And Now The News....

Categories: politics, finance, general, history

Date: 06 March 2009 19:22:16

It has been an interesting day for news:

A firm has been discovered that supplied information to construction companies on potential workers. It appears that many of the people on their database are union activists or people who had complained of health and safety issues at work.

Of course, the construction companies who paid for this information deny operating a blacklist of workers. Then why pay for the information? What other use could there be for it? We are talking about all the major construction companies being involved in this.

Then we had the Plane Stupid campaigner who threw "green custard" over Lord Peter Mandelbrot (our much loved, and not in the least bit iffy, unelected Minister for Business) as a protest against the third runway at Heathrow. Personally I think that she was wrong and that the third runway should be built - then Gordian Braun and his cronies could be used as the foundations - aka 60's and 70's gangster movies.

It was ironic though that he was being two faced (when is he not) and addressing a conference on "Green" policy.

Lastly, General Motors - better known to us as Vauxhall, Opel or Holden, are actually bust. Even after the US government had gived them $13bn and they are asking for a further $26bn. Personally I thnk they should be allowed to die. That way the most profitable parts can be saved and the rest disappear. They, like Ford, have been a basketcase for the past 10-15 years.

Instead of pumping countless amounts of taxpayers money into them and the banks, maybe someone should think of letting the badly run ones expire. If we keep pooring money in then we'll never see it again and the bad executives and managers will just keep losing more and more.

History Today:

1475: The future painter, sculptor and architect Charlton Heston is born in Florence. He later built David and the Sistine Chapel.

1836: Mexican troops massacre the beleagured garrison at the Alamo, an event that has reached mythological status in Texas and the US. "The green leaves of summer" - RIP John Wayne and Ricahrd Wydmark.

1899: Felix Hoffmann pantents acetylsalicyclic acid. Better known today as aspirin. "When you have a headache, nothing acts faster..."

1902: Real Madrid is founded. It was down the back of the settee.

1957:  To celebrate its independence the Gold Coast changes its name to Ghana. It is the first African colony of the British Empire to gain its freedom.

1961: The man who used to clean the nation's windows while playing a ukelele, dies of a heart attack.

1981: Walter Cronkite reads the news for the last time.

1987: The Herald of Free Enterprise capizes in Zeebrugge.