Intelligence Report I

Or: Adventures in Missing the Point

Apparently Northern Rock's strategy of making loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them hasn't paid off like they thought, with the result that the government have nationalised the firm.

Unfortunately - according to the opposition - this nationalisation doesn't include the profitable arm of the venture, Granite, which is an offshore trust registered in Jersey, and so the government have annexed the failing part of the failing bank.

Apparently Alastair Darling didn't notice Archangels Michael and Gabriel running away at top speed.

in other news...

There is a serious problem here in the UK with teenage binge drinking and it leading to subsequent violence and vandalism (not to mention city centres looking awful after dark). Supermarket giant Tesco and others have called for the government to ensure 'responsible pricing' of alcohol, that is, for prices to be mandated to be higher, presumably so that teens and younger adults won't be able to afford it, or at least not as much.

Which is really great, you know, because cheap booze is really the root cause of drunkenness. This way only the posh kids will go on a bender.


(Of course - turning off my sarcasm for a moment - this is foolishness itself and completely fails to address the deeper social problems at the root of this sort of behavior. But I suppose this way we can tell ourselves we're doing something, and shake our heads and cluck our tongues when it does nothing.)