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Politicans and world leaders making news and in the news, and spouting hot air

Irish National Ploughing Championships Photos: Mud And Money

WE heard the cry and sent a man to the National Ploughing Championships in Co Kildare, Ireland.

The champions will got to the ploughing World Championships in Sweden next year. At the site in Cardenton, outside Athy, it was muddy.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen was there. And so too was Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith. He had the good news that Irish farmers will receive early payment of their single farm payment from Brussels on October 18th (it was due on December 1).

Who much money? It’s €600 million.

The payment is part of the overall direct aid from Brussels to Irish farmers which is worth €1.5 billion.

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Posted: 23rd, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comments (3)


When Nick Clegg Met Obama And Biden: Photos

NICK Clegg is all ready for his trip to meet Joe Biden in the White House. The story goes that the lunch meeting was arranged when Clegg “bumped into” Obama at the UN at the United Nations summit on helping the world’s poor.

How did his talk go. Well, Clegg’s name was mentioned in the White House “pool report”, the missive send to pretty much every big news outlet:

Suffice it to say, the audience in the UN General Assembly hall was far more hushed and attentive to Obama than they were to the preceding speaker, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who gave his remarks amid a quiet din of side conversations and diplomats coming and going.”

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Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg addresses the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit at the United Nations General Assembly in New York today.

Posted: 23rd, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Lancashire County Council Bans Homemade Cakes From Library

HOMEMADE cakes and biscuits are banned at Chorley’s Adlington and District Millennium Committee. When they met at the Adlington Library, the concil told them that all non shop-bought cakes were vorboten.

Says Committee member Ann Shires:

“I just think it’s over the top, even my nine-year-old granddaughter is always saying ‘Oh grandma, it’s health and safety.”

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Posted: 22nd, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Nick Clegg’s New York Photos: Poppet Takes Manhattan

POOR old Mr Nick Clegg. He should be big news as he strides about New York City, meeting the knobs in the UN, holding a Question and Answer session with students at New York University, joshing with the NYPD and taking a walk in the Big Apple with the look of a man whose thinking of making an offer on the place.

But it all went wrong when Vince Cable called City workers “spivs” – you know, those finance men like Nick Clegg’s dad, David Laws, lots of LibDem donors and members, Prince William and himself – because what else do Business Secretaries do apart from work in finance..?

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Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg addresses the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit at the United Nations General Assembly in New York today.

Posted: 22nd, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


David Miliband And The Gok Wan Question

DAVID Miliband, one half of the Westminster Milibands, wants to be leader of the Labour Party. But how can he woo the female vote? Why, by channeling Gok Wan…

Andy Burnham is absorbing the tips.

Spotter: Nadia Saint

Posted: 21st, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Jewish Protest Group Smuggle Fun Loving Palestinian Women Into Israel

TO NAZARETH, Israel, where around 600 Jewish Israelis are smuggling Palestinian women and children into the country from the West Bank. The aim is to give the Palestinians a taste of life over there.

The inspiration is Ilana Hammerman, a Jewish writer who wrote in Haaretz about smuggling three Palestinian teenaged women into Israel for a day out, including a trip to the Mediterranean. Because, as reader Percy says, “girls just wanna have fun”. The woman, aged 18 and 19, removed their hijabs and blended in.

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Posted: 20th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Egypt Newspaper Photoshops Mubarak Ahead Of Obama At Peace Talks

BARACK Obama and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt walk into the East Room of the White House for Round 2101 AD of Middle East peace talks. Also there are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine and

King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Mubarak is on the left. Only he isn’t in Egypt, where the Egypt’s-state-run rag Al-Ahram puts Mubarak in the lead.

The gold medal goes to him. Now. who’s for lunch. Last one into the mess hall loses their country…

Note: The newspaper’s editor-in chief, Osama Saraya says:

“The expressionist photo is … a brief, live and true expression of the prominent stance of President Mubarak in the Palestinian issue, his unique role in leading it before Washington or any other.”

Spotter: Pat’sPapers

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Posted: 19th, September 2010 | In: Key Posts, Politicians | Comment


Caroline Giuliani Reuses An Old Smirk

RUDY Giuliani’s daughter Caroline Giuliani, 21, has been cleaning as part of her sentence for stealing product from a New York branch of Sephora.

New York Mag delights in her suffering:

“Caroline Giuliani Rocks Smirk, Long Hair While Cleaning Toilets“:

Also se was “decked out in an orange work vest,” the Daily News reports, but she let her long locks flow down over her shoulders in a sort of “devil may care” way, we noticed, while donning a simple gray dress for photo-ops and, once again, showing off that camera-ready smirk of hers. Still got it!

Or not., The photo in the New York Daily News is actually an old one. You tell it’s an old one because beneath it the words says “Caroline Giuliani (in an older photo)“.

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Posted: 19th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


When The Pope Met Tony Blair: Photos

WHEN Tony Blair met the Pope. Nope. Scratch that. When the Pope met Tony Blair (better), the celebrity politician and modern day Cardinal Newbold, we looked on.

Much has been made of the Pope’s comments on Nazism. And good on him for trying to move away from those shameful and embarrassing links to the Catholic Church by bigging up his other history. But the big story of the day are the Pope’s words on celebrity culture:

We live in a celebrity culture and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment… It might make us famous but it will not make us happy.”

And with that Michael McManus (Pop Idol winner) and Susan Boyle (Hair Angel) sang.

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Posted: 18th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Tony Blair On the Pope, Cardinal Newman And Me

THE Pope’s visit: What the columnists say:

We don’t do God.” Remember when  Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell said that?

Alexander Chancellor sums up Tony  Blair in the Guardian:

After a period of welcome obscurity, Tony Blair is suddenly everywhere again, making peace in the Middle East, promoting his memoir, and now even getting himself involved in the pope’s state visit to Britain. This is the fault of the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, which chose to publish on its front page an article by Blair about Cardinal John Henry Newman, whom the pope is to beatify in Birmingham on Sunday. There is no reason to think that Blair, a recent convert to Catholicism, is particularly knowledgeable about this most famous of all British converts, but his article is interesting all the same for what it says about its author.

It is typical of Blair because, while hardly mentioning himself in it, he manages to imply that he, like Newman, is a man of intellectual courage and integrity, but with the sort of – hey, you know – open-mindedness and flexibility that is needed to get on in the modern world. Making the point that the intellectual rigour and the deep scholarship that led Newman to leave the Anglican church for Rome belonged to “another time”, Blair says that people are, of course, “still moved by intellectual assent to Catholic Faith”: “People still make this journey in a less spectacular way. I should know [my italics].”

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Former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair (right) and Gordon Brown await the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Westminster Hall, London on the second day of his State Visit.

Posted: 17th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


British Teen Luke Angel Banned From US Forever For Calling Obama A ‘Prick’

LUKE Angel is banned from ever stepping foot on US soil. His crime? He sent an email to Barack Obama calling the President a “prick”.

Obama never saw the missive. It was picked up by the FBI. They called the police in the UK, who popped over to see the 17-year-old at his home in Silsoe, Bedfordshire.

Says Luke:

“I don’t really care. My parents aren’t very happy about it. The police who came round took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever.”

So much for freedom. (Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not banned from the US.) Isn’t swearing “the language of his generation”, as a judge ruled in overturning a decision to fine a man who told police to “fuck off”?

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Posted: 13th, September 2010 | In: Key Posts, Politicians | Comments (14)


Andy Coulson, Wikileaks And Waiting For A Guardian Story

ANDY Coulson remains front-page news on the Independent, but the Guardian has dropped the story. No other national leads with the news of David Cameron’s communications master.

The essence of the tale is interesting – did top media man in Government know about illegal goings on while he was editor of the country’s biggest selling tabloid?

And here are the facts:

The NoTW royal editor gets jailed for hacking into voicemails of important knobs and people how might call them; lots of Labour MPs demand to know if they were on the list of people with potentially interesting private lives; The GuardianBBC and Indy lead with the story day on day; everyone reads about Wayne Rooney’s sex life; and elements on the Left call for tougher sanctions, punishment and tighter rules that will undermine freedom.

As Brendan O’Neill puts it:

The Guardian has helped to create a climate in which everyone from leading bobbies to opportunistic MPs can vent their spleen against the cocky tabloids, and by extension against the idea of press freedom itself. Is there no one at the Guardian who is willing to say at their morning editorial conference: “Guys, I think we’ve gone too far”?

The treatment of the story is something other than entertaining. It is dull.

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Posted: 10th, September 2010 | In: Key Posts, Politicians | Comment


Was Phil Davison’s Speech A Hoax? Video

TO Ohio, where Republican councilman Phil Davison of Minerva is making one of the world’s greatest political speeches.

He has a masters degree in communication!

Davison was at the Stark County Republican Party’s executive committee meeting at Malone University’s Johnson Center.

We urge the people to vote for him and vote often.

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Posted: 10th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Maggie Thatcher Grins At The Saatchi Gallery In Photos

SO. There were former British Prime Minister’s John Major and Baroness Margaret Thatcher listening to a speech by Maurice Saatchi at the Saatchi and Saatchi and M&C Saatchi Party at the Saatchi Gallery, London. Anorak sat and tried to work out how many times you can get the name “Saatchi” into one sentence. The record is held by Peter Mandelson (also at the party), who is believed to toss and turn at night mumbling the word over and over and over and over…

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Former British Prime Minister's John Major and Baroness Thatcher listen to a speech by Maurice Saatchi at the Saatchi and Saatchi and M&C Saatchi Party at the Saatchi Gallery, London.

Posted: 10th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comments (2)


Florida Wonk Charlie Crist’s Demonic Rat Crap Lube

WHEN they’re not burning the Koran in the Jesus-Mo smack down, Florida locals are watching an infomercial from Governor Charlie Crist. He want to represent the State as an Independent.

And that’s with a big ‘I’ – for idiot.

In this video, Crist makes the word “AMERICANS” from “DEMOCRAT” and “REPUBLICAN” in different colours.

Only he CHEATS.

Carly Fiorina Enters Race For Worst Political Advert Of All Time

Urination Nation: The Worst Political Advert Ever,

Spotter: Gawker

Posted: 8th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Andy Coulson: D-Listers, Bad Losers And No Marks Demand To Know Why NoTW Did Not Hack Their Phones

ONCE more the Andy Coulson story is front-page news on the covers of the Guardian and Independent.  It leads the BBC’s news. And once more David Cameron’s communications’ man is not on the front page of any other paper.

Unless your phone’s voicemail was hacked by NoTW you might not be all that bothered by the story. You are, perhaps, more interested in what dirt can be dished on those worthy souls deemed important enough to be on the NoTW’s list.

Anorak can exclusively reveal that Paul Sorene was possibly on the list. We spoke with him:

I demand to know if I am on the list. If I was ignored by the NoTW for being a no-mark best ignored by the mainstream media I want them to prove it. I will take this to highest court in the land and write to the press. Heads will roll!

Did they listen into those voicemail messages remind me to pay my phone bill; call mum or tie Prince Harry to a radiator and drink his urine? How can we as a nation rest until the truth is known?

But still the chattering classes are banging on.

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Posted: 8th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comments (7)


Andy Coulson: Making A British Watergate From Old News And Newsmen – Round-Up

ANDY Coulson: And on it goes. The Guardian, BBC and Independent’s three-pronged attempt to open a new inquiry in whether or not Coulson, David Cameron’s media handler, knew about the phone hacking when he was NoTW editor.

The news is partisan, biased and shaped by a political agenda. You can see the strings moving the puppets.

Labour MP, Madeleine Moon, called the controversy “the British Watergate”. And, no, she wasn’t joking.

Here’s the round-up:

Bigger Than War

If Theresa May had been a luckier politician she might have faced an easier challenge on her first day back at Westminster: solving world hunger perhaps, persuading the Taliban to take up knitting or smuggling Tony Blair into Waterstone’s.

Instead the home secretary got a big, black binliner full of stinking political rubbish dumped into her lap, the kind of raw material that News of the World reporters tiptoe away with from the dustbins of their victims. – Michael White, Guardian

Move Along – Nothing To See Here

The Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service do not believe that any relevant new “evidence” has emerged despite Labour calls for the investigation to be reopened, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Mr Coulson is expected to meet detectives to discuss the latest allegations to “put the matter to bed, once and for all”, said a Whitehall source. The meeting is expected to take place within the next few weeks. Telegraph

I See Evidence Of Evidence

I cannot see why Yates of the Yard has not launched a fresh inquiry already. Evidence has surfaced since the police completed their previous investigation. Or perhaps there was evidence that the police chose to ignore the last time around. – Steve Richards, Indy

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Posted: 7th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


Florence Rose Endellion Cameron Photos – And Sam Cam Wore Guantanamo Bay Chic

ALL eyes on our photos of Florence Rose Endellion Cameron – and hats off to Samantha Cameron for taking the cut backs to heart and reusing some outfit from Guantanamo Bay…

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Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha hold their baby daughter Florence Rose Endellion Cameron outside 10 Downing Street, central London, following their return to London after their summer holiday in Cornwall.

Posted: 4th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Tony Blair ‘Arrested’ In Dublin (Photos)

KATE O’Sullivan from Cork attempted to make a citizen’s arrest on former Prime Minister Tony Blair as he signed copies of his autobiography in Dublin this morning.

She failed. But she bought a book. So. Looks like he wins again…

Photos:

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Kate O'Sullivan from Cork who attempted to make a citizens arrest on former Prime Minister Tony Blair as he signed copies of his autobiography in Dublin this morning.

Posted: 4th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Tony Blair Pelted With Shoes In Dublin As Queen Reacts To Memoirs: Photos

FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair career cost a few people an arm and a leg. His book is a little cheaper. Tony pilgrimage to himself saw the star politician arrive at Eason’s book store, Dublin. Outside, a few protestors chucked eggs, shoes and insults.

One chant went:

“Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?”

In other news, the Express says Her Majesty is upset by tone’s tome:

He recounted how during a weekend barbecue at Balmoral – “a vivid combination of the intriguing, the surreal and the utterly freaky” – Prince Philip did the cooking while the Queen donned rubber gloves and washed the dishes.

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Posted: 4th, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Obama Blames Italy For Mariner Energy Fire In Gulf?

IN the Gulf of Mexico, Mariner Energy’s 13 workers fled the rig they were working on caught fire.

This rig is to the west of the earlier BP explosion that had killed 11 workers.

There are no reports of oil being spilt – yet. But we do live in an endangered world, and we call on David Cameron to phone Barack Obama and ask for Mariner’s head honcho to be hauled before the UN to explain himself.

Obama should then go on the TV and pronounce Mariner as Mareen-ar-ei, to emphasise the word’s Italian heritage.

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Posted: 3rd, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


Cyril Smith’s Largeness Beats Today’s Middling Politicians

SIR Cyril Smith RIP. The form LibDem Chief Whip died today. He was 82.

In 1976, Mr Cyril Smith was 47. Then, as the Liberal MP for Rochdale, he filled a bed at Birch Hall Hospital. His mother, Mrs Eva Smith, said he had become unwell in the early hours.

He recovered and lived to 82. Yep a big man lived past three score years and ten. And he was well liked. His size helped.

Digression:

This is not to say Smith lived a blameless life. David Steel’s Press Office was quoted as saying on 22nd April 1979: ” all he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms”.

We found this but news of the allegation is hard to come by. It exists as an alleged allegation, but nonetheless interesting:

The original complaint concerned a resident of Cambridge Boys Hostel, Castlemere Street, Rochdale (it closed in 1965) . Eventually 7 people made complaints.

“… he took me into the quiet Room. he told me to take my trousers down and bend over his knee…” Another one …” Cyril Smith found out I had taken some money . He asked me if I would accept his punishment or be dealt with by the authorities…” Another ” He told me to take my trousers and pants down. He held my testicles and told me to cough”

Smith did not dignify the allegations by suing. And we went on to be immensely popular.

Digression ends.

We live at a time of uniform-sized politicos. Even John Prescott is not big. He is squat. None of them are big aside from Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames. And you know who is because he has a big profile – literally.

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Posted: 3rd, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment


William Hague Victim Of Tabloid Homophobia

WILLIAM Hague shares a hotel room with an aide too keep costs down and feels impelled to come out and say he is not gay.

He tells the media that that he is not a father because his wife Ffion has suffered numerous miscarriages. The aide – Chris Myers, 25 – resigns. And the Daily Star yells:

“CAMERON TELLS HAGUE: I’M BEHIND YOU WILLY”

Beneath this homophobic line is an invitation to all Star readers:

“Spot which politician is gay…”

Hague is seen shaking hands with Guido Westerwelle, “a popular gay politician in Germany”.

William Hague Is Not Gay And Neither Is Seb Coe

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Posted: 3rd, September 2010 | In: Key Posts, Politicians | Comments (12)


Not Gay William Hague Used To Ogle 14 Women A Day As A Lad

WILLIAM Hague is not gay and neither is his wife.

Hague is a man’s man, but in a heterosexual way. Proud Yorkshireman Hague, who drank up to 14 pints of beer a day as a teenager, enjoyed the spectacle of shapely women in vests and bonnets. He may have ogled as many as 14 woman a day in his youth.

William Hague Is Not Gay And Neither Is Seb Coe

“I was the driver’s mate, delivering the bottles and beer around South Yorkshire.

“We used to have a leer at every stop – well the driver’s mate did, not the driver, thankfully – and we used to have about 10 stops in a day.

“You worked so hard you didn’t feel you’d ogled ten birds by four o’clock, you used to sweat so much. But then you had to lift all the empties off the lorry.

“It’s probably horrifying but we used to do that then go home for tea and then go out in the evening to the pub.”

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Posted: 2nd, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comments (14)


Did Muammar Gaddafi Try To Convert Berlusconi’s Harem?

ON Italian prostitute Carla Bruni, Muammar Gaddafi’s 200 models and actresses – ones not converted by Silvio Berlusconi’s shaft of life:

The Libyan leader recruited the women through a modelling agency to join him and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a photographic exhibition in Rome that traced historical links between the two countries.

Telling them that Islam was the ‘’ultimate religion’’, Colonel Gaddafi insisted that ‘’if you want to believe in a single faith, then it must be that of Muhammad’’…

On Sunday night, during an encounter with 500 young women hired by the same agency, Colonel Gaddafi handed out copies of the Koran and told the women that Europe should convert to Islam.

Silvio Berlusconi’s Annus Horribilis In Pictures

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Posted: 1st, September 2010 | In: Politicians | Comment