The power of words

Hat-Tip to Rachel

Praise be to Iceland

The Icelandic people have sent a very strong message to their government who wanted taxpayers to bail out the private bank Landsbanki: “F**k Off”.

When Landsbanki (operating in the UK as Icesave) collapsed in October 2008, the British and Dutch Governments decided to reimburse depositors, and now expect the Icelandic Government to reimburse them to the tune of £3.4 billion. The only snag was that Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar refused to sign the repayment deal agreed by his Parliament. This triggered an automatic referendum in March 2010. 93% of Icelandic voters supported their President and rejected the proposed repayment deal.

Like the corrupt and undemocratic EU, the Icelandic Government could not accept the will of the people, and another referendum has now been held. Once again, the overwhelming majority of voters have rejected the terms on offer. Icelandic taxpayers have stated clearly and unequivocally that they do not wish to bail out private banks which were badly run.

People who invested in Landsbanki did so at their own risk. The reason Icesave paid much higher rates of interest than traditional banks was because of the greater risk attached. Their economy was going to hell in a handcart, but if depositors were too stupid to check where they placed their money, why should those of us who are more prudent with our finances be expected to bail them out?

In a similar vein, British taxpayers have been forced to bail out Greece, Ireland and now Portugal, whose respective governments were even more profligate than ours under the Brown/Darling regime. The British government has no democratic mandate to give our money away. We are not members of the single currency and it is not our responsibility to rescue basket case economies.

The Government has introduced an austerity package to deal with our crippling budget deficit. Domestic public spending has to be cut, yet at the same time as soldiers in Afghanistan are being made redundant whilst risking their lives, money can still be found to piss away on this failed European project.

The people of Iceland have done a great service to democracy by reminding their politicians who is in charge. To them I say: Ég heilsa hugrekki, styrk þinn og indefatigability þinn (I salute your courage, your strength, and your indefatigability).

Shock news! Reading books is good for you.

Oxford University has conducted extensive research amongst more than 17,000 people which shows that girls who had read books at age 16 had a 39 per cent probability of a professional or managerial post at 33, but only a 25 per cent chance if they had not. For boys who read regularly, the figure went up from 48 per cent to 58 per cent.

The news is likely to be welcomed by Education Secretary Michael Gove, who was mocked recently by trendy lefties following his call for school children to read 50 books a year.

Notwithstanding that this study was carried out by one of our most eminent universities, it begs the question as to the usefulness of such research. For most people, the results will be nothing more than a statement of the bleedin’ obvious. There can be little doubt that reading litereature expands your mind, even if it is only Jane Austen’s Emma rather than a proper sci-fi novel.

Middlesex University fined £1.4 million

As a Middlesex student, it was somewhat disconcerting to read that the university has been fined £1.4 million for recruiting too many students. This was part of an £8 million package of fines handed out to 19 universities by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

How will the university pay this fine? Hopefully, the money can be found by reducing bureaucracy - there is no publicly funded institution in the country which does not waste money in one area or another. However, if sufficient savings cannot be made, will Middlesex join the growing ranks of universities proposing to charge the maximum £9,000 a year to new students from next year, or will the existing teaching budgets be cut back?

Business Secretary Vince Cable has now issued a threat of further cutbacks in funding and student places. This is the same Vince Cable who stood for election last year having made a cast iron pledge to vote against any increase in university fees. For all the years the LibDems were in opposition, they argued for an increase in public expenditure for education. Once their grubby mitts were on the reigns of power, they proved themselves to be the lying sanctimonious hypocrites many of us always suspected them to be.


What is particularly unpleasant about this, is that when Labour first introduced university tuition fees, having promised not to do so, the Conservatives bitterly opposed the decision. They too have betrayed their consciences.

Every Member of Parliament who accepted without compunction a university education paid for by the taxpayer, should be required to reimburse the Treasury for the cost of their tuition now that they have voted to deny the same rights and privileges to everyone else.

Are you a cunning linguist?

Take this on line test at sporcle.com to find out.

Thanks to Mr Reasonable for the hat-tip.

OMG! LOL's in the OED. LMAO!

The internet acronym LOL (laugh out loud) has now entered the Oxford English Dictionary.

Those of us who are able to refrain from laughing out loud, use the same acronym to mean ‘lots of laughs’, notwithstanding that ‘lots’ is a word best avoided amongst language purists.

Writers of a more romantic disposition prefer it to mean ‘lots of love’.

For a history of the meaning of LOL and other internet acronyms, click here and you will find yourself ROFPYL!

Original Sin

A bad choice of words

In an interview on Sky News (7th March 2011), Royal Photographer Arthur Edwards describes a photograph of Kate Middleton saying: “I would have killed to have taken it myself.”

Given the circumstances of her fiancé’s mother’s death, perhaps he could have phrased that better!

The King's Speech - Part 2

Evade your eyes, don’t plagiarise!

German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has resigned following allegations that he plagiarised his PhD dissertation.

Chancellor Angela Merkel described Zu Guttenberg as “someone of outstanding political ability, with a unique and extraordinary ability to reach people's hearts and get them interested in politics” before defiantly predicting that he would make a political comeback.

It is curiously reassuring to know that the German political system is as rotten as ours with cheating politicians being praised to the rafters.

For the rest of us mere mortals, plagiarism is probably the most serious academic offence which a student can commit. This is something to bear in mind with essay deadlines fast approaching. The temptation for some might be too hard to resist - as Tom Lehrer explains below.