Meaningless statistic.
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Ah, are you fully recovered?
I trust you have thanked CQ for leaping into the breach
Ah, Eddie! Welcome back! and, I sincerely hope, feeling much better today.
33333 - meaningless? No, sir, it is one of those very satisfying moments we all love and look out for on our car milometers. Just make sure you don't miss it!
Check your emails - there's a nice get well card for you.
* Groan *
Humph will never speak to me again. Nor will LadyPen.
STOP USING MY STRAPLINES, WILL YA??
* Hides behind sofa *
Fifi
Does anyone else feel that this entire sailor-story-selling-saga is a tempest in a tea-cup? I heard Nick Robinson on Today today gleefully saying that Des Browne will not be considered a 'safe pair of hands' anymore when the Labour leadership changeover occurs and he may be right, but I don't think that his actions over this incredibly minor furore negatively reflects his ability as Defence Secretary.
It does seem to me that the government are using this opportunity to avoid the larger questions about the Iraq capture and the tactics used or not used to negiotiate with Iran. I also wonder whether opinions may have been different if Faye Turney had not turned out to be Jade Goody in a uniform (not my words!).
Morning Eddie,
Hope you're feeling a lot better. Did you know that 97.3% of all statistics are made up?
Remember Eddie,
Statistics in the hands of a politician are like a lamppost to a drunk -- they're used more for support than illumination.
Fifi (3) Was it my fault? Sorry.....I knew I shouldn't have mentioned it on the Froggers' Song ;o(
BTW are the Sony's imminent?
(sb 6)
The number three has been very significant to many cultures from the Christian Trinity to the three-part mother goddess of the Celts (Maiden, Mother, Crone). The ancient Greeks liked it too.
It's a shame it's only 33333, five threes. Six threes would be *very* significant. (three plus three threes, a triple of threes. Still, I'm sure that's not far off!
Now the race is on to be first 3 posts away from 33333, then 33333 itself then... who knows.
Welcome back Eddie.
Not entirely better thanks to you all but we didn't win the war by sitting at home under a duvet did we?
silver-fox (4) - There are three types of statisticians: those that can count and those that can't.
Fifi @ 3
Stop sending such good ones in then!
Remember that we're always in the market for new straplines to go on the masthead.
Please send your suggestions to pm@bbc.co.uk with the subject clearly marked as "straplines" (obviously) and the best will appear over the coming months.
It should be around a dozen words or so, summing up pithily or wittily your perspective on PM.
Would people be interested in an email sent to them personally, telling them *when* their creation is scheduled to have its day of glory?
If so, let me know on the email you send in with the strapline suggestion, and I should be able to sort that out.
Eddie at 10, no we didn't and that would have been mainly because we didn't HAVE duvets in the UK in the war.
BTW the last time I peeped into our living room you were presiding over a rout of Attila the Hun!
Eddie old boy (10)
That's the spirit!
Eddie, do you mean it's OUR fault you're not better? Look at that sentence again, man!
But we're very grateful to you for dragging yourself out of your sick bed. Take it easy now.
admin annie (13)
was he presiding from under a duvet?
Fifi (3): This is me speaking to you again . . . I think Marc-with-a-c still has a whole heap of mine somewhere, but maybe my £100's run out.
Marc (12): Personal emails to let us know our straplines are showing? Haven't you got a poorly presenter to look after and a programme to produce or something?? Lawks.
xx
LadyP
Ooops. Silly me. I've outed myself :-(
xx
LadyP
In these days of advanced communication possibilities and ISDN etc.. perhaps you *could* have broadcast from beneath the duvet Eddie?
Glad you are on the mend but hope you aren't spreading too many germs around the office.
NBPMarc....what about those of us who already sent in suggestions? Can we send you another email referring to our previous email and ask you to email us about our email......Oh dear, I think you may have started something.... ;O)
Remember... the road to Hell is paved with good intentions!
Yes I thought the same Big Sis (15) re Eddie's post! When I read it I thought good grief what on earth have WE done now!!
Admin Annie (13) good point!
Anyway Eddie hope you are feeling better - if you do need someone to mop your brow and administer any tlc then my offer still stands :)
Oh and Belinda (4) - glad you said that, was thinking the same myself. Am I missing something but I honestly cannot see why this is the big deal that it has turned out to be. That said I have not read any of the stories so perhaps they discussed things that are classified, I don't know - if anyone can enlighten me as to why this has caused such a furore then please feel free.
* Peeps out from behind sofa *
Golly, a personal message from Marc TNBP!
There's no stopping me now.
I'll need to rub butter on my ears to squeeze my hideously swollen head through doorways today.
Fifi ;o)
LadyPen - Don't worry about it - Nobody reads this guff anyway!
well obviously no-one except you RJ! and er, me, it seems!
That's the spriit Eddie, tally ho and chocs away !(obviously, Easter's over!!).
"Right, we'll take this crate up at 5, whip over, bop those nasty ***s on the nose, and back home to Blighty before the bongs at 6 - what do you say, Ginger?!"
I'd say you were stuck in 1941, sir.
"Never did me any harm lad, look, fit as a cello and half as tangerine, where's my zylophone?!"
Well Fiona (210): If you're missing it, then I am too. The entire thing seems to be completely blown out of proportion - and I don't think the problem is about classified information but more that a government person made a decision and then reversed it openly, while the media paid two members of the armed forces for their (non-)stories, to which I keep thinking "Yeah, and...?".
I'm glad the sailors all got back alive but really, it's time to let this story die a peaceful death, and if this ends with Faye Turney on Celebrity Big Brother next year, then I am emigrating again. That's a promise and you can all keep me to it.
I agree with comments above (Belinda & Fiona) about the Iran stories. This morning it was suggested that Mr, Browne no longer had the confidence of service personnel. "That's a joke!", I shouted at the radio. Since when were service personnel asked if they would have confidence in a prospective new Minister/Secretary of State before they were appointed - in any Government department???
Admin Annie (13) - Eddie's at No. 10? Let the healing begin?!
Please can you all stop mentioning "Eddie" and "duvets" in the same posts? I can't get a thing done with all this excitement!
Me too on the Iran stories thing. The wrong decision was made (it happens), it was rectified despite the loss of face involved. In as much as that isn't usually the way things happen in government, I suppose it is of minor interest. Obviously, it makes sense to enquire into the circumstances of the sailors' capture and to find out if the navy is doing its job properly but the rest of it is of little importance.
Ap (29), careful now, RJD's going to be sending you to the naughty step again!
Stephen, leader of STROP! Great to have you back.
as it happens he was presiding in a rather natty striped shirt.
Izzy (31), It's only so he's got someone to play with while he's there.
Ap - I fear you're on your way! ;o)
Please make an effort to cite other countries' views more often ... PM gets a tad anglo centric, especially in relation to our overseas advetures! Also, please interview Michael Rubin who (according to the Sunday Tmes, 8.4.07, p.12) is an "analyst on Iran" (and a neo-con).
He kindly referred to the navy personnel who surrendered (rather than randomly opening fire before thinking) as: "marmite-eating surrender monkeys". I suspect that he may be able to enlighten us as how to better win hearts and minds and influence other peoples of the world ...
Whereas the world is arguably divided into those who like and dislike marmite (and ... er ... those who have never heard of it) the difference between marmite and neo-cons is that nobody likes neo-cons!
Please make an effort to cite other countries' views more often ... PM gets a tad anglo centric, especially in relation to our overseas advetures! Also, please interview Michael Rubin who (according to the Sunday Tmes, 8.4.07, p.12) is an "analyst on Iran" (and a neo-con).
He kindly referred to the navy personnel who surrendered (rather than randomly opening fire before thinking) as: "marmite-eating surrender monkeys". I suspect that he may be able to enlighten us as how to better win hearts and minds and influence other peoples of the world ...
Whereas the world is arguably divided into those who like and dislike marmite (and ... er ... those who have never heard of it) the difference between marmite and neo-cons is that nobody likes neo-cons!
Gales of laughter, Belinda (4).
Marc - well, NOW you tell us, and I've been sending in short and pithy (put your glasses on, froggers, that's a 'th') ones. Have to lengthen 'em, then. After a long lifetime of cutting things down now I'm to expand them Oooh-er.
Well, Laurence, I like Marmite. So I don't know where that puts me.
READER'S VOICE: At the spreads counter in Tesbury's
Be that as it may. Do we need to listen to a burger-munching aggression monkey?
(37) Burger-munching aggression-monkeys ... nice one Centurion - like it!
It offers a small disservice to both burgers and monkeys but otherwise makes an excellent and compelling description!
Thanks Frances!
The world of [insert name of comestible] eating surrender monkeys now has a more polite way of referring to neo-con warmongers ... B.M.A.M.s it is!