Europe
has been surprisingly firm against Russian adventurism.
The French President
is publicly annoyed that the Czech President will not fly the EU flag from his castle.
Hoping Obama
will not be like Blair.
The current Miss England is apparently
“too chunky” to work as a model.
The apparently desperate (and expensive)
need to control children’s playgrounds: Recently the skull-and-crossbones flag has also been banned from being flown in the gardens of suburban houses hosting pirate parties on the grounds that it is unneighborly.
Local authority officials told the parents of 6-year-old Morgan Smith (not thought to be any relation to either the notorious Bloody Morgan, who sacked Porto Bello, or Aaron Smith, tried for piracy at the Old Bailey in 1823 but acquitted) that they must apply for planning permission to fly the flag, at a cost to them of about $150.
It was reported that an assessment of the 5'x4' flag's impact on the surrounding area would be undertaken before a decision was made as to whether the flag would be allowed for the party or not.
Riots and political crisis in Greece, not helped by the police being regarded as corrupt and inefficient. A country
of pervasive stagnation. With a poor quality public sector
that withdrew from protecting people and property. A case
of social risk. Greece as having over-populated, under-capitalised universities producing graduates with deteriorating job prospects,
a particularly intense example of a pattern across Europe. The revolt
of a frustrated generation: Then he vents his anger, a deep-seated resentment that his country produces an endless series of scandals, and that "corrupt cliques" in politics, the church, associations and trade unions are free to skim off the top as they see fit. He says that no one from the two dominant political camps -- neither the center-right conservatives nor the socialists, both of whom are dominated by family clans - will allow young people to take their place in society. Today's Greece stifles all initiative.