6
Number of months a courting couple should wait before having sexual intercourse if they want a fulfilling long-term relationship (according to a survey in America)
12
Number of astronauts who have set foot on the moon
25
Percentage of viewers who think there is too much sex on TV (down from 44% in 2001)
26
Cost in millions of pounds of President Putin’s yacht
46
Percentage of Liberal Democrat members who want Nick Clegg to resign as leader before the next general election (according to a survey by a Lib Dem publication)
52
Percentage of the total UK welfare benefit which goes to pensioners (up from 45% in 1997)
55
Cost in thousands of pounds of a parking space which has just been sold in St Ives, Cornwall
Thoughts on the return of parliaments in Edinburgh and London
Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty
Norman Douglas
No better means for retaining all that is best in the life of a nation has yet been devised than that of a national parliament, through which national sentiment finds expression and embodiment in the laws of the land
Keir Hardie
All government is a monopoly of violence
Hugh MacDiarmid
A regard for liberty, though a laudable passion, ought commonly to be subordinate to a reverence for established government
David Hume
I do not believe in professional politicians, that is men who set out to make a career for themselves in politics
James Maxton
By the time the civil service has finished drafting a document to give effect to a principle, there may be little of the principle left
Lord Reith
A gentleman will blithely do in politics what he would kick a man downstairs for doing in ordinary life
Lord Rosebery
Just say things are looking grim
Willie Ross’s advice to his speech writer
Svetozar Gligoric, chessmaster, came from a poor family in Belgrade – so poor that they could not afford to buy him a chess set. Introduced to the game by watching the punters play in a local bar, he made a set for himself by carving pieces from wine bottle corks. Gligoric, an engaging character, insisted that he always played the pieces, not his opponent. He died at the age of 89 and was buried in the Alley of the Greats in Belgrade cemetery.
Today’s banner:
Stein, Skye
by Islay McLeod
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