As the season of goodwill staggers to the finish line - not that 'goodwill' would have been the sentiment that first came to the fore if one had had to suffer another enfilade attack (consult your military manual if you don't know what it means), from the screaming hoards in the aisles of a well-known supermarket - I have decided that in the pursuit of self-improvement, I will in the coming months...
2013
As a certain S Claus Esq makes the final preparations for tonight's journey - go faster stripes on the sleigh, go faster juice given to the reindeer, (no way that they would pass a British Horseracing Authority dope test; unless of course they belonged to the rulers of an oil-rich country...), elves careering around like workers in an Amazon warehouse and a hip flask of something warming, but...
...of The Strictly Come Prancing Grand Final, dodgy jumpers, realisation of why one never sees certain members of one's family the rest of the year, people photocopying their nether regions at the office Christmas party and lists. For some reason yet to be determined by medical research, the final death throes of the current year (working by the Gregorian calendar) generate a litany of lists of, who...
It was announced this week by the Metropolitan Police that there is, "no credible evidence", that the SAS were involved in the death of Princess Diana in the Pont de l'Ama road tunnel in Paris in 1997. However many times Mohammed Al Fayed and the Daily Express keep printing that elements of the British monarchy (that would be you, Phil The Greek) and/or parties within our country's security forces were...
...death and taxes. George's Autumn Statement last week contained some interesting estimates from the Office of Budget Responsibility (I wonder how you get the gig in there?). The general consensus in their figures was that house prices will increase by a fifth over the next three years. This has led to the usual chorus of shock and horror from the usual protagonists; step forward Vince...
In keeping with the current festive theme - including mince pies being out of date by the 1 December - the recent decision by the Bank of England to stop Funding For Lending will resonate with every parent who is being blackmailed at every given opportunity by their offspring to purchase the latest must-have gizmo for the aforementioned little darlings' Christmas present. They want it, they have to have...
...is learned from prolonged experience..." . So writes the 2002 Nobel Prize winning psychologist, Daniel Kahneman. For those of you who may not quite be up to speed in their identification of those in the pantheon of psychology and its study, (putting the world to rights with Dave in The Dog And Duck, after ten pints and Wales having been beaten by South Africa doesn't count), Mr Kahneman specialises...
Today's announcement that the Yorkshire Building Society is launching its own range of 95% loan-to value mortgages has been met with a mixture of opprobrium, hysteria and much teeth-sucking from the harbingers of doom. The main concern being voiced is that such lending will contribute to the country shouldering another burden of debt and it will be 2007 all over again. Let us make one thing clear:...
Not on this occasion twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a leaping nor nine ladies dancing; (actually the last one isn't strictly incorrect if you count the site team from Shiny New Homes R Us doing an inebriated performance to 'I Will Survive' at the Christmas shindig at The Parkway); instead, if a recent report is to be believed, many potential homeowners should aim to be...
For those of us who can name all the hosts of Family Fortunes (with extra points if you can also name their 'celebrity' spouses), we can all empathise with the moment Les, Leslie, Vernon et al turned and said, "Our Survey Says..." and the results of the said survey did make one wonder what bunch of inbred, intellectually challenged, 'I've got six fingers.. on one hand' hapless individuals they had...
