day old foetus (they say the procedure is OK because they will kill them all when they are two weeks old) and a 14 day old, or 14 year old born child. All, in my view, are equally wrong.
I don’t mind people thinking differently, but I do object to the government thinking its MPs shouldn’t be allowed an opinion on this.
It goes without saying that I hope any MP who does think this is wrong will vote against it, despite the views of their party, particularly those who like Ruth Kelly make a publicity issue of their beliefs.
The Roman Catholic Church is against it, although I have heard nothing about the Church of England’s position on the matter. Its website says ’Research using human embryos donated by IVF patients.... is acceptable but using human embryos created specifically for research from donated eggs and sperm is not.’ Which would seem to suggest it is against the bill but not against the general idea of making and killing embryos. I will try to find out but they don’t answer the phone on Good Friday.
Most astonishing is that the government will not allow a free vote of its MPs. Surely if there is one thing that is a matter of conscience it is this. I find it incredible that Gordon Brown (who always wants to portray himself as a son of the Manse, with a moral compass) not only should feel that this legislation is OK, but should be so insensitive as to think nobody else’s views matter. Labour MPs are thus reduced to mere political fodder: they are being told that they are not there to represent their constituencies, they are not there because they are deemed to be people to whom the governance of the nation should be entrusted, they are just robots who do as they are told. For all their scope for free thinking they might be half mole already.
For myself, and many others, this is not really a religious matter, and I hope it will not be portrayed as religious, despite the fact that the Church of Rome is leading the opposition. For many of us who have looked at this on humanitarian grounds, life begins at conception. For us there is no moral difference between killing a 14 day old foetus (they say the procedure is OK because they will kill them all when they are two weeks old) and a 14 day old, or 14 year old born child. All, in my view, are equally wrong.
I don’t mind people thinking differently, but I do object to the government thinking its MPs shouldn’t be allowed an opinion on this.
It goes without saying that I hope any MP who does think this is wrong will vote against it, despite the views of their party, particularly those who like Ruth Kelly make a publicity issue of their beliefs.
20 March, 2008
Alitalia
Air France’s conditions for the takeover, mentioned here a couple of days ago, are emerging. A couple of thousand redundancies, downgrading of Malpensa airport (the one near Como which describes itself as Milan), far fewer planes, agreement of the trade unions required. It will make difficult reading for many, although my analysis is that it isn’t tough enough to make the thing viable without EU support.
Having advised Silvio Berlusconi to keep his mouth shut during the Alitalia crisis I suppose I should be disheartened by his latest riposte. But it is vintage Berlusconi.
He says the government have sold Alitalia short, and he would back the AirOne consortium. So much so, indeed, that he would ‘make a sacrifice’ personally if it weren’t for the fact he might be accused of acting in his own interest. As it is he is sure his sons would be interested (his sons act quite independently of him, oh yes) to go in as equal partners with the other members (which include Banca Intesa).
So he offers some support to his ally Bossi who is fighting the closure of Malpensa; he puts his opponent Veltroni in a difficult spot; he acts the father of the nation, sacrificing his own money for the national good; he has a little go at his many accusers, implying they prevent him from helping Italy, and he furthers his campaign by appealing to the basest chauvinistic interest. And he – sorry, his sons - will probably turn a profit out of it. Silvio really is a Master.
Keeping Alitalia as a cosy Italian deal without anyone experiencing any pain would almost certainly not be in the national interest but who in Italian politics gives a stuff about that?
Having advised Silvio Berlusconi to keep his mouth shut during the Alitalia crisis I suppose I should be disheartened by his latest riposte. But it is vintage Berlusconi.
He says the government have sold Alitalia short, and he would back the AirOne consortium. So much so, indeed, that he would ‘make a sacrifice’ personally if it weren’t for the fact he might be accused of acting in his own interest. As it is he is sure his sons would be interested (his sons act quite independently of him, oh yes) to go in as equal partners with the other members (which include Banca Intesa).
So he offers some support to his ally Bossi who is fighting the closure of Malpensa; he puts his opponent Veltroni in a difficult spot; he acts the father of the nation, sacrificing his own money for the national good; he has a little go at his many accusers, implying they prevent him from helping Italy, and he furthers his campaign by appealing to the basest chauvinistic interest. And he – sorry, his sons - will probably turn a profit out of it. Silvio really is a Master.
Keeping Alitalia as a cosy Italian deal without anyone experiencing any pain would almost certainly not be in the national interest but who in Italian politics gives a stuff about that?
17 March, 2008
European President
Hypothesis: Sarkozy wants his own type of person in the top job in Europe, in particular someone who likes the idea of national industrial champions. His technique is to put forward Tony Blair for President, knowing that because of the Iraq war he will be unacceptable to Angela Merkel and several others. Then he says 'well if I can't have my choice as president, I must at least have my second choice - France is not to be trifled with' and so he gets his man in. Who can the Evil Genius have in mind?
Step forward Romano Prodi, twice prime minister of Italy, anglophile and fomerly President of the European Commission, now leaving Italian politics.
Surely they wouldn't be so devious?
Step forward Romano Prodi, twice prime minister of Italy, anglophile and fomerly President of the European Commission, now leaving Italian politics.
Surely they wouldn't be so devious?
A Tale of Two Takeovers
Bear Stearns: I forecast at the beginning of the year that a major US bank would fail but be taken over and it is of course in one way pleasing when our direst predictions come true. This wasn’t too difficult, though. I fear Bear may not be the last. It is the result of managers being too busy to check what risks they were taking.
Alitalia ‘Struggling Alitalia is bought by Air France’ says the Daily Telegraph. I am afraid however that this is not yet the done deal people expect. Air France has imposed conditions. Raffaele Bonnanni, the union leader has said ‘the government is sending us naked into the meeting’ and ‘whoever has committed this grave mistake will pay for it’. This is good news for Berlusconi if he can just keep his mouth shut - the government will have to signal its acceptance of Air France’s conditions before the election. Many Italians, wrongly in my view, will see the loss of their national flag carrier as a symbol of decline and Veltroni may pay a price.
Alitalia ‘Struggling Alitalia is bought by Air France’ says the Daily Telegraph. I am afraid however that this is not yet the done deal people expect. Air France has imposed conditions. Raffaele Bonnanni, the union leader has said ‘the government is sending us naked into the meeting’ and ‘whoever has committed this grave mistake will pay for it’. This is good news for Berlusconi if he can just keep his mouth shut - the government will have to signal its acceptance of Air France’s conditions before the election. Many Italians, wrongly in my view, will see the loss of their national flag carrier as a symbol of decline and Veltroni may pay a price.
16 March, 2008
Welfare Ghettos
Fraser Nelson in the Coffee House blog points out how new figures reveal that in some areas of Britain two thirds of the people are on incapacity benefit. Read it, it's shocking.
Albania
Rumour. An Albanian woman here says that she heard from a relative in Tirana (I do want to stress we are not talking even Fleet Street standards of confirming a story) that the Americans were charged with disenabling a warehouse full of Ceaucescu era armaments, but left it to local labour who, untrained, set the things off. There has been a chain of explosions all morning, several reported dead, looters emptying the houses of those who fled.
It may be there is a grain of truth in this story but perhaps the more important thing is that whenever there is any kind of disaster the Americans are held to blame, and the rumours spread like wildfire.
The current presidential candidates will try to disassociate themselves from any foreign disasters but the last thing the world needs is for America to withdraw to within its own borders.
Most people now decry the Iraq war, but an isolationist America isn’t going to be good for the rest of the world, either. And if we blame them for everything, they will turn isolationist, sure as eggs is eggs.
It may be there is a grain of truth in this story but perhaps the more important thing is that whenever there is any kind of disaster the Americans are held to blame, and the rumours spread like wildfire.
The current presidential candidates will try to disassociate themselves from any foreign disasters but the last thing the world needs is for America to withdraw to within its own borders.
Most people now decry the Iraq war, but an isolationist America isn’t going to be good for the rest of the world, either. And if we blame them for everything, they will turn isolationist, sure as eggs is eggs.
15 March, 2008
Italian News 15th March
The new head of the employers’ organisation Confindustria is a woman, Emma Marcegaglia, 46.
Even though the populations of the two countries are more or less the same, there are three times as many architects in Italy as there are in Britain.
The Clericus Cup, an international football tournament for Catholic priests and seminarians, established to promote a positive image of football, received a setback when a priest from Burkina Faso was sent off for throwing his shirt at the referee. His team, Paul the Apostle’s College, has been disqualified.
Perla Pavoncello, 24, asked Silvio Berlusconi in a question and answer session how she was supposed to get a mortgage or start a family without a permanent job. Berlusconi advised her to marry a millionaire, such as his son Pier Silvio. "With that smile of yours, you could even get away with it," he added.
Pavoncello appears satisfied with the answer in that she is offering herself as a candidate in the elections for Mr Berlusconi’s party, People of Freedom.
Mr Berlusconi has also revealed that Margaret Thatcher once passed him an invaluable tip for dealing with political life. "She said: 'You cannot govern while reading the newspapers, you must only get your advisors to bring you the ones which speak well of you'. I called my assistant and told him, but then I did not see him again for two months," Berlusconi joked.
Professor Isacco Turina, a sociologist at the University of Bologna, says there are now as many as 1000 hermits in Italy, 60 per cent of whom were female. Hermit tourism is the new craze: Spiritour offers "hermit holidays” in the dunes of Morocco.
The trial involving Parmalat starts today, almost five years after the Italian dairy company collapsed in one of Europe's biggest-ever accounting scandals. The prosecution only has five years to finish the trial before it becomes subject to the Statute of Limitations, so the defence will try to string it out. More than 125 hearings have been scheduled involving 10 million pages of documents. The principal defendant Callisto Tanzi has called 34,000 defence witnesses.
The second Rome mathematics festival has started. It drew 60,000 visitors last year. Italy has seen university applications to study mathematics double in two years.
Augusto Cavadi, a Sicilian tour guide who got fed up with answering the same questions about the mafia has written a book, The Mafia Explained to Tourists, which tackles questions such as: what a mafioso looks like, whether the mafia will exist forever and "why haven't we seen a shoot-out in our 10 days here?" "I included the 10 questions I am always asked, so from now I can just hand out the book," he said. He got the idea reading a washing machine manual.
A 62-year-old Italian woman was stopped at Munich airport after baggage handlers found the skeleton of her brother in her luggage, police said yesterday. She was trying to fulfill the last wish of her brother to be buried in Italy. She was allowed to continue with her package to Naples, where all the cemeteries are full.
Even though the populations of the two countries are more or less the same, there are three times as many architects in Italy as there are in Britain.
The Clericus Cup, an international football tournament for Catholic priests and seminarians, established to promote a positive image of football, received a setback when a priest from Burkina Faso was sent off for throwing his shirt at the referee. His team, Paul the Apostle’s College, has been disqualified.
Perla Pavoncello, 24, asked Silvio Berlusconi in a question and answer session how she was supposed to get a mortgage or start a family without a permanent job. Berlusconi advised her to marry a millionaire, such as his son Pier Silvio. "With that smile of yours, you could even get away with it," he added.
Pavoncello appears satisfied with the answer in that she is offering herself as a candidate in the elections for Mr Berlusconi’s party, People of Freedom.
Mr Berlusconi has also revealed that Margaret Thatcher once passed him an invaluable tip for dealing with political life. "She said: 'You cannot govern while reading the newspapers, you must only get your advisors to bring you the ones which speak well of you'. I called my assistant and told him, but then I did not see him again for two months," Berlusconi joked.
Professor Isacco Turina, a sociologist at the University of Bologna, says there are now as many as 1000 hermits in Italy, 60 per cent of whom were female. Hermit tourism is the new craze: Spiritour offers "hermit holidays” in the dunes of Morocco.
The trial involving Parmalat starts today, almost five years after the Italian dairy company collapsed in one of Europe's biggest-ever accounting scandals. The prosecution only has five years to finish the trial before it becomes subject to the Statute of Limitations, so the defence will try to string it out. More than 125 hearings have been scheduled involving 10 million pages of documents. The principal defendant Callisto Tanzi has called 34,000 defence witnesses.
The second Rome mathematics festival has started. It drew 60,000 visitors last year. Italy has seen university applications to study mathematics double in two years.
Augusto Cavadi, a Sicilian tour guide who got fed up with answering the same questions about the mafia has written a book, The Mafia Explained to Tourists, which tackles questions such as: what a mafioso looks like, whether the mafia will exist forever and "why haven't we seen a shoot-out in our 10 days here?" "I included the 10 questions I am always asked, so from now I can just hand out the book," he said. He got the idea reading a washing machine manual.
A 62-year-old Italian woman was stopped at Munich airport after baggage handlers found the skeleton of her brother in her luggage, police said yesterday. She was trying to fulfill the last wish of her brother to be buried in Italy. She was allowed to continue with her package to Naples, where all the cemeteries are full.
It has been discovered that Giuseppe Garibaldi enjoyed a steamy correspondence with the wife of the British MP for Lincoln.
An average of one person a day in Italy loses the sight of an eye due to improper use of contact lenses.
Around 2,500 commercial radio stations broadcast in Italy
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not take her traditional holiday on Ischia, it is thought because of the rubbish problem in the Campania region, proving every cloud has a silver lining.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not take her traditional holiday on Ischia, it is thought because of the rubbish problem in the Campania region, proving every cloud has a silver lining.
Archbishop Ennio Antonelli of Florence has said a mass for the Fiorentina football team saying he believes they will win the UEFA Cup .
Italy is the largest producer and exporter of tobacco in Europe and the sixth largest in the world
There are believed to be fewer than 50 Apennine brown bears left, protected in Italy's largest nature reserve, the Abruzzo National Park.
As an incentive for tourists, which have dwindled to almost zero following the rubbish scandal, the government is offering tourists staying for at least two nights in Naples between Easter and July discounts on public transport, museum entry, open-top bus tours and visits to the underground city (the one underneath the rubbish).
A survey by the OECD ranks Italy 23rd out of 30 for net, after-tax income.
Having sentenced several mafia bosses in Gela, Sicily, eight years ago, the judge neglected to write up their sentences, enabling them to go free.
25-year-old Michela Fiore is the first announcer on TV’s Naked News, where four young Italian women read out a news item before removing an item of clothing, continuing until they are naked. Interviewed before the show, she told reporters: ''I find it a very interesting job which will undoubtedly contribute to my professional development''.
A poll found that 91% of Italians wash their hands after using a public lavatory. Only the Germans, Norwegians and the Swiss were more hygienic, with 92% washing their hands.
Venice city council, having tried to stop the pigeons, will have a go at the dogs and hand out 15,000 free 'pooper scoopers' with plastic bags attached.
The Cassation Court has upheld a fine on a man for handing out leaflets which called a Southern Italian mayor ''a miserable charlatan, power fanatic, wheeler-dealer and immoral political presence''. Although these words were themselves permissible they became defamatory when accompanied by ''ignoble''. The mayor has not been named so it is uncertain whether the defendant can claim fair comment.
Venice city council, having tried to stop the pigeons, will have a go at the dogs and hand out 15,000 free 'pooper scoopers' with plastic bags attached.
The Cassation Court has upheld a fine on a man for handing out leaflets which called a Southern Italian mayor ''a miserable charlatan, power fanatic, wheeler-dealer and immoral political presence''. Although these words were themselves permissible they became defamatory when accompanied by ''ignoble''. The mayor has not been named so it is uncertain whether the defendant can claim fair comment.
13 March, 2008
Death of an archbishop
Ur of the Chaldees, often mentioned in the bible, was an ancient city between Baghdad and the Persian Gulf, founded around 4000BC. It is where Abraham was born. The Chaldeans were Assyrians and were converted to Christianity. Thus was born the ancient Chaldean Catholic Church. It is in communion with Roman Catholicism and its current patriarch is the first to be made a cardinal of the Church of Rome. Perhaps the most famous member was Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s right hand man.
Now the Chaldean archbishop of Iraq, Paulos Faraj Rahho, who had been abducted a fortnight ago, has been found dead.
The Chaldean Catholic Church has more than half a million members; these are just people who want to worship in the way they see fit. The Church was left in peace until the invasion of Iraq which has polarised attitudes to other religions.
I rather think a moment’s reflection is called for here.
Now the Chaldean archbishop of Iraq, Paulos Faraj Rahho, who had been abducted a fortnight ago, has been found dead.
The Chaldean Catholic Church has more than half a million members; these are just people who want to worship in the way they see fit. The Church was left in peace until the invasion of Iraq which has polarised attitudes to other religions.
I rather think a moment’s reflection is called for here.
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer is reported to have spent $80,000 on prostitutes which is, um, rather a lot.
But I hope this won’t make people forget that the reason he had to go was not the hookers per se, but using them while campaigning for ‘ethical leadership’.
I suppose it must be an almost irresistible temptation for politicians to lecture us on morality – Gordon Brown’s moral compass springs to mind, but as Mr Spitzer shows they must resist it.
By the way he said of Hillary Clinton ‘I look forward to sharing with the rest of the country the values and strengths that will make her an excellent president.’
Oh dear. By their fruits shall ye know them. You can be sure that anyone who had a perfect set of moral values to which he was able to adhere would not have become a politician.
But I hope this won’t make people forget that the reason he had to go was not the hookers per se, but using them while campaigning for ‘ethical leadership’.
I suppose it must be an almost irresistible temptation for politicians to lecture us on morality – Gordon Brown’s moral compass springs to mind, but as Mr Spitzer shows they must resist it.
By the way he said of Hillary Clinton ‘I look forward to sharing with the rest of the country the values and strengths that will make her an excellent president.’
Oh dear. By their fruits shall ye know them. You can be sure that anyone who had a perfect set of moral values to which he was able to adhere would not have become a politician.
12 March, 2008
The Budget 2
Gordon Brown was a noisy bully of a Chancellor, roaring platitudes from the Despatch Box trying to make them sound like a well thought out policy (‘We will never return to the days of boom and bust’ – Ha!) but Alastair Darling is a quiet, dull little man. He looks like an accountant (though of course isn’t).
I think dullness is a good thing in a Chancellor although Darling shows you can have too much of a good thing. They shouldn’t hold these gigs at lunchtime (I am an hour ahead here so was gasping for a bicchierino before PMQs) although I expect my eyelids would have grown heavy whatever my alcohol levels.
You could have got 8/1 on Darling wearing a purple tie but probably only evens on him mentioning the word ‘stability’ half a dozen times in the first few minutes, which is what he did.
I’m still looking for the hidden catches, although the Treasury spin is that Darling is Mr Straightforward. If I thought Darling had written the budget I might be impressed.
I think dullness is a good thing in a Chancellor although Darling shows you can have too much of a good thing. They shouldn’t hold these gigs at lunchtime (I am an hour ahead here so was gasping for a bicchierino before PMQs) although I expect my eyelids would have grown heavy whatever my alcohol levels.
You could have got 8/1 on Darling wearing a purple tie but probably only evens on him mentioning the word ‘stability’ half a dozen times in the first few minutes, which is what he did.
I’m still looking for the hidden catches, although the Treasury spin is that Darling is Mr Straightforward. If I thought Darling had written the budget I might be impressed.
11 March, 2008
The War again
Belgium: the BBC reports that the Belgian government and banks have agreed to pay 5,000 Holocaust survivors, their family members and the Jewish community 35m euros, plus another 75m euros to a trust fund. The money is to compensate Belgian Jews whose property or goods were looted during the German occupation of WWII.
A couple of questions, then.
Firstly, 5,000 claimants are getting an average of euro 7 thousand each. A flat in central Brussels costs around a million euros. In what way is this compensation?
Second: if they weren't paying everyone what they lost, what is going on here? have they just found a low figure, where no one managed to prove they had lost a flat or house but some claims for missing kitchen equipment were accepted? Or did they ignore most of the claims and just paid out a figure they thought was large enough to let them get away with?
Third: the second world war ended 63 years ago. If this money was due why wasn't it paid after all the courts, enquiries and so on?
Fourth: 25,000 Belgian Jews were murdered during the war, not counting the hundreds of thousands who went through in transit, consigned to death by the then Belgian government. Nothing for their families in this amount , I suppose
Fifth: almost all Belgian taxpayers were born after the war ended. In what way are they guilty? Why do they have to pay?
This amount is either not nearly enough, or far too much. In my view there should have been a statute of limitations of at most 25 years. There is no case for the Second World War coming back to haunt us in this way.
And, I've mentioned before, it never seems to be the Germans or Japanese who are guilty, have you noticed?
A couple of questions, then.
Firstly, 5,000 claimants are getting an average of euro 7 thousand each. A flat in central Brussels costs around a million euros. In what way is this compensation?
Second: if they weren't paying everyone what they lost, what is going on here? have they just found a low figure, where no one managed to prove they had lost a flat or house but some claims for missing kitchen equipment were accepted? Or did they ignore most of the claims and just paid out a figure they thought was large enough to let them get away with?
Third: the second world war ended 63 years ago. If this money was due why wasn't it paid after all the courts, enquiries and so on?
Fourth: 25,000 Belgian Jews were murdered during the war, not counting the hundreds of thousands who went through in transit, consigned to death by the then Belgian government. Nothing for their families in this amount , I suppose
Fifth: almost all Belgian taxpayers were born after the war ended. In what way are they guilty? Why do they have to pay?
This amount is either not nearly enough, or far too much. In my view there should have been a statute of limitations of at most 25 years. There is no case for the Second World War coming back to haunt us in this way.
And, I've mentioned before, it never seems to be the Germans or Japanese who are guilty, have you noticed?
09 March, 2008
The Budget
I shall be saying something about the budget when it happens, but early reports are that Alastair Darling will increase taxes on drink. If these are true he must be barking mad. Making the non-violent sensible drinking majority pay more will simply remind them what an empty-headed incompetent bunch of weasels we have running the country.
There is NO evidence that increasing the price of drink will stop street violence. The dross will get their hits somehow and in the meantime the civilised world is paying less than a pound a bottle for good wine, £5 for a bottle of scotch.
There is PLENTY of evidence however that increasing taxes helps a spendthrift government stagger on from month to month.
There is NO evidence that increasing the price of drink will stop street violence. The dross will get their hits somehow and in the meantime the civilised world is paying less than a pound a bottle for good wine, £5 for a bottle of scotch.
There is PLENTY of evidence however that increasing taxes helps a spendthrift government stagger on from month to month.
08 March, 2008
Italian News Women's Day Special
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
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
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
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