Liam Byrne or Iain Duncan Smith?

Click here to find out : That's why we need a different approach [to welfare] founded on three principles. First, people must be better ...

Cute little bears who talk about economics and swear a lot

Emailed in by SG:

They'd all sell double the amount if they would only make it cheaper to buy than alcohol

Highland Spring now Britain's favourite bottled water  ...  overtaking Evian as the nation's favourite, and becoming th...

"Ed Balls admits being caught speeding"

From the BBC : Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has confessed to being caught speeding, saying he was "bang to rights". The Labour MP sa...

[The Heir To Blair] Oh no, here we go again...

6 February 2003 : Tony Blair: The danger is that if we allow Iraq to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons they will threaten th...

Great templates of our time: [Something you don't like] is a vile product of [something else you don't like]

From The Daily Mail , choose your own storyline: "Vile product of... A. • Welfare UK: • Paralympics: • Right to inherit from your paren...

"Taxpayers honoured with Bafta award for film and TV support"

Spotted by BobE at the BBC : Thirty million UK taxpayers have received an honorary Bafta for their lifelong support of the British film and ...

Are we supposed or expected to deduce from this that the Co-Op failed to "sign up"?

Local businesses have also reported positive effects, with surveys revealing a 20 per cent fall in the number of people stating they witnes...

Liam Dutton on top form

The weatherman on Channel 4 News has been busy with his thesaurus. In tonight's weather forecast, he treated us to the following synony...

Labour Party seeks "joining the dots" expert

Being (officially) in opposition the Labour Party is very busy indeed trying to work up a “message” to send to the electorate for 2015.   Th...

Economic Myths - Two in one column

Our Homey-in-chief serves up a double helping : THERE is much to like about what Bitcoin stands for: free-market money, safe from the grabbi...

"Manchester pair who plotted to murder Joss Stone song found guilty"

From The Manchester Evening News : A man was jailed for life today for plotting to murder a song originally performed by international pop s...

Scientists lose dark matter again

From the BBC : A $2bn experiment on the space station has made observations that could have proved to be the first signs of dark matter, a m...

Euphemisms for "cold"

It is alleged that the Eskimos have twenty-seven different words for snow, even though that is dismissed in some quarters as an urban myth....

"Theresa May promises speedier service from Chinese"

From The Evening Standard : Home Secretary Theresa May has agreed to do more to improve the system to speed up service at Chinese takeaways ...

DECC Fined Record £10.5bn by Ofgov

From the BBC : Energy department DECC has been fined £10.5bn by the regulator Ofgov for mis-selling alternatives to gas and electricity. The...

Beyond satire

From the BBC 22 November 2012 : The BBC Trust has today appointed Tony Hall - Lord Hall of Birkenhead - as the Director-General of the BBC, ...

'I can barely scrape by on £1,581 a week': Iain Duncan Smith defends his salary

From The Daily Mail : Iain Duncan Smith today insisted he needs every penny of the £1,581 a week he receives as his MP's and Minister...

I can't stop eating these Moroccan snacks.

They are very Moorish.

The ultimate pirates

There was a priceless feature on Channel 4 this evening about people in Somalia who make good money ($200 a day was mentioned) by posing as...

Paolo Di Canio refuses to answer Communist Questions

Not from the BBC : New Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio refused to answer questions about whether he holds communist beliefs in his first n...

George Monbiot talks sense: Shock

Spotted by MBK in The Guardian : So where do we look for the idea that can make hope more powerful than fear? Not to the Labour party. If Ed...

Always good for some free style argy-bargy

Discussing the results of  "a poll" ... Coldplay album voted favourite  By people who listen to Radio 2 it would appear ...  here...

Happy Birthday to "possibly the worst tax, ever"?

VAT is 40 years old – and now has middle-age spread ...

Fun Online Polls: Full English & Coal-fired power stations

There were 171 responses to last week's Fun Online Poll . Thanks to everybody who took part: How do you like your Full English Breakfast...

Not "hopes" John - it knows it will!

J ohn Harris has a piece up at the G - We have to talk about why some people agree with benefit cuts - which contains the following l...

And if we can keep the number of "new builds" well below 200,000, who knows how high they could go !

Some cheering news from the Centre for Economics and Business Research .. The cost of the average home will jump by nearly £50,000 over th...

One day, I was promoted to sergeant.

The next day, they dismissed me without notice. They operate a "three stripes and you're out' rule.

Ed does some explaining

Always keen to explain himself to the faithful is Ed For example " On the welfare sanctions revolt "- For the benefit of those wh...

Bruges' answer to Manneken Pis

I ran over a bloke wearing a camouflage jacket today.

It wasn't my fault though. I just didn't see him.

Now That's What I Call Resignation Language

Except he doesn't mention it.   But everyone's favourite "man prepared to think the unthinkable" Frank Field has some quit...

We asked our hotel for a wake-up call.

So this morning at eight o'clock, the receptionist rang us to say that malaria kills a million people every year.

OK so users will be limited to the one supermarket

but the lucky (aside from needing emergency handouts) people of  Birmingham will be able to benefit from the ASDA Price Guarantee! So if th...

Giving it the Bird (aka Nimbys of the Week) - PM intervenes (allegedly)

This was first aired on 13th March - this evening we are told on the G website that "a small flock of birds [ aka The Lodge Hill Night...

Belgian railways: Calling it the way they see it

"there are no problems with UC and it will roll out as planned"

The delay appears to be an admission by the Government that they do not have the training, computer programmes and exper...

"An irresistible urge to interfere in other peoples lives 'may be a sign of psychiatric illness'"

Spotted by Bob E in The Independent : The controversial finding comes in a major report, Prodnosing and Mental Health, published this week b...

"Job Centre is screwing us into the ground': Claimant blasts DWP for late payment and 'hostility' towards unemployed"

From The Daily Mail : A welfare claimant has criticised the body responsible for overseeing welfare payments, claiming they are trying to ...

"Pope Francis to wash windscreens on Maundy Thursday"

From the BBC : Pope Francis will wash windscreens at a busy junction near Rome on Maundy Thursday. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists are ar...

The interesting part about this isn't "the heckling" but ...

Another one from the desk of Bob E: Smith was about to deliver a speech on welfare and pensions reform when campaigner Willie Black began ha...