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Italy dips into recession; UK out-performs EU; BBC ignores figures

Italy dips into recession; UK out-performs EU; BBC ignores figures

Something is missing from the BBC’s report on the Italian economy slipping into recession. In the final quarter of 2018, the Italian economy shrank by 0.2%. That followed a 0.1% decline in the third quarter. The BBC tells us:

Growth in the euro area remained at 0.2% in the final quarter of 2018, the same as the previous quarter and in line with analysts’ expectations.

Bad news, then. Time to leave the EU. But hold on because the BBC has more news:

The figures, issued by the Eurostat agency, showed that in the 28-nation EU as a whole, fourth-quarter growth was 0.3%.

That figure includes the UK – which is leaving the EU. But the BBC doesn’t mention the UK’s economy anywhere in its report. It only says:

In contrast to Italy, some other eurozone economies expanded more than expected, with France and Spain posting growth rates of 0.3% and 0.7% quarter-on-quarter respectively.

In the third quarter of 2018, the UK economy grew by 0.6%. The next quarter looks to have produced a rise of 0.4%. Why doesn’t the BBC think this important to mention? Might it have something to do with Brexit, and how Remain-supporting MPs told us a vote for Leave was a vote for a deep recession? George Osborne told us every household would be £4,300 worse off by 2030 if we voted Leave. We didn’t. And we’re not.

Posted: 31st, January 2019 | In: Key Posts, Money, News | Comment


Mafia used SMS text-message ticker at the bottom of a sports broadcast to get reach mob bosses

To Italy, where TV show Quelli che il Calcio (That which is Football) is announcing the latest breaking news on its below the faces ticker. It slo show SMS messages sent in by fans. The potential for upset is clear. But the Mafia saw an opportunity for messages to communicate with mob bosses in their prison TV lounges.

The show’s presenter, Simona Ventura, said she was “shocked” by the revelation, and said fans would no longer be allowed to send text messages when the programme goes back on air on Sept 12.

“It strikes me as pretty ingenious,” she told La Repubblica newspaper. “We opened up a line of communication with our viewers in order to give them direct contact with the show. It proved to be all that I had expected apart from the fact that it was apparently used to send messages to mafia bosses.”

Mafia bosses looking to communicate with their minions will now revert to the old methods of bribing the referee and letting the result do the talking, allegedly.

Spotter: Telegraph

Posted: 28th, April 2017 | In: Sports, Strange But True, TV & Radio | Comment


Spout of order: brass beats plastic after Fountain of Abundance protests

tap face statue 1

 

When the brass tap affixed to the Fountain of Abundance in Pompeii was replaced with a plastic one, there were complaints.

 

tap face statue

 

People said the plastic one was not in keeping with a 2000-year-old sculpture dispensing water through its face. A brass one is so much more fitting. So it’s back. The ancient sculpture now looks much more impressive. It is very probably the smartest facade on the street.

Next up: what kind of door knob looks best on Stone Henge?

Posted: 13th, September 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)


Dogs owners in Italy forced to carry bottles for dog wee

dog wee italyReasons to get a cat No. 549: dog owners in Piacenza, northern Italy, can now be fined up to €500 (£350, $550) for not cleaning up after their pet… urinates.

Cats, who wee in your coffee when you’re not looking (fact!), once more escape the laws. And dogs get it in the hind quarters.

Local mayor Paolo Dosi says the rules will mean dog-owners will be forced to to take a bottle of water with them whenever they walk their pets.

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Posted: 16th, July 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Police news: ISIS fag is a jacket in a tree

ISIS jacket flag
Have we let the murderous goons of Islamic State infect out minds? In Italy, police were called when a local spotted an Isis flag hanging outside an apartment building.
They called the police because they saw a flag. Incredible.
But the really sad thing is that the police responded, racing over to the apartment block in Porto Recanati, on Italy’s eastern coast. The police searched the building and questioned residents. They then noted that the ISIS flag was a jacket that had been blown into the trees after being hung out to dry.

Posted: 13th, March 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Italian smuggles his factory to Poland

italian-job-original-poster

I REALLY do like this story. Bloke in Italy, company’s not making any money. And it’s Italy, so he can’t fire anybody or lower wages or anything. So, over the annual shutdown he simply packs up all the kit and exports it to Poland:

Earlier this month, Fabrizio Pedroni wished his employees a happy summer holiday and told them to return to work in three weeks. That night, he began dismantling his electric component factory in northern Italy and packing its machinery off to Poland.

“Had I told them earlier about any plans to shift the production abroad, they would have occupied my factory and seized all my stuff,” Pedroni said in an Aug. 21 telephone interview from Poland. “The plain truth is that I wanted my business to survive and there weren’t the right conditions for me to operate in Italy any longer.”

The news that Firem Srl, based in Formigine near Modena, was shifting to Eastern Europe reached the 40 employees too late. On Aug. 13, 11 days after Pedroni activated his plan, a group of employees suspicious of the movements around the plant rushed to its gates just in time to stop the last of 20 lorries packed with machinery.

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Posted: 23rd, August 2013 | In: Money | Comment


Bad loser shows slot machines what he thinks with an axe

Nure Bregu

YOU think you’re a bad loser? Think you’re ratty in the heatwave? You’ve got nothing on the man who decided to go nutso with an axe on a load of slot machines after he apparently lost 5,000 euros.

CCTV footage showed Nure Bregu walking into a bar in Fontaniva, Italy, complete with an axe, going postal on the machines before as customers legged it in terror.

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Posted: 26th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)


Italy: Where the air is filled with drugs

WHEN you think of Italy, do you think of fine art, tomato/garlic/cheese based food, the Mafia and blokes parping their tiny horns on scooters?

Well now, you should think of drugs too! See, some scientists in Italy have found both cocaine and marijuana in the air of eight of its biggest cities! That means, you can walk around Italy sniffing as hard as you can in the hope of getting completely off your baps!

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Posted: 12th, November 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)


If Italy goes into recession then the Euro’s over

IF Italy goes into recession then the Euro’s over. That’s one way of looking at it at least: if Italy goes into a deep recession then the game’s up for the euro.

The reason being that the eurozone just doesn’t have enough money to keep Italy’s borrowing costs down. So everyone needs to know that Italy isn’t going to increase the debt they’ve already got. However, obviously, in a recession, this isn’t possible, debt is going to increase.

So, recession in Italy means that whatever people try and cobble together to keep Italian borrowing rates down won’t work: at which point Italy goes bust like Greece.

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Posted: 19th, January 2012 | In: Money | Comment


Italian FA Advises Gay Players ‘Don’t Come Out’: Damiano Tommasi Say Homosexuals Not Welcome In Changing Rooms

COMING out in football isn’t ever going to be easy. Thus far, the only player to be out and proud is Swedish footballer Anton Hysen. He came out earlier this year and asked: “Where are all the others?”

Sadly, they may not be too keen to come forward if they’ve heard the comments of the Italian Footballers’ Association. President Damiano Tommasi has said that he would not recommend players publicly come out, because football is “different to every other profession”.

The head of the Associazione Italiana Calciatori said people did not need to talk about their sexuality in order to work in a “civil environment”. He added:

“Homosexuality in football is still taboo. In this sport the players practically live with each other, it’s different to every other profession. Expressing your sexual preferences is difficult in all environments, even more so for a player who shares the locker room, which is an intimate space, with others.”

“In our world there could be embarrassment. A sport where one gets undressed can make it more difficult when working together.”

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Posted: 30th, November 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (8)


Silvio Berlusconi Forgets About Crippling Italy To Focus On New LP (no, honest)

ITALY is on its knees at the moment after the terrible administration of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Sure, he may have stepped down, but that doesn’t mean he’s going away. Of course he isn’t. That man couldn’t stay away from the limelight if he was a black hole.

So, in an attempt to forget about allegations of corruption and having sex with underage prostitutes (allegedly, okay watching lawyers?), he’s focusing on ‘True Love‘, which is the name of his new album.

Silvio released the LP yesterday and it’s his fourth with guitarist and former parking attendant Mariano Apicella. He was going to get it on the shelves (and ready for the 9p bin) in September but was a little delayed by Italy sliding into the sea with the weight of its own debt.

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Posted: 23rd, November 2011 | In: Politicians | Comment


Rome Boils To Fill The Vacuum At Italy’s Head

SILVIO Berlusconi clings on to power. The Italian Prime minister survived two votes of confidence. He does this because there is no viable alternative to him. The opposition is neither good enough nor strong enough to make its case. And Rome erupts.

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Posted: 15th, December 2010 | In: Politicians | Comments (5)


In Pictures: How Crystal Palace Helped Slovakia Beat Italy

WORLD Cup in Pictures: Italy are beaten by Slovakia. Italy, the holders of the World Cup, are out. This was the game when the World Cup erupted into life. Slovakia 3 – 2 Italy. Some of you might have been flicking over to watch the Zombie tennis – pictures so that here. Others wanted to see life and death.

Even the prosaic, moribund Adrian Chiles could not dampen the mood after that match. The linesman disallowed an Italy goal. The linesman is Darren Cann – he used to be a trainee at Crystal Palace. Yes, readers, Italy were beaten by Palace.

And, yes, readers – Fabio Capello is the last Italian in the World Cup. And right now, according to our swingometer, he’s 78% English…

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An Italy fan blows a kiss in the stands

Posted: 24th, June 2010 | In: Sports | Comment


Boy Wears Ice-Cream At Brazil V Italy Match

FINDING the blonde in the crowd is the aim of every cameraman at a football match. But what’s this? Why, it’s a charming shot of a young flame-haired lad enjoying his ice-cream at the Italy v Brazil match. This is how Gazza started…

National Kick a Ginger Day Replaced By Kill A Kenny Day

Is It Cos I Is Ginger? Sarah Prinner Sees Red

Ginger Ail: Redhead Chapmans Forced To Leave Home

Posted: 23rd, June 2009 | In: Sports | Comment


Italian Woman Aged 98 Spends 30 Hours Knitting In Earthquake

AMID the rubble and hurt in Italy, Maria D’Antuono, 98, is rescued.

She says she passed the 30-hour waiting to be saved by knitting.

What can you knit in 30 hours?

Posted: 7th, April 2009 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)


Obama Gives Ferrari Money To Italy Earthquake Appeal

THE US of A is giving Italy $50,000 to solve the Eartquake issue. Or a Ferrari.

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Posted: 7th, April 2009 | In: Politicians | Comments (2)


1982 And Bust: Trade Will Contract By 2.1 Percent In 2009

DON’T bank on Ireland, Italy or Greece…

Or anywhere else for that matter; the World Bank has consulted the goat’s entrails and it’s not looking good: it believes that global growth will be a mere 0.9% next year, and “The volume of world trade, which grew 9.8 percent in 2006 and an estimated 6.2 percent this year, will contract by 2.1 percent in 2009.”

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Posted: 10th, December 2008 | In: Back pages | Comment (1)


Priest Goes For Head As Nuns Aim Below The Belt

“I CAME down to try to calm things down but the priest hit me with a chair and I ended up on the floor.

“Then the two sisters started kicking me, insulting me with unrepeatable words.”

To Italy where the manager of an eatery in the village of Rutino near Salerno, in southern Italy, is responding to news of trouble.

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Posted: 4th, November 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)


The Italian Organic Farming Miracle

DUNCAN Turnbull on the soil association’s organic farming bollocks:

Take a pig living outdoors with space to run around. It is fed additive-free foods (spare fruit from the greengrocers, malted barley from the local brewery, etc) and is free to forage in the earth. It is just as happy as an organic pig, it lives just as long and eats just as well. However, unlike an organic pig it lacks the certificate hanging on the sty-wall, its feed bags lack the magic word, and the packaging for the sausages it makes contains no mention of it. The result is a product which tastes as good, has the same ethical credentials and still has impeccable provenance, but does not cost a fortune.

This is why the Italians have not embraced organics as the British have. They refuse to pay the Soil Association a fee to tell them that the meat they buy is good quality and refuse to delegate such an important part of eating well. Not only is it a matter of principle, it is a matter of pride. They know their butcher, know where their food comes from and know what goes into it. The superficial and commercialised label of “organic” is unnecessary and expensive.

And we lap it up…

Posted: 30th, October 2008 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)


Mara Carfagna Sues Over Blow Job Gag

IN Italy, Sabina Guzzanti (comic) is being sued by Mara Carfagna (former model and TV showgirl) “after joking that Carfagna, 32, got her job as minister by indulging in an explicit sexual act with Berlusconi”.

Rumour has been rife in the Italian press about Carfagna’s relationship with Berlusconi after the prime minister quipped in 2007: “If I was not already married I would have married her immediately.”

Peter Mandelson denies an affair. Carfagna is the Italian equal opportunities minister…

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Posted: 12th, October 2008 | In: Reviews | Comments (6)


Twin Judge Swaps Places With Criminal Sister

IN Italy, a woman who worked as a part-time judge as well as a lawyer was “substituted by her identical twin sister in court so she would not lose out on legal fees when she had two simultaneous engagements.”

The 54-year-old twins from northern Italy have now been charged with fraud and will go on trial in January, Italy’s leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reported Friday on its website.

One of the twins, identified only as Gabriella, worked primarily as a lawyer but also as an honorary judge, a part-time, paid position that entails helping full-time judges when their case load is heavy.

When Gabriella was called to be a substitute judge she sent her sister twin Patrizia to stand in for her at an existing engagement as a defense lawyer elsewhere in the Milan area.

The problem was that sister Patrizia was not a lawyer like sister Gabriella but charged the clients anyway.

Which of them did the better job is unsaid…

Source

Posted: 30th, September 2008 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)


Celebrating Turkey In Armenia

IT’S lke that German food market in the precinct in Bournemouth:

“Armenia’s Culture Minister, Hasmik Bogosyan, wants to collaborate with its Turkish counterpart…Bogosyan said her biggest dream was to organize a festival celebrating Turkey in Armenia”. Source

Look out for Ethiopia’s Italy Day, Israel’s Austria Evening and a get together for Tibetans for China…

Via

Posted: 14th, September 2008 | In: Politicians, Strange But True | Comment