Oh
boy, the waters of the Thames from Blackfriar’s (memories of Roberto Calvi
& the Banco Ambrosiano imbroglio), to Traitor’s Gate of the White Tower, to
Wapping Steps, to the Isle of Dogs (aka Canary Wharf) are more than a little
roiled this coming July 4th by L’Affaire Barclays de LIBOR. Diamond
Bob, a man known for his self-effacement, modest remuneration and controlled
ego, plus his sybaritic Godolphin & Princeton daughter via Twitter, have
just thrown the whole omelette simultaneously in the faces of Mervyn King, The
Old Lady of Threadneedle Street herself, little Georgie O (temporarily of 11
Downing Street) and probably Uncle Tom Cobley an’ all. Quite a Prologue to a
little chat and a cupp’a with the Treasury Select Committee in the Commons
tomorrow. A very forceful move by an under-paid American in London to slag off
the Government of the day, HM Treasury and the BofE with one fell swoop. He can
forget the honorary KCVO or any other gong right now; rather being assured that
the gong does indeed toll for him. The merits be damned, a City banker of any
nationality, gender or sexual orientation has quite a short career half-life
after explaining “It were the Deppity Guv’nor what made me do it, honest”. I
think Diamond Bob’s pass to the biggest hospitality tent of them all in SW19
may be up for grabs, if the rain stops for the rest of the week, and those of
his Chairman and COO too.
Talking
of half-lives and in other strange news, a Swiss lab, acting on behalf of Al
Jazeera, suggests that the noble and Nobel freedom fighter Yasser Arafat, aka
Abu Ammar, may have been poisoned, on account of traces of that very nasty
isotopic toxin Polonium 210 being found on his dishdasha or his frilly white
unmentionables. Was he having tea with Mr. Litvinenko in the Ritz one
afternoon, or was it with his buddy Vlad Vlad Putin? Surely not the same guys who
bred the Stuxnet worm!
I
had always wondered what it was about little Lib Dem Deppity PM’y Nicky Cloggy.
Now he reveals it was what we suspected all along – self-inflicted brain
damage. Very sad. Worryingly, he suggests this should require new and ever more
lunatic “policies”. Let’s hope the men in white coats take care of him first
and help him into a room with upholstered walls; where he cannot hurt himself
(or us plebes).
Of
much more real concern and sadness is that two RAF Tornado’s could have
collided over the North Sea with the apparent loss of two crew members (and death of a third).
Le
Vieux Guillaume à Paris has raided the home in the 16th of M. and
Mme. Carla Bruni; showing just how careless of them it was to let Francois and
his courtesans take over l’Élysée. As in Italy, the most important reason to be
top chien is that it bestows immunity from prosecution for a boat-load of
crimes committed while clawing and scratching up the greasy pole. For Chirac,
senility and dementia were a viable defense but the Bruni’s will find that one
hard to pull off.
The
Euro crisis is taking a break while the Troika tries to reconcile Greek debits
and credits. There must be some mistake as the debits vastly exceed the credits
until the books have been grilled, sautéed and deep fried. Normal service will
be resumed next week.
Simon
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