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  • Ryszard Kapuscinski
    Nationalism cannot exist in a conflict-free condition; it cannot exist as a thing devoid of grudges and claims. Wherever the nationalism of one group rears its head, immediately, as if from beneath the ground, this group's enemies will spring up.
  • Richard Lindzen (climate scientist, MIT)
    Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat's dream. If you control carbon, you control life.
  • Edward R. Murrow
    Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
  • Mark Twain
    No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
  • Frederic Bastiat
    And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty.
  • Peter Hain
    People are uniting behind Gordon whether they are Blairites, Brownites or Nothingites like me.
  • AA Gill
    But don’t for a moment imagine that the bicycle-riding, organic-hedgerow-grazing, self-denying, 40-watt miserablists are in fact selfless crusaders for the common good. Never underestimate the sustaining pleasure in a hair shirt. Just look at George Monbiot, and witness a man who couldn’t be happier about the imminent demise of life as we know it. It’s given him purpose, prestige and celebrity: without global warming he’d be a geography teacher.
  • John W. Gardner
    The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
  • Gary Bushell
    The Green Party will go from green to red faster than a frog in a blender.
  • Tom Paine
    Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.

Posts categorized "Snouts in the Trough"

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Mr Eugenides: MP's pay scandal

Link: Mr Eugenides: MP's pay scandal.

I have nothing to add to this, which made me spill my evening drink. Thanks, Mr. Eugenides. I could never have believed that such a story could make me laugh.

It really is scandalous that our elected representatives are so poorly remunerated for their 160 days' work every year. Not only should they be paid more, but on Fridays they should be transported back to their constituencies with great pomp and dignity on litters carried by lucky constituents randomly selected from the national ID database, with cheering crowds lining their routes and a train of elephants and peacocks following in their wake. Once back among their people, they should be sent the fairest virgins of the town to give them oral pleasure (non-virgins may be suitable substitutes for Essex MPs) and their bedchambers strewn with rose petals to ensure a sound and restful night.

Even these modest proposals would hardly constitute proper recognition for their selfless public service, but they would be a powerful reminder to our masters of the gratitude and quiet goodwill that millions of us bear in our hearts.

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