Fun Online Polls: Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes & Bongo Bongo Land

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Which were the coolest/scariest of Lord Voldemort's horcruxes? Multiple votes allowed.

I have no idea what you are talking about - 58 votes
Harry Potter himself - 9 votes
Tom Riddle's diary - 8 votes
Professor Quirrel - 4 votes
Nagini the snake - 4 votes
Salazar Slytherin's locket - 3 votes
Marvolo Gaunt's ring - 1 vote
Helga Hufflepuff's cup - 1 vote
Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem - 0 votes

Thanks to the 81 people who took part, the 23 people who did know what I was talking about cast on average 1.3 votes each. I chose the locket and the ring myself, the others were neither cool nor scary. Nagini the snake? Pah! Nevile "cardigans are a sign of leadership" Longbottom chopped its head off and it died. Big deal. Not much more to say.
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And lo, to Godfrey Bloom's comments about sending aid to Bongo Bongo Land so that their dictators can buy Ferraris, flats in Paris and Ray-Ban sunglasses*, which provoked one interesting response by Justine Greening in today's Evening Standard:

Cabinet minister Justine Greening today hit back at critics of Britain’s aid spending, accusing some of them of wanting the country to “shut up shop”.

The Overseas Aid Secretary launched a staunch defence of UK aid projects including to Nigeria which has its own space programme and to Somalia where some supplies were recently seized or destroyed by terrorists.

Monkey says what?

Anyway, cut to the chase (hideous Americanism but fun to say), that's the topic of this week's Fun Online Poll.

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

* I take his point about Ferraris and flats in Paris, but Ray-Ban sunglasses retail for under £200 a pop, that's tuppence ha'penny compared to some expense claims submitted by our MPs, or indeed by MEPs like Mr Bloom.

"South Africa's direct aid from UK to end"

From the BBC:

International Development Secretary Justine Greening is to announce that the UK will stop giving direct aid to South Africa in 2015.

The UK government's aid programme to South Africa is currently worth £19 million a year. This funding has focused on reducing the mortality rate among women giving birth, as well as supporting businesses. The UK's relationship with South Africa should now be based on trade and not development, Ms Greening will say.

"Let's get real here. They've a population of 50 million so our £19 million a year is less than one penny per person per week. 'Reducing child mortality'? Who are we kidding. They've got nearly a million births every year, even if they spent the whole of our £19 million on that, it's still only £20 per baby," Ms Greening will continue.

"And if they want £19 million a year off us, they could try sending us a couple of hundred thousand tons of coal every year or something.

"OK, maybe not coal because those buggers in the EU won't let us burn that any more. Does anybody know how many oranges we can get for £19 million a year?" she will ask the conference of African ministers and business leaders in London on Tuesday, while staring wildly around the room. "Oh come on, somebody must know.."

Ride my fat face

Justine Greening