{"id":4449,"date":"2013-03-10T07:05:26","date_gmt":"2013-03-10T07:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/?p=4449"},"modified":"2013-03-09T11:58:07","modified_gmt":"2013-03-09T11:58:07","slug":"10-march-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2013\/03\/10\/10-march-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"10 March 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

After some lovely Spring-like weather at the beginning of the week, it\u2019s been downhill since then \u2013 rain, drizzle and fog along with Molly and my favourite consequence: mud. March has come in not so much roaring like a lion but slithering in like an eel.<\/p>\n

As you know, when Molly comes back from our morning and\/or afternoon ramble covered in mud, she receives a hosing down and is confined to the entrance hall or the kitchen, neither of which has carpet, until she is more or less dry. She has now decided that she is fed up with being denied access to her two favourite resting places \u2013 the lounge and\/or the library. So, she has decided to announce her displeasure with a vigorous \u201cbark\u201d demanding that someone open the door so that she can recline in comfort. (And who can blame her \u2013 consider the contrast between lying on the wood or tile floor to resting luxuriously on a carpet next to a warm radiator. Particularly when one is of a \u201ccertain age.\u201d No contest). Since we are now so familiar with her barking for any reason we ignore her which would be fine. Unfortunately, she has also discovered that the door to the lounge doesn\u2019t actually shut properly and a modest push will cause it to swing open. When we ignore her requests, therefore, she simply opens the door and makes herself comfortable.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in previous dispatches, Penelope has been making astonishing progress in her efforts to put the business behind her and convert the workshop and office into living space for Beryl. The workshop has been cleared out and painted and she’s nearly finished with the office. We’ve moved her office into the small spare bedroom which is also now the warehouse for the millions of foam balls she still sells to the cupcake making brigade. Those of you who have visited SeamStress will be able to appreciate what a great area it will be. It’s all, currently, a bright white – so bright that you need sunglasses when you enter, even on the dreary days we’ve had lately. As you would expect, I’ve done little to be of any assistance although I have, grudgingly, carried out such tasks as I have been assigned.<\/p>\n

\"CameronPoor David Cameron, he just doesn\u2019t get it. He can\u2019t seem to drag himself out of the quagmire (self-generated, to be sure) and, for the second time in as many months, he has been \u201crebuked\u201d for being, as one former Conservative minister said many years ago, somewhat \u201ceconomical\u201d with the truth. In other words, lying.<\/p>\n

Of course, we know that\u2019s what politicians do. But one doesn\u2019t need to be too bright to realise that when you make a major speech people are going to be listening and checking to ensure that it\u2019s honest and truthful. So, in a speech this past week on the economy, Cameron claimed that the Office for Budget Responsibility had made it<\/p>\n

absolutely clear that the deficit reduction plan is not responsible [for the weak state of the economy], in fact, quite the opposite.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This caused the OBR\u2019s chairman to write to the Prime Minister<\/a> to take issue with his statement:<\/p>\n

For the avoidance of doubt, I think it is important to point out that every forecast published by the OBR since the June 2010 Budget has incorporated the widely held assumption that tax increases and spending cuts reduce economic growth in the short term.<\/p>\n

To summarise, we believe that fiscal consolidation measures have reduced economic growth over the past couple of years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oops!<\/p>\n

And this is on top of Cameron\u2019s claim in a party political broadcast a few weeks ago that the Government was paying off the UK\u2019s debt which again forced a \u201crebuke\u201d<\/a>, this time from the UK Statistics Authority. Debt has, it seems, increased from \u00a3800 billion (55% of GDP) in 2010 when the coalition took office to \u00a31.1 trillion (71% of GDP \u2013 yikes!) in 2012.<\/p>\n

It would be wonderful if politicians didn\u2019t lie but, then again, it would be equally wonderful if pigs could fly \u2013 they can\u2019t and they won\u2019t. What I don\u2019t understand is why anyone would knowingly (one presumes) make statements which are untrue knowing (again, one presumes) that the media and opposition parties will challenge any inaccuracies and use them as a club with which to beat him. Still, Cameron has never been regarded as the sharpest knife in the drawer so perhaps he just doesn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

I laughed out loud when I saw the following headline on the Guardian site:<\/p>\n

\"Guardian<\/p>\n

Someone must have been having a laugh \u2013 I noticed it at 7.30 am while I was browsing the site on my iPad. By 8.30 the headline had been changed to \u201cMPs to quiz horsemeat firm chief.\u201d I\u2019m glad I grabbed a screen shot before it disappeared forever.<\/p>\n

I ran across the following in yesterday\u2019s Guardian. It does make you wonder why we put up with the habits of our most loyal companions. Click for a larger version.<\/p>\n

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

A couple of videos to brighten your day (perhaps). The first, a surfing piglet in New Zealand<\/a>; the second from The Best Job in the World competition<\/a> which, this year, has six jobs available including one described as \u201cTaste Master\u201d which could be the one for me.<\/p>\n

And finally, today is Mothering Sunday in the UK so a very happy day to my mother and all the other mothers amongst our extended family and friends.<\/p>\n

\"Mothering<\/p>\n

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

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

After some lovely Spring-like weather at the beginning of the week, it\u2019s been downhill since then \u2013 rain, drizzle and fog along with Molly and my favourite consequence: mud. March has come in not so much roaring like a lion but slithering in like an eel.<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w76b-19L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4449","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=4449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}