Author Archives: waylandsmithy

Lib Dems seek ‘middle way’ between guilty and innocent

rennard

Lord Rennard relaxing inside a swan’s bottom

Nick Clegg is considering a radical overhaul of the legal system, to create a compromise somewhere between guilty and innocent.

‘The third way’ will be trialled on the completely innocent sex peer Lord Rennard, who may not have done anything wrong but should still be forced to apologise.

“Sometimes, the extremes of ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’ can be far too judgmental”, said Clegg. “And choosing one or the other can leave the defendant or prosecutor feeling a bit dis-empowered.”

“Isn’t it better to leave both parties equally disgruntled and confused? Shouldn’t justice be a ‘no score draw’? Of course it should, that’s the Liberal Democrat way.”
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Filed under Law and Order, Politics, Sex

Universal Credit ‘a farce’ claim gaseous creatures of Alpha Centauri

spiral

Ian Duncan Smith insists Universal Credit wouldn’t pour money into a black hole.

The government’s much-maligned Universal Credit reforms have again faced stinging criticism, this time from the gaseous creatures of Earth’s closest neighbouring star system.

Keen to avoid another u-turn, Ian Duncan Smith wants to keep the name ‘universal’ while making sure as few people as possible are eligible to claim.

In a compromise thrashed out with the Lib Dems, the benefit will be opened up to all known galaxies, but only to sentient beings that have lived in the UK for more than two years and that can speak English, Latin and Plutonian.
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Filed under Politics, Technology

Council spends £35k on stapler consultant

stapleconfusion

Which would you choose?

Cllr Ron Ronnson has attempted to justify to a committee why the local council spent £35k on a stapler expert last year.

Julia Evans is regarded as the country’s leading stationery expert, and has done some ground-breaking work in the area of staplers. What’s more, she claims to have ‘cracked the staple code’. Incredibly, she says she can tell a strip of No.10s from a rogue pair of 26/6s.

“Until quite recently, people in offices assumed the numbers written on the boxes of staples were entirely random”, explained Evans. “But thanks to my team of dedicated research fellows, we think we’re on the verge of understanding them.”

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Filed under Around Harold, Business, Politics

Cheshire finally gains chemical weapon capability

cheshire panzer division

Observers spot appallingly modified Range Rover near Wilmslow.

Cheshire has declared it has a ‘significant chemical weapon capability’ after winning an online auction for Syria’s old stock.

While its new deadly status is just beginning to sink in, the rogue county has already drawn up a series of demands and issued a statement of intent.

“These weapons will allow us to defend ourselves against anyone foolish enough to launch an attack”, claimed the northern territory.

“One more quip from Jeremy Clarkson about ‘onyx coffee tables’ or ‘Range Rooneys’ and we’ll have no option but to melt his big face.”
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Filed under News, Politics

Face chip means buskers can accept ‘contactless payments’

busk credit

Check your busker is NFC-enabled before rubbing a phone on their face.

A technology firm in Dunstable is bringing street musicians into the 21st century, allowing the public to pay them by simply swiping a mobile phone against their face.

The firm Vizcorps has pioneered an operation to emplant a ‘near field chip’ under the skin of a busker. It’s relatively painless if the performer ticks the ‘anaesthetic’ option and the procedure can be paid for using Google Wallet, Zapp or PayPal.

‘I used to find all the loose change awfully inconvenient’, said ‘living statue’ Brian Grisham. ‘And besides, so few people carry actual cash these days. In the past, it was traditional to collect tips in an upturned tweed cap. But that’s outdated, fewer and fewer of us these days are accepting payment by checks.’
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Filed under Art, Technology

Hollande press conference: ‘focus on economy, not my young lover’s firm, supple breasts’

hollande

Hollande has experienced growth in certain areas.

Our reporter is at a press conference with the French President Francois Hollande. The President has stated he will not be drawn on the private matter of his alleged affair with a young actress:

Press: ‘Monsieur Hollande, your 75% higher tax rate looks set to reduce overall tax receipts, as the wealthy move their business interests to other European countries. Is political dogma more important than balancing the books?’

Hollande: ‘Please, please. It is too early to say qui will move in with qui, ou ‘ow much we might save dans les heating bills. That is a private matter between moi et un attractive actress 15 years plus younger than me.  I want to focus dans le economy, not le exquisite  firmness of her young, heaving bosom.’

Press: ‘The country’s credit rating was recently reduced for a second time. What are your plans to improve the cost of borrowing?
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Filed under Business, Dating, Politics, Sex

Rhinos queuing up to apply for hunter goring licence

rhinos

Rhinos practice the goring position.

A group of rhinos has successfully pooled its resources in order to purchase a hunter goring licence.

The thick-skinned creatures-of-habit have struggled to adapt to the modern world, and tend to blunder about destroying the environment without so much as an apology. ‘That’s why we want to gore one of the buggers’, explained a rhino.

Intitially the rhinos struggled to collect a turnip and the carcass of a wildebeest, before adding a burst armadillo a couple of days later.

But by pulling together, they soon managed to add a small hippo and a fairly sizeable rock, as well as a tanker containing 43,000 litres of gasoline which just tipped them over their financial target.
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Filed under Nature, Sport

Vodafone customer services feared dead at home

vodahome

Perhaps we got the wrong address.

A ‘missing persons’ alert has been issued after it was revealed that no-one had heard from Vodafone customer services for over a month.

Confused, vulnerable and ostensibly deaf, Vodafone customer services is thought to be ‘at considerable risk’ of making anyone they may meet ‘frustrated, desperate and dangerously angry’.

According to investigating officer PC Flegg, ‘it’s not hard to imagine even Gandhi flipping out and stoving their head in with his sandal. We think they may have an extreme personality disorder, which compels them to ignore other people for as long as the money rolls in.’

The alarm was first raised when neighbours noticed there was a lot of milk bottles left on the step, and most of them had rolled-up notes stuck in the top.

‘I read a few’, revealed Flegg. ‘They mostly said things like ‘twats’, ‘bell-ends’ and ‘grrrr’. It’s almost as if people are trying to communicate without being able to resort to their phones.’
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NHS trials ‘skinny suits’ on obese patients

skinny suit

Skinny suit can make the fat people feel ‘as svelte as an airship’.

The NHS is squeezing fat patients into skinny suits, to give them an idea of what it feels like to be slim.

Imported from the US at a cost of £1,000 each, the suits can compress a 400-lb woman down to a size 10 dress size: the process uses something called ‘gut wax’ and an industrial vacuum.

It’s hoped that the suits will provide an insight into just how hard it can be to roll some of their fattest fellow patients from the ward down to the vending machines and back, and perhaps establish a glimmer of self-loathing, moderation and personal responsibility.

Anne Fallow is in charge of the trial, and explained the NHS’s new approach to dealing with the clinically greedy.
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Filed under Medicine, Technology

Climate scientists ‘accurately modelled’ own entrapment in ice

iceship

High temperatures can also cause freakishly large penguins.

Climate scientists rescued from a trapped research ship in Antarctica have claimed that their computer models ‘accurately predicted’ that they would get stuck in the first place.

The diesel-powered research ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy had set out on an 8,000 mile journey to highlight how normal people ought to cut down on unnecessary journeys.

But after grinding to a halt in unusually thick pack-ice, climatologist Dr Alan Pecher claimed that it ‘just proved how much hotter the South Pole has become’.
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Filed under Nature, News, science

Syrian hackers improve Skype

image

Hackers have dramatically improved Skype, Microsoft has confirmed.

A group calling themselves the Syrian Electronic Army has claimed responsibility for the Enhancement of Service Attack (EoSA), which for a time left users able to make video calls without gnawing through their fists in frustration.

“The Syrian Electronic Army has struck a blow against Western Neo-Con Troubleshooters”, read a statement. “Once again, President Assad can speak to his loyal followers while showing us his genitals.”

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Captain Alistair Cook sets off to sea to ‘undiscover Australia’

nostralia

No-stralia: the undiscovered country.

The England Cricket Board has funded a major sea voyage, with the hope that Captain Cook can ‘undiscover Australia’.

Whittled from ash and unusually rudderless, it’s hoped the vessel can complete its voyage before sinking without trace.

Speaking from the poop deck, the dashing figure of Alistair Cook pledged that he ‘would not return until the seas below Indonesia were proved to be completely devoid of any troubling land masses’.
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‘Sale frenzy’ in chocolatiers was actually hypoglycaemic attack

chocolate fight

Crimewatch  ‘very keen’ to recreate scenes from sale frenzy.

A ‘sale frenzy’ in a local chocolatiers that led to 14 arrests has been attributed to an undiagnosed diabetic.

‘Brown Dollops’ of Harold, purveyors of novelty chocolate excretions, opened their doors to a rowdy crowd of shoppers at 9am this morning only to have to close them again at 9.22.

“It was bedlam”, said shop assistant Diane Orrocks. “There were at least 7 customers jostling to be served first. That’s as many punters as there are days in a week”, lending proof to manager Brian Oswald’s claim that Orrocks is a keen amateur mathematician.
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Filed under Around Harold, Business, Health

Navy trials commercial flights between aircraft carriers

flightdeck

‘Welcome aboard flight EJ563. Our destination is classified.’

Britain’s airport capacity problem could finally be solved, if an experimental launch of an EasyJet airliner from HMS Prince of Wales proves a success.

Head of defence staff Nicholas Houghton insisted that commercial flights between aircraft carriers would allow runways to be moved if there were complaints, and save everyone the bother of having to drive to London.

“Aircraft carriers can adapt to changes in demand”, insisted Houghton. “You can sail one down to Gibraltar if anyone wants to visit there, or divert them to the Falklands if they fancy having a look at a penguin.”

The General pointed out that building ‘just a dozen or so’ new aircraft carriers would serve as a warning to rogue nations that armies of obnoxious tourists could be deployed anywhere in the world.

Using a modified launch ramp that can handle 300 passengers and up to 15 tonnes of duty-free, HMS Prince of Wales can now launch holiday makers with less than 40 seconds warning.

Houghton admitted that passengers would need to adapt slightly before they use the new facility.

“It’s a simple matter of taking the Queen’s shilling”, he explained. “We’re talking about less than 18 weeks basic training, learning how to hold your rum and then swimming a width wearing pyjamas”, he explained.

A spokesman from EasyJet pointed out that the mobility of aircraft carriers might occasionally mean a last-minute change in destination.

“If that happens we can arrange a transfer through our sister company, EasyPedalo”, said George Otway. “But at least you’ll have half a chance of arriving in the country you chose, which is a lot better than you’d get with Ryanair.”

Passengers on the first trial spoke of some difficulties, particularly as the location of their departure aircraft carrier was a closely guarded secret.

“We were flown out here on a rendition flight via Libya, and we’ve had nothing to do for 72 hours”, said one couple. “Our hand luggage has been stolen, there’s bullet holes in our suitcase and the scenery is just one depressing sea of grey. So overall, it’s about the same as flying out of Luton.”

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Filed under Business, Defence, Travel

NASA urgently working to put critical space station repairs out to tender

ISS

‘I’ll be back in an hour. I haven’t got the parts on my van.’

A team of contract managers at NASA are working ’round the clock’ to build a tender process for urgent repairs to the International Space Station.

With a critical pump that controls the cooling system failing outside of warranty, finding a contractor that offers value for money has become the agency’s number one priority.

Astronauts on the ISS had hoped to make repairs themselves, but were warned such a move would be considered ‘anti-competitive’.
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Cocaine recategorised as Class ABC1

cocaine

‘No’ to junkies, ‘yes’ to aspirational cocaine consumers.

Politicians have called for cocaine to be recategorised as Class ABC1, which would restrict its use to those with a demographic very similar to politicians.

While the use of recreational drugs by poor people has long been frowned upon, MPs and senior police believe ‘now is the time’ to reassess their impact on architects, dentists and TV chefs.

“We want the public to know that casual drug use will not be tolerated”, said Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. “But smart-casual drug use is fine.”
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Filed under Food, Law and Order, Lifestyle

Archaeologists find ancient visitor centre below new Stonehenge visitor centre

visitor centre

Archaeologists have found earthen jam jars, crude tea towels and an early pen with a feather stuck in it.

A team of archaeologists has made a startling discovery near Stonehenge – an ancient visitor centre, dating back to the Mesolithic period.

Crudely constructed from stone and featuring ramp access for chariots, the ancient visitor centre was found while digging the foundations for a new visitor centre on the same spot.

“At first we weren’t sure what we’d found, which means it was definitely for ritual purposes”, said local historian George Hubert. “But we kept on digging, and soon discovered what appeared to be a diorama.”

The diorama is thought to represent the famous circle of standing stones, but was clearly made from old teeth and bits of knee caps.
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Filed under Culture, Lost and Found, Technology, Vikings

Lords confirm: ‘we’re all in this together’

piglords

‘Hurry up, I’ve got a lobbying company to meet in 40 minutes’.

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DNKY ‘Be Gert Lush’ scent faces lengthy legal battle

gert lush

The ‘swede’ smell of success.

An amateur perfumier is facing a ruinous legal fight, after ignoring a ‘cease and desist’ order from Donna Karan.

Farmer Phil Evans from Harold turned his hand to producing cosmetics, because ‘it seemed less bother than rummaging about in cows’.

DNKY ‘Be Gert Lush’ is literally a ground-breaking new scent: it’s made from a combination of root vegetables and a strange liquid he found beneath the chicken shed. “On top of that there’s some animal glands that are a bit too rank for sausages”, he smiled. “That’s just what they do with the posh stuff, that is. Only they normally calls it ‘musk’.”
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Filed under Around Harold, Business, Law and Order

Terrified family pleads with Twitter users: ‘please don’t return evil bear’

evilbear

Polce have warned the public not to approach the bear, which is believed to be manky.

Police are urging Twitter users to to ignore a picture of a ‘lost’ bear, claiming that the evil animal is plotting revenge on its previous owners.

Known only as ‘Bear X’, the synthetic creature kidnapped a woman with quite tidy writing, and forced her to produce a letter to help him track the terrified family down.

Speaking from Dunstable hospital where she is being treated for shock, the woman assured a press conference that the bear was ‘absolute scum’.
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Filed under Around Harold, Lost and Found, News