The shocking-red “Alcove Highback” sofas, by Parisian designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, were ordered for the department’s central London headquarters at a total cost of £134,503. The revelation is part of a new investigation into Whitehall spending by the new Coalition Government, which found that Labour ministers authorised the purchase.

The sofas were aimed to create a “peaceful oasis” in the workplace, part of an efficiency initiative called “SpaceFlex” to make the department “more practical” and save money. Are you ******* kidding me?!? How stupid are you? Look I understand that you need furniture in the workplace. I understand that you want to create a nice workplace with some nice sofas even. But you are insane if you think that justifies spending over £4,000 per sofa! Especially when you are buying 28!! What decent retailer wouldn’t do you a good deal on 28 sofas?

We can’t afford nice things because you can’t run the country properly! So if you think you can take our money so you get nice things when you are not even doing a good job, you sirs are are the worst kind of ignorant! How can you ever justify spending tax payers money on 4 grand sofas? You can’t. End of. Jog on!

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How do you get £1.1 billion in debt? Seriously? Only a mammoth level of ignorance could lead you down that path to epic failure. To be fair I do live in a country that is over £150 Billion in debt, but that is the collective of 65 million people. Fans of Manchester United have been against the owners since they bought the club in 2005. The years running up to the 2008 financial crash around the world were perhaps to worst to buy anything, and has seen the demise of many business and businessmen.

The Glazers debt had been no secret. When they purchased Manchester United for £831m, they borrowed £559m which it then loaded onto the club as debt. Over the past 5 years the club has since paid out a massive £460 million on interest, charges and fees on that debt.

The real revelation was that the Glazers are carrying £392 million of previously unknown debt relating to mortgages taken out on 63 of the 64 shopping malls owned by their company First Allied Corporation across the United States. This brings their total debt up to £1.1 billion.

You won’t see the Glazer family on any flights to Manchester any time soon. Fans of Manchester United are furious and fear that the massive debt will force a lack of investment into the clubs team.

“We have campaigned against the takeover because the Glazers have put not one penny into United, while taking huge sums out, and ticket prices have risen for ordinary fans to help pay for it. The revelations about First Allied appear to show they may not have money from elsewhere to invest in the club or pay down all the debts. It will all come from the club.”

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I am not a big fan of the British tax office, or the tax rates. For the past 3 years I have been registered as self employed. That in itself need not be that complicated. But I was self employed whilst working full time in one job and part time in another. This then gets very confusing. I am paying tax for being self employed, despite earning under the threshold for income tax and national insurance, and then paying tax on the earnings I make in my other 2 jobs.

Yet when filling in my tax return online, I get nothing to tell me how much I should be paying or if I have over paid. In fact, last year I moved to Canada for 5 months, and on the day I got their I had a letter from the tax office telling me that my numbers were incorrect for my tax return 2 years previous. They claimed that I had not listed any of my employed earnings from that year.

For the tax year in question, I had earned £300 from my self employed work and the rest entirely from my employed work. Surprisingly enough, I did not forget to leave out 99% of my earnings as they claimed. I did in fact put everything in correctly and paid an extra £95 in income tax as instructed on completion of the return. If I had only listed the £300 self employed earnings as the Tax Auditor claimed, then I would not have to have paid anything.

When I tried to explain this to the tax office, after 2 months of them not answering the phone, I was told that they had no record of me paying anything for that year. Fantastic. It turns out that I actually agreed with the figures they claimed were correct, because they were the exact figure I used the first time. So I sent a letter agreeing that the figures were correct, however informing them that they have clearly lost 2 crucial bits of data from my original tax return of that year, my employment earnings that I did enter correctly and the fact that I already paid the tax due.

A month goes buy and rather than paying any attention to what I actually said they just sent me a new bill for £125. So here is essentially what happened for the first tax year where I was self employed: I earned £300, then paid £215 of tax.

As you can probably imagine, I am quite keen for the tax office to go and hide somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine, to put it very very politely.

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It is believed the lingerie model called an ambulance for herself claiming she ‘felt very ill’ but then made a second call to cancel the ambulance shortly after. Friends suggested that Ms Lenoir’s turmoil may well have been linked to her relationship with multi-millionaire Carl Hirschmann, who is involved in a sex and extortion scandal in Switzerland. Hirschmann, a notorious playboy, has been accused by police of being involved in orgies with young models whom he is said to have plied with vodka-based cocktails called ‘Love Potion’ before videoing them in depraved sex acts.

She also has a 5 year old son with former Chelsea footballer Claude Makelele, and was at his £1million detached home on the day of the incident.

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Thinking of getting lucky? Better think twice, especially if its on your furniture.

Yes it was reported this week that around one third of the British people have suffered an injury while having sexual relations. 40% also admit to breaking a household item during intercourse. This suggest to me that we are either really rubbish at sexy times or we are strangely aggressive.

“Sex is a risky business these days. There are numerous hazards in and around the home which can inflict severe injuries if people aren’t careful. We were amazed to find out that even the bedroom can prove a hazardous location for certain people. Our advice would be to remove any dangerous objects well before you plan to start making love and take care while in the act.” Claims a spokesman from the survey.

Household furniture was deemed some of the more dangerous places to ‘do it’. The most recorded places of injuries was on sofas, followed by stairs, cars, showers and the bedroom.

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So what does this mean? BBC News has interpreted this poll to mean that “climate scepticism is on the rise“. I interpreted this poll to show that the BBC are stupid. Firstly, you will often catch me reinforcing the point that public opinion on climate change is totally irrelevant. We cannot simply wish away the damage we have done and continue to do to our environment. Second, the question. The question was not ‘Do you think climate change is taking place?’. They blatantly substituted the correct phrase for global warming, one possible effect of climate change, only to then call it a phrase on climate change. But perhaps the stupidest part of this servery is the timing. It is hardly surprising that less people will believe the world is getting hotter, weeks after their country experiences one of the coldest and snowiest winters on record. Had you asked them if they thought the climate was changing, perhaps we would have very different statistics.

Verdict: BBC Fail (Again) See here for previous fails.

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This is a 100% genuine roadsign alongside a Colorado highway. Must be a real heart warming sight for any WWII veterans passing by. Whether the states image of the Nazi ideology can be rehabilitated by trash free verges and Stormtroopers planting flowers is doubtful. One thing is for sure, this is a true moment of WTF for Colorado.

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I notice from TV that there is a christian 1 million aid…. wonder where the muslim aid is?……

Christian aid, muslim aid it matters not – what matters is we do what we can to help send urgent aid to the victims of the Haiti earthquake catastrophe, not just re-build Haiti, if you re-build an outhouse its still an outhouse – what we need to do is “build” Haiti into atleast a 2nd world country. If Brazil can be borderline 1st world and  2/3rd of them live in shanty towns, then the least Haiti deserves is a couple of schools and maybe a hospital. Put the Muslim bashing to one side its isnt’ the time or the place for petty your God is bigger than my God stuff (I do have some issues with fundermentalism but painting all Muslims with that brush is wrong).

How about we all say this weekend the 1st drink we buy will be for Haiti and drop a fiver in the box? Lets just pray its enough.

In Peace

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Now the culmination of months of discussion on climate change has reached the final and most important stage at the climate change Copenhagen conference. The conference featured and opening video, which is almost exactly like that released in Britain only months earlier. Titled “Please help the World” it sees a possible future threw a child’s eyes.

It may seem unfair to pressure people by using children, but the truth is that it is children who will face the effects of climate change, despite doing little to cause it.

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Yes climate change is a very important issue. Yes people should be aware about it, and yes people should care about it. But people are not stupid (well, they don’t like to think so) so resorting to shock tactics like this is dumbing down the debate. If you support more stricter action on climate change then you are supposed to be one of the intelligent ones. If you don’t then you are ignoring the one thing that could allow us to continue flying around the world, technology. Stop being petty and making cheap shots at people with adverts like this. Your not helping. Most people have accepted the science behind climate change now and want to do something about it. The public are not the ones you need to be shouting at. Its the politicians and business leaders. They are the ones with real power, and they are the only people who can make a real impact on the climate of this world.

It is up to us to make sure that they understand that we demand action. No longer will we put our banks and money over our lives and our future.

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Yes despite destroying the American and world economy, businesses are still trying to prevent some new bills aimed to ensure the catastrophe of green never happens again. One is the “too big to fail, to big to exist” act, which will disclose the banks and businesses the government deem so big that their collapse would need a government bailout to prevent harmful damage to the economy, and split them into smaller businesses.

No surprises there that businesses will use their republican puppets to try and block that bill. But that’s not the most disturbing story. If you need any proof that Businesses are put before people and quality of life. Many American businesses are pushing to block a new bill that will ban American Companies from importing stock made by, or using companies that use child labour and/or slaves in poorer countries. All because it might harm their profits.

This is not a one off event. Last month 30 Republicans voted against a bill that would ban the government from hiring companies that do not condemn their employees raping female employees. Yes some companies that the government use for services have a clause in their female employees contracts that they cannot prosecute  the company or guilty employees if they rape them.

It’s a disgusting state of affairs and what makes me more angry is that people don’t seem to care that this is going on. For too long we have put our economy before everything, even quality of life. It seems like charity is the only businesses doing any good in this world. Show me where I can make donations to charity instead of paying taxes and I’ll sign up.

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If there’s one thing that Labour don’t like, its freedom. In their 12 years in office they have introduced many new laws and legislation’s that have done fuck all but restrict the public from doing things that are mostly harmless, all under false claims that they were “making us safer”. Now Peter Mandelson, Labour’s Business Secretary, has decided that the freedom is too great despite clearly being too old to know or understand what the Internet really is.

The move will require Internet service providers to restrict and then cut off internet access to Illegal file sharers. For those of you that don’t know what that means, it is people that use programs to illegally share and download copyrighted music and/or films/TV. This has been around as long as the net has and no I don’t condone it, but it is not a serious problem! In-fact its barely a problem at all. Here’s why:

• It’s supposedly destroying the music business. 2009 is a record breaking year in music sales. It is already (yes we are still in October) the highest grossing year for music single sales of all time, with sales so far of 117.6m

• Those who regularly or occasionally download music illegally are 10 times more likely to pay for music. It’s the truth. Sharing music is the how people discover new music. If they like it they will inevitably buy it.
• File sharing is in major decline. It’s an old problem, that was thriving about 4 years ago. But its just not the case anymore, legal technology has caught up making it far easier to purchase songs and watch movies and TV legally. iTunes is thriving as now nearly every artist sells all of their music on demand, Spotify has revolutionized the market further by allowing users to listen to full albums for free, exposing them to adverts every half hour or so. All major television networks now offer their shows on demand for free online. File sharing and the freedom of the Internet made these things happen, so for that it should be applauded.
• The only people suffering from File sharing are the head honchos in the music biz. The ones that insist on producing utter shite that they know will make money. Music is sacred, it’s as older that civilization. It’s an honest expression of emotion passion, its a universal language, a release, it is simply beautiful. That is except when it isn’t. And it isn’t when its being manipulated to make money. Money that goes straight into the pockets of the head honchos of the music biz. When file sharing started to hit profits a few years ago it threw a major spanner into the works of the business. But it started something amazing. It forced the music business to actually up their game, and the further rise of the Internet has given people unlimited access to bands and artists that they otherwise would have never discovered. Music has thrived over the past few years and it is because of the Internet.
• The people who use file sharing problems are usually not stupid. They have a very good understanding of the Internet. They will find ways around the ban, whether that be a VPN, pay as you go mobile broadband or any other manner, there will be plenty of ways to get around it if you want to. You simply cannot restrict downloads from a single application. Everything is a download, even viewing a web page downloads information. Restricting illegal downloads is simply not possible.

So there you have it. The music business is doing better than ever and its all because of file sharing. So what are the government really trying to do here? Well Labour seems to have a policy of “if anything that’s very slightly bad happens, lets just make it illegal”. It’s a policy that has lead the UK into all time highs of people in prison, highs in knife crime, highs in unemployment and highs in youth offenders to name but a few. Again they fail to see the things that cause crime are the problem rather than the crimes themselves. Perhaps they are trying to get a foothold into ending net neutrality and freedom. If this does go ahead it will be a landmark in the history of the Internet.

Perhaps they are being advised by someone living in the past. Or perhaps they are just completely fucking stupid. One thing is for sure, they are not listening to the people of this country or anyone that has ever used the Internet.

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Lily Allen has spoken out at illegal file-sharers claiming they are destroying the music industry, and will lead music into an “ice age”. She joined a coalition of artists that call for Internet Service Providers to limit Internet speeds and downloads of those who are illegally downloading music and films. It’s a stupid idea that will never happen. Why? Because ISP’s have to agree to do it. Agreeing to this would be bad for business, who is going to want to join a provider that will reduce their speeds when they can go elsewhere or get mobile broadband?

Its caused a big feud around the web, mostly directed at Lily Allen for not backing up the things she is calling for. Here is the best response I have seen:

Here is my opinion. If the music industry is going to die, let it die! The industry sucks! It’s a poisonous pit of putrid money grabbing crap. I hope all major labels go bust.

I love music, more than most things that exist. All major labels do is decide what people will like, and make what will make the bosses loads of money. Any bit of talent they do find is exploited and forged into the mould they choose, crushing individuality, creativity and honesty. It’s only about the money. That’s not what music is about.

Music is about honest expression of feelings, moments and creativity. It’s a universal language that is as older than society itself. If major labels ceased to exist, people would not stop making music, but they would stop exploiting it to make money. Show me the last Madonna song that was good? Yet she is still making number 1 singles. Show me anyone who has been on X-factor or American Idol that is a successful musician? The people left making music would be the people who are making honest music because they love it, not because they are trying to be rich and famous, then it might actually be worth paying for!

Verdict: Lily Allen = Career Fail

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A UN summit in New York this week hosted 100 world leaders in an attempt to get them talking before the huge Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December, widely accepted as the most important meeting on climate change of all time.

For years they have been talking about climate change, but what action has been taken. Not Enough. Some people still argue that its not even happening, despite the fact that climate scientists no longer deliberate the issue, as it is concluded fact based on actual evidence.

So what progress did we make this week? Well, Not Enough. China kind of said they would do more to reduce their emissions, America said some things and some other people said some things but not much really happened.

So all hope now rests on Copenhagen. Only a global response to climate change will do. Make no mistake that millions of live are at stake. 20 Million people are at risk from Bangladesh floods as sea levels rise and monsoons become more severe. 300,000 people are already killed a year and 300 million are already effected by climate change related disasters. Failure to act will will put a further 4 billion people at risk.

A little less conversation, A little more action please…

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Universal has made a 6 year deal with toymaker giant Hasbro, and has so far lined up film adaptations of “Monopoly”, “Candy Land”, “Clue”, “Battleship” and “Ouija”. Come On! Has creativity died completely!?

Stranger still is the news that none other than Sir Ridley Scott has signed up to direct the Monopoly film. Hancock director Peter Beg will be making the Battleship film, which we can only assume will be a naval warfare movie that, lets face it, will probably be better than Pear Harbor. Seriously guys, sort it out, or before you know it we will be watching “Minesweeper: The Movie” which might look something like this: (except probably less awesome)

There are plenty of great scriptwriters out there, perhaps a lot of them seem to have gone to video games now. The standard of story telling threw gaming has reached new levels over the past few years. GTA 4 was an epic gangster storyline with as many twists at The Godfather. The Xbox 360 Halo franchise is expanding into new exciting pastures, with new games ODST and Halo: Reach and the announcement of “Halo Legends”, a series of animated short films, from 7 of the worlds leading studios available to download on Xbox 360’s Live service. Having played the latest release “Halo 3: ODST”, the future certainly looks bright for the franchise after this epic story improves massively on the already fantastic “Halo 3″, and introduces the characters that will likely feature in the next years “Halo:Reach” game.

November sees the long awaited sequel to what was probably the best First Person Shooter of all time “Modern Warfare”. Modern Warfare 2 will be released on most platforms including Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and will likely continue the great storyline that started in the first game. Halo 3: ODST has well and truly set a new challenge for the title of best FPS. We await to see which will win the title, but at the end of the day, we are the real winners as games are becoming more epic, cinematic and engaging. The losers… Hollywood.

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With full respect and remorse to those involved that I post this video, directly asking President Obama to investigate the truth of what really happened on the fateful day. There is just too many unanswered questions, too many lies and conflicting reports, and most of all, there is just not enough evidence to show that a plane hit the Pentagon. In fact there is far much more evidence to show that a plane did not hit the Pentagon. We all know what the implications if that were the case. It’s time for the truth.

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America needs health-care reform, Fact! There are 50 Million people in the USA who don’t have health insurance, and that are not getting the care they need. That’s nearly the equivalent of the UK not having any health-care. That is unacceptable for what is supposedly the “greatest nation on earth“.

America is an ignorant nation, well a nation of ignorant people as a whole. There is a lot of opposition to health-care reform, but it is only coming from the rich right. Those who already have health-care. So these people are essentially arguing that 50 million worse off people should not get health-care because they don’t like change.

They don’t even need to change. These people who already have health-care policies can keep them. All the government are trying to do is give free health-care to those 50 million people who cant afford it. Living in Britain I can’t imagine life without free health-care. I think its the most obvious thing to spend tax payers money on, everyone should be entitled to health-care, no matter where you are born or how rich your parents were.

Here is a great video that a lot of people in America should watch:

Stop being bastards! Can’t you see you are just being puppets on strings doing corporate America’s bidding? Health-care insurance companies are making money by not healing sick people. Fact! How is that a good system? Have a word with yourselves!

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However the St. Vincent Home for Children in Normandy we shocked to discover that one employee had been abusing the card, purchasing about $69,000 worth of lingerie, airline tickets, paying utility and hotel bills and make purchases from Wal-Mart, furniture from Pottery Barn and more from Amazon.com.

Linda Egelhoff, 43, pleaded not guilty this morning in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

Verdict: Pretty Evil

Source: stlToday

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Isabel Cosgrove, of the BBC’s human resources department, has complained that she has been banned from sending wreaths and flowers to the families of deceased colleagues:

“I work in BBC People and therefore have to deal with sad situations like the death in service of a member of staff. In these cases, one of the things that helps the family is that the BBC acknowledges its appreciation of the deceased staff member. I think most of us would agree that this is normally shown, amongst cards and letters, by the sending of flowers to the funeral. However, we have been prevented from doing this in the last few situations in Scotland because of the expenses policy. I have been looking at the recently published expenses of the senior executives and note that they have successfully claimed for sending flowers to individuals. How on earth is that possible?”

The outrage comes after the release of BBC executive expenses, including a £100 bouquet of flowers for Jonathan Ross congratulating him on his £18 million contract. The BBC’s chief financial officer Zarin Patel said executives were allowed to buy bouquets to reward the corporation’s ‘talent’. The BBC’s chief financial officer Zarin Patel said “Flowers and other gifts are however occasionally purchased for talent to mark notable successes and significant events.”

Ouch…

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Greenpeace USA managed to obtain a internal memo from American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard, asking API’s member companies to recruit employees, retirees, vendors and contractors to attend “Energy Citizen” rallies in key Congressional districts nationwide in the closing weeks of the August recess. The plan being to cause a shift in the opinions of the general public, making them reject the up and coming plans to take action on climate change, much like FOX News has done with the Obama-Care health reform that is dominating the news.

Recent reports show that 51% of Americans think that more should be done to prevent climate change. API’s plan places a special focus on 21 states picked for having “a significant industry presence” or “assets on the ground.” The plan is clearly trying to replicate the rights movement on Obama’s health care reform, that has been stopped dead in its tracks thanks to right wing groups and FOX News spurring on opinionated idiots to head to health care talks around the US, and shout at the senators to get on TV.

Gerard states that API is ready to bus in company members and provide logistical support, and reveals that API has retained “a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns, corporations and interest groups.”

The email also states that API is partnering on the rally campaign with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, confirming that the groups are staging a coordinated effort to attack climate legislation.

Not Evil enough for you? Well the memo closes with a ‘for your eyes only’ plea: “Please treat this information as sensitive and ask those in your company to do so as well… we don’t want critics to know our game plan.”

Game Plan known DOUCHE BAG!

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An analysis of 20 studies concluded that you are 75% more likely to get cancer if you use sun beds before the age of 30. Experts also found that all types of ultraviolet radiation caused worrying mutations in mice, proof the radiation is carcinogenic. Previously, only one type of ultraviolet radiation was thought to be lethal.

The news means tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others. In Britain, melanoma is now the leading cancer diagnosed in women in their 20s. Normally, skin cancer rates are highest in people over 75. According to a British study from 2003, about 100 people every year die of melanoma attributable to tanning beds. Previous studies found younger people who regularly use tanning beds are eight times more likely to get melanoma than people who have never used them. In the past, WHO warned people younger than 18 to stay away from tanning beds.

The news has lead for more calls for England to follow Scotland in making it illegal for under 18’s to use sun beds. Many tanning salons and gyms with sun beds still deny the health risks.

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Oxfam, which derives 80% of its income from its 714-strong network of shops, has announced a 12% fall in the number of donations being received – the first drop in eight years.

The impact of the financial downturn on charities has widened and deepened, with many facing the double whammy of falling income and increasing demand for services. It is difficult for a charity to commit funding for advertising to increase donations, when they could use the money for donations themselves.

Oxfam aims to increase funding by launching an online shopping service, featuring second hand clothes, second hand books and charity gifts. This comes after Oxfam announced that they are committing more efforts to help those effected by climate change and the disasters caused by our increasingly warming climate.

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Robin Lustig of the BBC’s World Tonight makes some brave and bold statements about the current hysteria culture in the UK:

“I imagine you remember BSE and mad cow disease. Weren’t we told that anyone who had ever eaten beef was supposedly at risk of life-threatening brain damage? And you probably remember the bird flu scare. Maybe you even remember necrotising fascists, the “flesh-eating bug”, which had us all terrified a few years back.”

“Which brings us, as you knew it would, to swine flu. Or flu, as I prefer to call it. I imagine that, like most people, you’ve had flu at some point in the past, and survived. (No jokes, please, about men who get flu: everyone knows that men suffer much more when they’re ill than women do … it’s just the way we’re made.)”

“Swine flu is this year’s flu. The only difference, so far as I can make out, is that the virus is slightly different from the ordinary, common-or-garden, seasonal flu, which means that the vaccine which is usually given to vulnerable people isn’t effective. This new flu may be a bit more likely to spread, but it seems to be no more serious as an illness (if anything, it might be a bit less serious – at least, for most people).”

“All right, so why all the fuss? Here’s my theory. First, officials never want to be accused of being unprepared, or of having failed to warn the public of a genuine danger. So they are naturally tempted to err on the side of pessimism.”

“Second, it is part of their job to prepare for the worst. They have spent ages drawing up detailed contingency plans. So when we reporters ask them: “What’s the worst case scenario?”, they have a nice, scary answer ready and waiting.”

“And why do we reporters always seem to look for the worst case scenario? Well, imagine tonight’s programme. I read the top headline: “There seems to be a new flu virus, but no one seems too worried.” Alternatively, I read: “There seems to be a new flu virus. Government scientists say up to a million people could be affected.” Which one would keep you listening? (Honest answers only, please.)”

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In an interview with Clarkson, the stig removed the helmet to reveal non other than F1 Champion Michael Schumacher.

If you believed it, then I’m sorry to disapoint but its just not true. The current stig has been donning white overals since 2003 when the previous stig Perry McCarthy revealed his identity in his autobiography. Schumacher was in F1 until 2006. Nuff said.

The other clue was the lap in the Ferrari FXX, that was a full 7 seconds quicker than anything else around the top gear track. The BBC have confirmed the obvious, that it was Schumacer did the lap. Which also shows that he is alot better than the real stig.

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