As we edge ever closer to the festival of mammon and excess, Saturday 22nd was the Winter Solstice – the shortest day – I have had a ‘Damascus’ moment. I am a news junkie… I am addicted to blogging. I even managed to exceed John Bolch’s Family Lore score of 62% on an ‘Are you addicted to blogging’ quiz. I found myself at lunchtime today, sitting outside The Bollo, enjoying a glass of Rioja, reading The Guardian. I have absolutely no idea why I read the article in the ‘Space’ section on “How can I clean my Edwardian tiles?” I don’t have Edwardian tiles at The Staterooms. I now know how to clean them, however…. and so… to Part II of my Christmas Edition of Saturday Review…
First up is the extraordinary story in The Guardian about historian David Starkey’s astonishing attack on HM The Queen. Starkey states that the “Queen is poorly educated and philistine’.
The Queen is now the oldest Monarch we have ever had. Starkey (pic from www.royal.gov.uk), who has his own TV series on the British monarchy, is not that impressed by the present monarch. In fact, he states: ” I think she’s got elements a bit like Goebbels in her attitude to culture” The Guardian reports that when Starkey was showing The Queen around an exhibition he had curated she seemed more interested in the late arrival of her drink – ‘gin and dubonnet’. Starkey is also dismissive of “sad … hysterical, self-abusing … extraordinarily destructive” Diana. Curiously, Starkey seems to suggest that Prince Charles ‘might be the monarchy’s best hope for survival’.
I raise a toast to ‘The King across the water’ – Jacobus.
Starkey has a CBE – apparently. He has missed the boat on ‘cash for honours’ if he wants an upgrade.
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What About Clients? reports: “In the last full trading day before Christmas, stocks brought joy to the investment world, delivering the December boost investors had hoped for.”
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WAC? also noted that Merrill Lynch may be getting a healthy infusion of capital. As I lay on my futon this morning, catching up on World Business News (Sky, BBC, Bloomberg et al), I was almost beside myself with worry about those poor investment bankers. I will rest easy now, and will now enjoy my Christmas mince pie and one glass of Rioja, knowing that the Saudis and Singapore government are sending emergency aid to banks stricken by axis of evil economic terrorists who have destabilised the global banking network with their lending to the sub-prime market
I just could not help but recall the words of the famous Christmas carol… about Good King Wenceslas
“Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and chopped and even;
Brightly shone the accounts that night, tho’ the Fed was cruel,
When a sub-prime mortgagee came in sight gath’ring winter fuel.”
I may well have to have a Part III… but… I must now go and check how my Northern Rock shares are doing…
Richard III said on Bloomberg tonight: “The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch”.
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UPDATE: Reactionary Snob… has a beauty about ‘Cyclops’…. Gordon Brown is certain that the recent problems about data loss, Donorsgate etc etc will soon be lost… sorry, forgotten.
Reactionary Snob then goes on to ask Cyclops: “Are you having a fucking giraffe? I hope you choke on your organic Turkey and stuffing you Fife Cunt. ”
I had not felt ‘Christmassy’ until I read RS’s post…
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