EU recommends more power for the EU

BBC reports it as a good idea (i.e. no contrary points of view allowed). Obviously, given the previous track record of the EU, this will be a tremendous success, and it certainly wouldn't be used by the French and Germans to legislate the City out of existence to benefit their own financial centres, of course not.

While the BBC liberally smears scare quotes over any proposal or phrase it is suspicious of, it reports an EU body calling for an EU power grab without even raising an eyebrow. Nor does it point out the truism that the further away a supervisory body is, the less accountable it is.

Still, it's another step on the way to political union, and that's good enough for the BBC.

It is called 'printing money'

The BBC manage to publish a government press release without mentioning what it will do, which is merely print money.

Quantitative easing effectively allows the central bank to write cheques to banks in exchange for assets.

The BBC are using the word'effectively' in the sense of "it means the same as" rather than doing something effectively. They key phrase, though, is "in exchange for assets".

What assets are these? My guess is that they will be the tarpaper shack of Mr and Mrs Hillbilly, Esq. of Tenessee, last valued at $740,000 but whose true value is probably around $59.99. Our savvy and bold government will give the banks $1m of loans in exchange for this asset, because they haven't got a fucking clue what they are doing. Oh, and also because it isn't their money.

Brass neck of the year

Branson gives his views to his panting, adoring public. No bail-outs, but £1.4bn of subsidy just isn't quite enough for the entrepreneurial genius.

Scottish cash for Scottish dogs

A tremendous illustration of the lunacy of single-issue groups. Emotive and ludicrous over-reaction of the year is awarded for this statement:

"It's time the RSPCA stopped stealing food from the mouths of Scotland's defenceless animals."

Those English bastards!

OK, we'll stop "raising awareness" north of the border, but at the same time we'll stop paying subsidies so that Scottish dogs can lounge around all day swigging McEwan's lager and watching daytime tele. OK?

Obligatory snow pic

River scene in Verulam Park.