And just how much do we pay them?

The decades pass but the capacity of those overpaid parasites in the European Parliament to make themselves look ridiculous continues to amaze me - as much as I amaze myself at being amazed!

This time they have proposed a new regulation whereby food will be sold only by weight or volume, not by number.

So forget for example about buying a dozen eggs - if this absurd nonsense becomes reality.

What's the matter with these people? I cannot believe that in world with two active wars, an environmental disaster, the Middle East permanently in turmoil etc., etc., they cannot find something more useful to do.

To think that this absurd proposal was given more than ten seconds' consideration (and expensive translation into umpteen languages no doubt) beggars belief.

There have been protests thank God.

Until the next time

L'Internet de Merde

Grr, grrr, grrrr!

If you are not presently living in France, but intend to do so, a friendly piece of advice: when choosing an Internet Service Provider do not choose Orange (who really should be called Lemon).

This organisation, part of France Telecom, the national PTT, is useless.

I do not live in one of the "middles of nowhere" of which there are so many in France; I live in Evian les Bains a small, but well-known town, famous of course for its mineral water. There is absolutely no excuse for the appalling service I receive here.

This evening I used the excellent Myspeed Internet speed testing service to test the service - when the page eventually loaded that is. Myspeed gives download and upload speeds to and from a variety of locations across the world. The so-called "ADSL" (= broadband) service this evening offered 395kb/s - steam age in other words, whilst Myspeed was unable to measure the upload speed!

Pathetic.

They couldn't organise a pipi in a pissoir! It has taken half an hour to prepare this article...

Grr, grr, grr.

Until the next time

Perspective

I am a long-term reader of the English satirical magazine, Private Eye.

This fortnightly, currently celebrating its 50th birthday, is amongst my favourite reading, its happy combination of conscience and humour generally being irresistable to me.

A regular feature - and the motivation in fact for this post - is "Number Crunching" where comparisons are made between two sets of figures to make a point. A recent example contrasted the 18 months' prison sentence handed down to a single mother who had lied to the authorities concerning housing benefit payments amounting to a total of around £40,000, and an MP who had fiddled his parliamentary expenses (also around £40,000). The MP undertook to repay the sum and was described as honourable/honest etc... No jail sentence then!

The latest issue contains the following example. I feel that I need not comment further.

From Private Eye Issue No 1265

Until the next time