Oh there's plenty of money about...

...but unlike Carlsberg, it doesn't reach the parts that need it

Read Bernie Sanders' global perspective feature on the same subject in Monday's Guardian - printed before the Carillion collapse became official.

Let’s wrench power back from the billionaires

We've sometimes discussed men-only social and charitable clubs in this thread. The low-key local clubs no doubt do much good work without causing offense, but the top-most level of the pyramid has been exposed by London's Financial Times newspaper - not known for hype or fake news.

Men Only: Inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show

Great Ormond Street Hospital shuns scandal charity

I have suggested to the BBC that the money raised should be donated instead to support rape crisis centres and women's refuges.

I should think so to:

The Presidents Club says it is to close after accusations of groping at a men-only charity dinner

News coverage says that this dinner has been running annually for 33 years - i.e. since around 1985, the years of the Big Bang (financial deregulation), the Roaring Ferraris and the first upsprouting of Yuppies. I can't say I find that a coincidence.

Their Charity Commission register entry shows some interesting overlaps.

From their accounts:

Annual event Income

2012		  £141,754
2013		  £264,389
2014		  £694,250
2015		£1,103,855
2016		£1,590,139

All during the period of austerity after the banking collapse.

I should think so

Oh me too. Definitely.

I don't know what to make of "pardoning the suffragettes" to be honest. I haven't read anything more than what the Evening Standard yelled at my eyes on the way home today - which was, effectively, that - but I tend towards deeply suspicious when news gets "materialised" for us after a century. I wonder about what other news they're trying to slip past us unnoticed.

Edit: so I'll have to look for that first, and then form an opinion on the other, and then pop back to say what I make of it :)

*complete chat to self*

I briefly entertained the thought that it might have been house prices rising in Frankfurt... Due to the number of London bankers planning to become economic migrants after Brexit, but then I entertained the thought that it probably wasn't. It did occur to me that it might be Windsor council's plan to fine its homeless people £100 for being homeless... because their cluttering up-of-pavements might spoil some upcoming royal wedding or other, but I think they've got wind of the fact that there was going to be rather a lot of outraged homed-people under their feet too if they went through with it, so they've decided not to.

Whatever it might have been, I still don't know what to make of the "pledge" to look into "pardoning" the suffragettes. One reservation I think I've stumbled on, is I don't believe it was a genuine pledge at all. It'd be a slippery slope to the kind of "dangerous" precedents governments don't generally like very much. A lot of what was done in the name of the movement, isn't that far removed from the crimes some students were charged with following their protest/riots of a few years ago. How they were treated whilst in custody however, was probably far more humane. so perhaps, instead of trying to make it look like we're trying to smugly pat ourselves on the back as a society by attempting to set our history to rights well after the fact, by pardoning them posthumously and so brushing that side of the injustice under the carpet - we should look at posthumously indicting those that thought it was acceptable to mete out such treatment over a rights issue in the first place.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't be happy if they were pardoned of course :) just that it would just niggle at me a bit that perhaps... it wasn't quiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite enough... ;)

Of course, that's even less likely to happen which... probably means reading this has just been a colossal waste of your time, for which you are all very, very welcome ;)

Before I forget ... Happy President's day America

;)

Wow, food banks in Germany. Who would have thought it possible...

"Ifo said it estimated the German current account surplus -- which measures the flow of goods, services and investments -- to remain the world’s largest in 2017 at $285 billion, followed by China with roughly $190 billion and Japan with $170 billion."

...hmm, makes one wonder though.

German food bank dispute

Trade surplus

Oops
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43216602

Jared Kushner loses access to top-secret briefings

Much worse...

oh dear

Ah, the smell of a conspiracy ...
On the advice of legal counsel I refuse to answer on the grounds that I may tend to incriminate myself!

Now they need cash for lawyers ...

The fund, “the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust LLC,” was formally established as a limited liability corporation based in Delaware, according to a release.

To further enhance my prediction some time ago :-)

Ireland v UK v EU

Bit of a dodgy promotion
Martin Selmayr: The man at the heart of a Brussels saga

When things like this happen, you can understand the idea of Brexit, but that means the UK has no input into solving these dodgy dealings.

So unlike our own Nick Timothy.

This story is just breaking here

US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, replacing him with the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43388723
Not much is known yet but I'd bet he said NO to the co#kwomble and refused to blow sunshine up his poopshoot any longer , and before anyone says I'm talking about the " person " NOT the position he holds at the moment !!

This story is just breaking here

US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, replacing him with the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43388723
Not much is known yet but I'd bet he said NO to the co#kwomble and refused to blow sunshine up his poopshoot any longer , and before anyone says I'm talking about the " person " NOT the position he holds at the moment !!

Why yes, fire the Secretary of State, right before a massive Summit meeting. Perfect sense.

Did anyone notice the replacement at CIA ran a torture prison?

I wonder if he had a Wassermann test with his physical.