"West London borough set to axe bus stops ‘because they attract rubbish’ "

From The Evening Standard : A council is to remove bus stops from residential streets, claiming that they encourage “abuse” of the facility....

They own land, give them their money back!

Occasionally, you have to have some sympathy with the land speculators. From The Telegraph : Oil-rich emirate Qatar has put its vast £3bn Ch...

Two cheers for Nick Griffin

From The Huffington Post : The BNP leader also alleged the "United States" had offered him money "to concentrate only on Isla...

"Bullet ricochets off boar, kills man in a freak accident"

Spotted by Knirrir via hellinahandbasket.net , from examiner.com : A motorist traveling through the Oise department in France died Sunday a...

Better than the Scandinavian elk test

Spotted by View From The Solent in The Telegraph : Jon Maccoll was on his way to work and close to a town centre when he was confronted by f...

"Oil company executives say UK petrol market is working well"

From the BBC : A study of the UK petrol and diesel market by BP and Shell has said little action is needed. "The evidence we gathered s...

'Why should we work? Our parents collect tax so we're entitled to benefit': Couple living off £170,000 handouts say working for the minimum wage is "A bit dull, yah?"

From The Daily Mail : A young couple who receive more than £170,000 a year in benefits appeared on ITV's This Morning to defend their ta...

"North Belfast alert: Army recovers viable pipe"

From the BBC : A pipe left close to a Belfast community centre has been recovered by Tobacco Control Officers. The device was found near the...

Call for hiking boot tax in Budget

From the BBC : Leading safety campaigners are calling for a £20-per-pair levy on hiking boots to be included in this year's Budget. More...

Oh yes, and a guy got murdered.

Spotted by Bob E in The Daily Mail : ... in a street lined with multi-million-pound homes... in Pimlico, an affluent district in central Lon...

"The report, which was financed by Mastercard..."

Spotted by Bob E in The Guardian : Social security benefits such as universal credit and crisis loans should be issued on debit card-style c...

Fun Online Polls: Your favourite Armstrong & paper cups

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows : Who is your favourite celebrity Armstrong? Neil - 46% Louis - 28% Alexander...

"Red-faced Angela Merkel discovers Herman Goering's pornography stash in her office"

From The Daily Mail : German Chancellor Angela Merkel is this week faced with the tricky question of what to do with a large number of expli...

Wake up and smell.

From The Telegraph , January 2013: His comments followed David Cameron’s pledge to crack down on avoidance, some of which the Prime Minister...

That was then, this is now.

BBC July 2010 : A leading nutritionist says GPs should send obese patients to weight-loss schemes rather than offer NHS help because they wi...

Government 'dodging democracy' over tax rises, says minister

From the BBC : The UK government "dodged democracy" by not holding referendums on the VAT and National Insurance increases two yea...

Britain's hard working and thrifty pensioners.

Spotted by Bob E in The Telegraph : Many still owe hundreds of thousands of pounds on interest-only mortgages, caught between endowments tha...

Victor Lewis-Smith on top form

From The Evening Standard : "“Just remember one thing: if you feel like puking, make sure you bring the white wine up with the fish. It...

"McVitie’s hire George Osborne to launch new ‘triple-dip’ digestives"

From News Thump : After the Office of National Statistics revealed the UK economy had shrunk by 0.3% in the last quarter of 2012, biscuit gi...

The Reality Business

From the worst rated comments to an article in The Daily Mail : Face reality, I know it's a long time ago, but the principles remain, in...

We shall boldly go looking for those profits that Not Red Ed's whizzo scheme promised

Spotted by Bob E in The Guardian : 17 companies said the way in which changes to the subsidies were handled was disastrous for their busines...

"Farmer trampled to death by bull in Carmarthenshire"

From the BBC : David Stephens, 55, was crushed while checking his herd in Llandyfaelog, near Kidwelly. A vet, who was with him, raised the a...

"The telephone didn't stop ringing all day"

"Why didn't you try picking it up occasionally?"

"For being too old sacked, car dealer, 64, nicknamed Yoda was, tribunal rules"

The Daily Mail from: • To taunts about age by his colleagues subjected was Nolan Michael • With someone younger to replace him bosses at Ha...

"Norway goat cheese fire closes tunnel"

From the BBC , although worthy of The Daily Mash: About 27 tonnes of caramelised brown goat cheese - a delicacy known as Brunost - caught li...

"Fall in crime in England and Wales may be exaggerated"

From the BBC : A study of crime trends in England and Wales suggests the fall in offences recorded by police may have been exaggerated. The ...

"Kenya begins construction of 'silicon' city Konza"

Spotted by Joe M at the BBC : Kenya's president has launched a $14.5bn (£9.1bn) project to build a new city intended to be an IT busines...

Bob's job conundrum

Bob E has had a look at the stat's: ----------------------------------- Which is, probably, just a personal one - being as I am so damn ...

"Censorship row as BBC cuts bad language from classic Fawlty Towers episode"

From The Daily Mail : It is the episode of Fawlty Towers best remembered for the line ‘Don’t mention the war’ and John Cleese’s silly walk w...

"Confusion over Obama lip-syncing"

From the BBC : Conflicting reports have emerged over whether President Barack Obama spoke live at his recent inauguration. A spokeswoman for...

Ultimate back seat driving

"No! Not YOUR left, MY left!"

"Pearls Before Swine"

is the name of a cartoon strip in The Metro. Yesterday's was pretty good: The smartarse mouse asks the supposedly slow-witted pig: ...

Fun Online Polls: Subsidies for windmills and solar panels & your favourite Armstrong

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll on an excellent turnout of 190 votes (thanks to everybody who took part) were as follows : Ho...

"BBC receives 216 spoof complaints for Tweenies Jimmy Savile episode"

From the BBC : The BBC has received 216 spoof complaints about an episode of The Tweenies, in which a character appeared dressed as disgrace...

Because as we know, children spend a lot of time in pubs

Some totally bizarre statistics rehashed by the BBC : There was a sharp fall in the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asth...

University of Illinois on top form

From the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences : When low-income families devote three to four extra minutes to regu...

By-Tor and The Snow Dog*

* Minus By-Tor plus the little lass who made him.

Eva Longoria on top form

"Ofsted announces blitz in underperforming areas"

From the BBC : Chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw says the performance gap between some areas is "completely unacceptable"... Der...

His maths can only get better

Prof Brian Cox in The Sun : The first mammals appeared on Earth around 225 million years ago, practically the blink of an eye in our planet’...

"Man is run over and killed by his dog"

From The Daily Mail : A man was killed after his dog pressed down on the accelerator of his car and ran him over. James Campbell, 68, had go...

Wonders never cease!

From Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors' webpage "What is GPAR?" : The Association has always been an advocate of pr...

They own land! Give them money!

Housing Minister Mark Prisk explains the UK government's Ten Point Plan to subsidise bankers, land bankers and landlords and ensure Una...

As if to prove a point...

Compiled by Bob E. Exhibit One, in the comments to a recent post on this here 'blog: Graeme said... "Wow! that is some discrepancy...

"1,000 office workers caught looking at stories about civil servants being sacked for looking at pornography while at work"

From The Daily Mail : Hundreds of office workers have found themselves in deep trouble after surfing the internet for articles about the doz...

"Helicopter cash in London: Two killed, 15 injured in scenes of panic, soaring house prices and absolute madness'"

From The Evening Standard : A helicopter piloted by the Governor of the Bank of England started showering cash from a 600ft tower block in c...

Remaining clueless 'would make consultants Billions'

From the BBC : Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants the NHS to remain clueless about IT projects until 2018 - a move a report says could help ...

"What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

"Funnily enough, and don't take this the wrong way, I was talking about a brown dwarf ."

"Porn star turned biology teacher fired after directors downloaded her homework"

From The Daily Mail : A porn star who was fired after directors discovered she had taught biology at a middle school has lost her appeal to ...

"Rates debt in Northern Ireland doubles in last five years"

... screams the headline at the BBC : The amount of rates debt in Northern Ireland has doubled in the last five years and now stands at £160...

Side by side in The Telegraph

Screen shot by Bob E: Articles here and here , if you're interested.

Couple who used New Labour government financing model as template for their own lifestyle mystified and angry at Judge declaring it to be "completely stupid" ....

Says Bob E in response to this article from The Telegraph : The judge, who heard the High Court trial last year, said the Gatts had been suc...

Out of the frying pan, into the fire...

Emailed in by SG. From the BBC : Armed drug lords were seen as one of the worst threats to residents of Rio de Janeiro's shanty-towns or...

"HMV appoints low-cost online adminstrator"

From News Thump : A HMV spokesperson said, "It’s an unfortunate time for everyone associated with the brand, but rest assured that by u...

"Belgian woman drove 10,000 miles across Eurasia as she followed broken GPS instead of 300 yards to the corner shop"

From The Daily Mail : A Belgian woman took an astonishing 10,000 mile detour through a dozen countries after her car navigation system went ...

Idiot Of The Day: Gregg McClymont

From The Daily Mail : In a further blow, hundreds of thousands of women coming up to retirement will not be eligible for the new flat-rate p...

Kate Middleton has a message for all you plebs

Pinched from the Evening Standard:

Killer Arguments Against LVT, Not (301)

UK Liberty at Liberal Conpsiracy, rebuts the baseless claim that there would be endless appeals and/or that [relative] valuations are imposs...

Fun Online Polls: Subsidies and yet more subsidies

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll , with 74 people taking part (thanks as ever) were as follows: The Coalition's FirstBuy...

Perhaps not being able to get their hands on some nice weed is making them cross?

From the BBC : The possession and use of all illegal drugs should be decriminalised, a very cross party group of peers has said. The least h...

Wind powered Indian bicycle marketing.

Compiled by Bob E. Exhibit One : Ed Miliband’s controversial scheme to encourage homeowners to install solar panels and wind turbines is se...

The Rules Of Football (3)

A post by Ross reminds me that I haven't covered Deloitte's Annual Review of Football Finance 2012 yet. Basic logic (the law of re...

My letter to Iain Duncan Smith

13 January 2013 Dear Mr Duncan Smith Introducing the Citizen’s Pension of approx. £140 per week It strikes me that your civil servants are g...

"This would all be faintly humorous, if it wasn’t so deadly serious"

There's a splendid article in The Daily Mail , marred only by the use of the past tense rather than the subjunctive in the sentence I us...

"College isn't cheap"

The people from Frugal Dad asked me to post a link to their info-graphic on the cost of college, which is here . Between you and me, the pre...

"VAT cut boosted eating out"

Here's a good summary of what happened in Sweden when the VAT rate on restaurant meals was cut from 25% to 12%. The results won't s...

They own land! Give them money!

Katy John from Priced Out linked to this corker from Housing Minister Mark Prisk : So before Christmas I launched the £200million Build to ...

Sugar per 100g serving of breakfast cereal

My little girl had to compile this list for her science homework, we could't find it online so we traipsed down to the supermarket and c...

Killer Arguments Against LVT, Not (299, 300)

A favoured Home-Owner-Ist tactic is to propose two contradictory counter-arguments, neither of which is correct and which cancel each other ...

Excellent news: Fifty per cent of food grown is wasted

Re, report from Institute of Mechanical Engineers, summary and download here . 1. I mean, it's a terrible shame that it is wasted (or t...

Calls for urgent inquiry into how "revolving door" principle has gone completely awry

Emailed in by Bob E. ... as yet another beneficiary of government corporate welfare (during the reign of Teflon Tony) and leading light behi...

Economic Myths: "Monopoly profits are passed on to the consumer as higher prices"

1. It must be blindingly obvious and a matter of general application that if there are barriers to entry into any particular industry, the i...