"
Well, well!" Arturo said "
'Georgy' Osborne is living up to his usual self, I see!"
"
How do you mean?" I asked.
"
He speaks before thinking out the real consequences of what he's saying. For instance, think about what he said regarding the reduction in the debt to be paid to the EU." Arturo nodded sagely. "
You see, his brain just can't keep pace with his mouth! He tells everyone just what he knows they want to hear - never mind the facts! After all - why let facts get in the way of a good story. That's his motto, isn't it?"
I knew just what Arturo meant. On
ITV News, there was a report stating in its headline:
George Osborne: Britain to pay half of disputed £1.7bn EU bill
The report continued:
George Osborne has said that Britain's disputed £1.7bn EU bill has been halved, delayed and will not include interest.
However, British officials told ITV News Europe Editor James Mates that the £850m of the bill not paid up front will be covered by a rebate Britain was due to receive in future.
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls claimed the Chancellor was "trying to take the British people for fools" with the deal and has in fact not saved the taxpayer "a single penny".
http://www.itv.com/news/story/2014-11-07/george-osborne-britain-to-pay-half-of-disputed-1-7bn-eu-bill/
So - the
'£1.7bn EU bill has been halved, delayed and will not include interest'! Amazing! A real sleight of hand! Or was it?
Fraser Nelson in the
Spectator blog wrote:
George Osborne will tonight return from Brussels bringing peace with honour. He says he has agreed to hand over just £850 million to the EU, rather than the £1.7 billion it asked for, as a penalty for having the fastest economic growth in Europe. If true*, how did he wangle it?
In the postscript to the blog, Nelson added:
* Unkind souls are suggesting that the £1.7bn bill was a gross figure, presented before the rebate which would have halved it anyway. And that Osborne has simply presented the net figure, without having negotiated a penny reduction.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/11/did-george-osborne-halve-britains-eu-bill-by-admitting-that-his-growth-is-a-mirage/
Ian Traynor, writing in
The Guardian had the headline:
UK to pay £1.7bn EU bill in full despite Osborne’s claim to have halved it : Chancellor says bill was cut to £850m but Treasury aides admit Britain is also returning its automatic rebate, making up the rest
So - here we go again - it's a real 3-card-trick! One minute the UK has to pay £1.7 billion by December - Hey presto! The next minute - the UK will only have to pay £850 million! If it sounds too good to be true when dealing with the EU's canny Commissioners - then it probably is just that - too good to be true!
Traynor's article continued by quoting Mr Osborne :
“Instead of footing the bill, we’ve halved the bill,” he said following a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels and talks with the European commission vice-president in charge of budgetary affairs, Kristalina Georgieva.
The chancellor asserted that a bill for £1.7bn was now one for £850m – to be paid by 1 September next year in two instalments, one by the deadline, the other in July.
While insisting that the invoice had been reduced, Treasury aides conceded that Britain will pay the £850m while also returning the rebate cheque to Brussels, meaning that the full £1.7bn will still be paid.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/07/uk-pays-full-eu-rebate-despite-osborne-claim-he-halved-it
What exactly is going on? Well - shall we be fair to 'Georgy'? It does seem there's a right old mess in Brussels! Such a mess that 'Boy David' Cameron went puce in the face and totally lost control of his Eton education English grammar lessons.
Nadeem_Walayat writing in
The Market Oracle quoted from the speech given by the puce-faced Mr Cameron when the news of the £1.7 debt to the EU first broke:
"What makes me so angry about it is when you listen to some in the Commission, how they talk about it, oh well its an adjustment you just have to pay this bill that's the way it goes, sometime it goes up sometime it goes down. This is tax payers money, these are the people who employ me, I represent them and I want value for every penny they have to give in their taxes."
"It is not acceptable, it is an appalling way to behave, I am not going to pay that bill on the 1st of December if people think I are then they have another thing coming, its not going to happen".
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article47895.html
Really, Mr Cameron!
" ... if people think I are then they have another thing coming .." All I can say is "Grammar! Grammar! Grammar!"
To
Osborne and Cameron the
Humpty Dumpty saying that
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12608-when-i-use-a-word-humpty-dumpty-said-in-rather seems to be the mantra by which they make their speeches!
To crown it all - another good cat bites the dust in
Downing Street.
'Georgy' Osborne previously declared his affection for the 'family cat'
Freya.
But a man who doesn't know his half from his total cannot really be trusted. Poor old Freya has been supplanted in Osborne's affections by a pedigree pooch! One Lola by name! A creature more akin to a toy sheep than a real dog! But as the song goes
Whatever Lola wants - Lola gets!
and by all accounts she didn't want Freya around.
Lizzie Dearden writing in
The Independent had the headline:
George Osborne's family cat Freya sent away from Downing Street to Kent
Dearden continued:
...The Independent's Oliver Wright said that she has also shown remarkable feline cunning sneaking around the halls of power.
“She has been found in the most secure area of the Foreign Office, inside the room in No 10 where the Cabinet meets and trying to seek entry into the Treasury. She was even caught by Mr Osborne inside his red box,” he added.
And like a good agent (or journalist) “she also likes to spend time in the bar,” he said.
“On many an evening she can be found in Westminster’s favoured political watering hole, the Red Lion – despite having to cross four lanes of traffic to get there. Apparently at the end of the evening the barmaids regularly have to carry her back home.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/george-osbornes-family-cat-freya-sent-away-from-downing-street-to-kent-9849853.html
The real story is to be found in an article written by
Glen Owen in
The Mail Online:
The Chancellor's pooch, a moody mouser - and an uneasy coalition that was doomed from the start: George Osborne evicts Freya the cat for 'bullying' his Bichon Frise dog
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2826877/The-chancellor-s-pooch-moody-mouser-uneasy-coalition-doomed-start-George-Osborne-evicts-Freya-cat-bullying-Bichon-Frise-dog.html
It seems that us cats can't trust this slippery character, Osborne! Watch out the rest of the UK!
There are after all, some advantages to being an under-stairs cat in
Downing Street. No one owns Arturo! No one owns me! So, if they want to get rid of us - it's a case of '
Catch us, if you can!'
Me and Arturo are off to the
Red Lion tonight to sniff out the grub. If it was good enough for old Freya - it'll be good enough for us!
Bye!
