{"id":3571,"date":"2012-08-26T07:05:03","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T06:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/?p=3571"},"modified":"2012-08-25T17:43:34","modified_gmt":"2012-08-25T16:43:34","slug":"26-august-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2012\/08\/26\/26-august-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"26 August 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

My goodness, there is so much to get through this week I hardly know where to begin. As I said last time, this stuff really writes itself. It\u2019s just that this week both the Government and the Royal Family have been in such fine form that I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ve got room to cover everything in one week\u2019s issue. But first, a brief weather update \u2013 mainly grey, mainly damp and mainly an unsatisfactory conclusion to the month of August.<\/p>\n

So, where to begin? I suppose we should start with the Government\u2019s announcement that they are really, finally, really going to crack down on those naughty tax evaders. They\u2019ve published a \u201crogues gallery<\/a>\u201d of alleged tax evaders who have defrauded Her Majesty\u2019s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of something approaching \u00a3765 million.<\/p>\n

\"Rogues<\/p>\n

No doubt that\u2019s a good start but there seems to be something of a contradiction in their attitude to some other notable tax evaders. I\u2019ve mentioned Vodaphone<\/a> in the past which, having illegally evaded an estimated \u00a37.25 billion in tax, cut a deal, after entertaining the head of HMRC to dinner, where they paid only \u00a3800 million up front and another \u00a3450 million over the next four years. If my maths is up to it, I make that a tidy \u00a36 billion profit on what was undoubtedly a very sumptuous meal.<\/p>\n

Then, this week there was an article<\/a> explaining the consequences of a new law introduced in this year\u2019s budget. From January of next year British-owned multinational companies are being allowed to move their profits to an off-shore tax haven, a move which will deprive developing countries of up to \u00a34 billion.<\/p>\n

Labour said the changes, announced by\u00a0George Osborne\u00a0in this year’s budget, “make a mockery” of the chancellor’s pledge to crack down on tax avoidance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Simon Hoggart, who writes an amusing, generally political, sketch in the Guardian every few days, sums it all up<\/a> much better than I ever could:<\/p>\n

If you get your eye in, this is rather a comical administration. They do for the government what that amateur art restorer in Spain did for the Ecce Homo. Or J. Cheever Loophole for the practice of law.<\/p>\n

Just at the time we need to be delicate with Latin America, they talk openly about storming the Ecuadorean embassy. (Shouldn’t we just ignore Assange? It’s the single thing he couldn’t bear.) In the afterglow of the Olympics they reveal they’ve been misleading us about the sale of school playing fields.<\/p>\n

Theresa May [the Home Secretary]\u00a0won’t make it easier for Chinese people to come here “for security reasons” \u2013 no doubt terrified by the hundreds of Chinese jihadists now storming round Europe \u2013 so they spend their millions in France and Germany instead.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0George Osborne\u00a0produces a new British miracle: austerity combined with massive increases in public borrowing.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of the Keystone Cops, rushing hither and thither to no apparent purpose, creating mayhem wherever they went. But at least they gave the impression that someone, somewhere was actually directing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, since he mentioned the restoration job<\/a> on the Ecce Homo carried out by a well-intentioned parishioner in Spain<\/a>, I guess you\u2019ve all seen the excellent results?<\/p>\n

\"Ecce<\/a><\/p>\n

So, the first frame is clearly what it originally looked like, the second its deteriorated state and the third the excellent restoration effort. Good job!<\/p>\n

I guess you\u2019ve also all seen the news (if not searched out and viewed the naked photographs) of Prince Harry\u2019s latest antics. I ran across an article in the Guardian<\/a> which made the excellent point that he is merely following in the footsteps of many a royal prince of the past. The article mentions some of his father\u2019s, Prince Charles\u2019 indiscretions as well as several from their less respectable ancestors. However, much to my surprise, it doesn\u2019t mention any of Prince Andrew\u2019s legendary peccadilloes. One such was his liaison with Koo Stark, who initially came to fame starring in an erotic film, which was commemorated in a wonderful t-shirt produced by the honourable members of E Clampus Vitus<\/em> on the occasion of the Queen\u2019s visit to Santa Barbara many years ago. Dad very kindly made a gift of the t-shirt to me which I wore proudly for many years. Sadly, the t-shirt has long ago been consigned to the dustbin of our collective memories.<\/p>\n

Good to see that Harry is keeping up the family traditions.<\/p>\n

Those of you fortunate enough to be on the mailing list for Pam\u2019s Whiner will have seen the photo of our favourite snake charmer. A day or so later I came across an article on the BBC site<\/a> about a man in Nepal who was bitten by a snake and who decided to exact his revenge by biting the snake back. Several times. To death.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Sandy did not have to resort to such techniques as his black snake is, apparently, good to have around. Still, I couldn\u2019t help but be struck by the similarities:<\/p>\n

\"Snake<\/p>\n

Were these two separated at birth?<\/p>\n

The Edinburgh festival is on at the moment and every year there is an award given for the funniest one-liners<\/a> delivered by comedians. This year\u2019s winner was a Canadian, Stewart Francis, with the line: \u201cYou know who really gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks\u201d which, as well as being true, is quite funny. And, if you don\u2019t know who Posh and Becks are, good for you!<\/p>\n

And finally, sometimes you have to wonder whether headline writing is too challenging for some. Take the following which I saw on the Huffington Post:<\/p>\n

Princes Trust Survey Says Times Are Difficult For The Unemployed<\/h3>\n

And, in other breaking news, bears are understood to occasionally defecate in the woods and Pope revealed to be of Roman Catholic persuasion.<\/p>\n

\"Dad\"And finally, finally, Happy Birthday to our favourite Dad. We\u2019re already looking forward to next year\u2019s 90th celebrations. Save the dates!<\/p>\n

Love to you all,<\/p>\n

Greg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My goodness, there is so much to get through this week I hardly know where to begin. As I said last time, this stuff really writes itself. It\u2019s just that this week both the Government and the Royal Family have been in such fine form that I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ve got room to cover everything … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “26 August 2012”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w76b-VB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}