Wow not only do you get two posts in a few minutes but they both fall into the illuminating category of "Hmmm". There's value for you.

Today I listened to a few minutes of BBC Radio 4. There were two items with quotes I shall have to paraphrase as it was some hours ago.

First there was a report about how the Afghan people are not warming to their new government. A man was interviewed who said something like, "I sell potatoes and make 6 (units of currency) per day. I have to bribe the police with one which only leaves me with 5 and I can't afford to do this. The authorities should do something about it." The presenter or reporter completely failed to see any irony in the statement.

Then just a minute or so later a similar statement where the irony was missed was made by our great leader Gordon Brown who said in reference to the idea of his "rescued" banks paying high bonuses to their staff something along the lines that "failures should not be rewarded". Obviously this kind of principle doesn't apply to serving Prime Ministers.