I ran this week's Fun Online Poll purely out of general interest, prompted in part by Barry George winning the first round in his 'battle for compensation' - when poor old Jill Dando was murdered, most people I asked could remember exactly where they were when they heard about it.
I don't know why it affected people like this - probably because she was such a nice person that nobody would have expected her to be murdered. But either it didn't affect people that much or memories have faded: the actual responses were:
Can you remember where you were when you heard that Jill Dando had been murdered?
No - 59%
Yes - 18%
Who was Jill Dando? - 23%
Thanks to everybody who took part.
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This whole Asil Nadir returning from exile to face the music story is another one of those puzzlers.
Why on earth did he do it? Has he managed to convince himself of his own innocence, finally done a deal with the Serious Fraud Office, or is it the result of some behind the scenes machinations - maybe Northern Cyprus wants to merge with Free Cyprus again and thus smuggle itself into the EU (as a precursor to Turkey joining, who knows?) and maybe the UK, as a major EU member made this one of the pre-conditions?
There's always skullduggery with these things, such as Scotland releasing Al McGrahey on 'compassionate grounds' rather than admitting that it has something to do with an oil deal with Libya; or such as the USA's long running campaign to persuade Swiss banks to hand over private information, to which Switzerland responded by suddenly arresting Roman Polanski - who'd owned a house there for years - and offering him up as a sacrificial lamb.
Rather mysteriously, the plan to extradite him was shelved again a few weeks before the Swiss banks finally caved in and handed over what the USA wanted.
So that's the next Fun Online Poll: "What's the Latin for 'You let the bastards grind you down'"?. It'd be great fun to get it engraved on a watch and send it to him in prison to match his other one (which is actually mentioned in Hansard, column 21).
Answers here or use the widget in the sidebar.
A grim document
7 hours ago
12 comments:
off topic Mark. But you may be interested to know Andy Burnham is on CIF promoting LVT!
Ta, I read about that, but I don't think he quite gets it. He sees it more as an additional tax, not a replacement tax.
I'm not so sure about the secret machinations; having spent two weeks in Northern Cyprus last August (not by choice), I'm inclined to think that after 17 years even a custodial sentence in the UK would be preferable.
(Although admittedly Nadir wasn't stuck in a villa with my mother-in-law...)
I reckon most people who claimed they didn't remember where they were when they heard about Jill Dando's murder just wanted to show that they don't follow celebrity tittl-tattle.
The original phrase, illegitimi non carborundum, is mock-Latin rather than real Latin. If it was real Latin it would be something like Noli nothis permittere te terere which isn't funny at all to English speakers. So I guess that we would want a mock-Latin translation of "you let the bastards grind you down", maybe illegitimi carborundum permittis, which is admittedly only slightly amusing. Funnier than a real Latin translation though.
There are loads of variants of the wording though all appear to include "carborundum"
I can't find my copy of Margaret Atwood's brilliant Handmaid's Tale
but I believe that she used "Nolite te bastardes carborundum" If that is the case then that is the best version because she is a great writer.Respect!
Nil illegitimus carborundum in my part of the world.
And of course
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Regarding Mr. Nadir, perhaps it is the inverse of the Libya effect, and he is ill, and returning as a health tourist?
@MW
The CiF article deserves a slightly better opinion: it does talk in terms of LVT replacing other taxes.And from a leftish point of view opens with the inspiring headline "Land value tax-not old or New but true Labour"
I was standing next to the cardboard baler in Safeway Store 7755 when I heard about Jill Dando.
I made some tastless joke, (as per), and made my way into the produce chiller where I proceeded to kick some department manager ass.
Happy days!
R, maybe.
D, DBC, Ch, thanks, those will go through to the next round.
DBC, maybe so, but in the next breath he says they ought to hike Employer's NIC contributions (I've read his full manifesto as well), which is the second worst tax after VAT. I'm glad AB suggested reducing IHT and SDLT (which are obvious targets), but he doesn't seem to understand stuff like 'deadweight costs of taxes' and so on.
RR, ta, did you make the 'Jan Dildo' joke?
I think I probably did Mark, not sure!
I'm also not sure why I remember so vividly where I was/what I was doing when I heard the news. I never really bothered watching her on the telly.
I quite like the 23% people.
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