Category Archives: Business

Changes to retirement age welcomed by Office Commode Industry

commode

Office commode offers genuine alternative to self-soiling.

A firm in Harold that produces ergonomic, swivel commodes is increasing production, to meet the demands of an  ever-rising retirement age.

‘Sit n’ Swivel’, Harold’s oldest commode manufacturer, is taking on two new members of staff to meet their new targets. Elsie Duggan, 86 and Harry Jones, 74, have been turfed out of the ‘Over The Hill’ retirement home and put on zero hour contracts to bolster the firm’s output.

“An ageing workforce offers some unique challenges”, explained factory owner Roland Ronsson. “But it’s better than getting teenagers in, because they complain when we put Radio 2 on.”

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Filed under Around Harold, Business, Economy, Politics

Best friends forever: Britain pleads with China to love it more than the USA

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Pastry, potatoes, beef, swede and onion. You can’t beat that, Ronald McDonald.

David Cameron has flown to Beijing with a delegation of high achieving Brits to beg China to love the UK more than it loves the US. On his knees on the tarmac at Beijing Capital Airport the Prime Minister said “Britain will act as China’s strongest advocate in the West” before promising “dialogue of mutual respect and understanding” as well as a blind eye turned to all China’s abuses of human rights and the environment, and at least five more seasons of Downton Abbey.

“China should be our bestie not that of those across pond,” Cameron said. “What has the Untied States ever done for the world? We’ve given it the Cornish pasty, Fifty Shades of Grey and the tuning fork: no contest.” Continue reading

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Filed under Business, International News, Politics

Osborne to make Autumn Statement in stunning georgette dress

catwalk

It’s the frock on the right that really says massive financial inequality to us.

The venue for the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement this year will be the O2 Arena, Downing Street has announced.  “The House of Commons is far too dreary a setting for the nation’s finest showing off their finest finery,” said artistic director, Nico Rubaiyat, “but in the O2, we can give The Statement  the full son-et-lumiere makeover.  I’m working with some beautiful pinks and oranges and there’s a bit of yellow in there too.”  The show will be broadcast live on 5 December, simultaneously on BBC Parliament and Radio 1 Extra. Continue reading

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Filed under Business, Economy, Fashion, Lifestyle, News, Politics, Showbusiness

5-day search ends as missing shopping trolley found dead in village stream

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The search for a missing shopping trolley from Dunstable came to a tragic end yesterday when it was found dead in a stream in the nearby village of Harold.

PC Flegg said: “The trolley was found by a local man walking his badger. At this point we’re not sure how the trolley ended up in the stream, but early indications are it was pushed. We are ruling out any sort of mugging as the trolley was found to still have all its money on it, £1 in a slot on the handle. Its next of kin has been informed.”

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Filed under Around Harold, Badgers, Business, Crime, News

NRA commemorate 50th anniversary of Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle

oswaldgun

JFK incident ‘shouldn’t detract from a really great gun’

NRA members across America today celebrated the timeless design and long range accuracy of the 6.5 mm Carcano Model 91/38 carbine, the rifle Lee Harvey Oswald used to assassinate President Kennedy.

“The Carcano 91/38 was everything you could want in a rifle, accurate for long shots from a 6th story window and yet still highly effective for the close combat stuff, like shooting a stranded motorist who stops by your house to borrow the telephone” said NRA spokesmen Jed Hicks. “The rifle was also sharply priced at $19.95, plus postage. Obviously I don’t approve of Oswald shooting the President, but his choice of mail-order rifle was excellent.”

“Obviously Oswald’s rifle was the most memorable thing from 22 November 1963, but some of the Secret Service weaponry came a close second” observed Hicks. “The Colt AR-15 high-velocity rifle that most of them had was the sort of weapon that, even now, gun fans proudly display on their bedside table to use against home invaders or provide something for the kids to play with.”
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Filed under Business, News, Technology

Harold traders dreaming of a tearful Christmas

tears

Crying is now a Christmas tradition.

Harold’s local businesses are taking their lead from some of the countries leading retailers and trying their hardest to reduce their customers to tears in a hope to increase Christmas sales.

Chamber of Commerce Chairwoman Pippa Delaney explained the initiative.

“The idea came to me watching my husband dissolve into a whimpering wreck after the John Lewis and Sainsbury’s contrived tear jerkers. I pitched it to the rest of the Chamber, and we soon came up with some really good ideas to get our punters weeping.”

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Filed under Business

Harold fails in bid for Blue Flag Award for third year running

harold beach party

Brown, sticky and foul-smelling, Harold hopes to compete with Southend-on-Sea.

A meeting of the culture and amenities sub-committee in Harold has expressed disappointment over the village’s failure to win a coveted Blue Flag Award for the third year in a row.

The rejection email cited ‘poor water quality, a general lack of ice-cream kiosks, bucket-and-spade retailers and lifeboats.  Oh, and not being located at the seaside.’

But, rather than just record ‘downhearted’ in the minutes, the committee used positive thinking and came up with a proposal to give Harold a better chance of getting a Blue Flag next year.
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Filed under Around Harold, Business, Culture, Health, Lifestyle, Sport

Road safety group urges commuters to ‘cycle to work inside a bus’

bikebus

Cycling inside a bus ‘even safer than stabilisers’

In response to a shocking rise in accidents involving bicycles, a road safety group is urging commuters to do their cycling ‘inside a bus’.

“Cycling is undoubtedly the best way to get to work”, claimed Polly Harvey of campaign group ‘Two Wheels Good’. “There’s no other way of arriving all sweaty and self-righteous, and with your genitalia accentuated in lycra.”

Harvey insists that with a few simple modifications cyclists will not only be able to clutter up bus lanes, but also buses. “With a bit of effort, a half-decent bike can be lugged up to the top deck. Once there you can pedal up and down the aisle, making commuting safer for nearly everyone.”
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Shame of ex drug dealer filmed ‘being chairman of bank’

Rev-Paul-Flowers-2801236

Flowers, top lip seen moments after snorting enormous line

Paul ‘Ernesto’ Flowers, the former cocaine baron leader of the Medellin cartel, has apologised after a newspaper reported he had become the chairman of a high street bank.

A video on the Mail on Sunday website shows Flowers, who is also a member of Al-Qaeda, openly fronting a presentation to Co-op shareholders on probable Q4 earnings and a future strategy to reduce the fixed cost base.

He was filmed by notorious East End gangster ‘Razors’ McCoy, an acquaintance who also happened to have a minor shareholding in the bank. McCoy told the paper he exposed the banker because he was “disgusted by his hypocrisy”.
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Filed under Business, Crime, Vicars

Toy JFK Assassination Kit launched

jfk

It’s all very tasteful

The lucrative JFK-Shooting-50th-Anniversary market looks set to welcome one of the biggest hitters in Harold’s lucrative Toy sector.

Ray Dubbins of ToysR our business explains “Our starter kit includes a presidential limousine, complete with two versions each of JFK,  the First Lady and the other one –‘before’ and ‘after’ – and a Lee Harvey Oswald sniper figure which you could place anywhere; on a bookshelf perhaps.”

Beyond this, the sky’s the limit and encompasses most popular conspiracy theories. “You could get a grassy knoll; a Jack Ruby action-man, with realistic bulge under his jacket; a set of Mafia bosses in a huddle, complete with Capo di tutti capi, and a working Frank Sinatra.” Continue reading

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Ed Miliband calls for ‘end to Birmingham’

brum

Major parties blame each other for Birmingham.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has thrown his full weight behind a campaign to allow the UK to have a referendum on Birmingham.

Miliband has been criticised recently for a lack of credible policies, but the ‘Birmingham Out’ proposal is set to change all that.

Seen as little more than a car park by many, but a car park with a miserable accent, Birmingham is the ‘Elephant in the Midlands’ according to political pundits.

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‘Win-win’ as clinic offers man-boob removal and female breast enlargement

sexy brenda

Eddie’s moobs found a good home with Brenda

A local plastic surgery clinic has gained worldwide attention for its novel idea of offering both man boob removals and female breast enlargements. The clinic run by Harold doctor Clive Evans has already conducted man boob transplants for over 100 happy customers, and is a finalist in the UK Innovation Awards.

Like all good ideas, it seems surprising that nobody thought of moob transplants before. Dr Evans said he had his “eureka” moment when he and ex-wife Sally were on holiday in Marbella and they saw all the buff men and buxom women on the beach. “Sally said we have got things the wrong way round – she was flat-chested and I had double D cups” said Dr Evans. “So I said why don’t we swap?”
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Filed under Around Harold, Business, Health, Medicine

Cockroach launches radio-controlled ‘Cruel Human Scientist’

edgarbug

‘It isn’t cruel: they’re only humans.’

A cockroach with an interest in electronics and unnecessary experiments has launched a kit to control cruel, human scientists.

Using a hand drill, some scissors and a drink spiked with Rohypnol, children as young as 8 can modify a low-moral scientist and make them turn left or right.

“This kit can help your offspring find out more about scientists”, claimed the ‘roach. “And desensitize them to the point where they don’t think twice about whether what they’re doing is wrong.”
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Entire universe is just a figment of Brian Cox’s imagination, scientists discover

Space.

Plenty of space inside Cox’s head.

A team of micro-scientists working inside Professor Brian Cox’s brain say they have found the source of the universe in a small cluster of his brain cells.  “The universe we are all familiar with in everyday life is nothing more than a holographic projection from within this man’s imagination,” said Professor Kevin Heidelberg out of Cox’s left ear.

The announcement in such a tiny voice from within Cox’s cochlea would surely have passed unheard had it not been for dentist Dr Richard Burlington, whose own ear ‘was in the right place at the right time’ as he polished Cox’s teeth to perfection.  It was a moment in time for the doctor.

“I was plunged into an existential vortex,” Dr Burlington admitted, “questions racing through my mind about the very essence of life and the universe and whether Professor Cox was himself perhaps just a character in one of Dara O’Briain’s dreams.  But I pulled myself together, tapped him on the knee and said ‘There, all done now’.”

The discovery that everything is a figment of Cox’s imagination has left a lot of people feeling slightly numb, with a sense of uncertainty as to whether they’re really here or not and whether there’s any point in anything anymore.  Worried Harold pensioner Doris Kettle said she felt ‘funny in the head.’  “I’ve been ringing the NHS helpline all day,” she told the Evening Harold, “but all you ever get is an answering machine.  Hello?”

The Indian Space Agency is particularly angry at the timing of the discovery and the Pope has spent the day pinching himself.   The UK Government has stepped in with a summons for Professor Cox to appear before a select committee and explain himself, a move which the opposition described as ‘lacking imagination and probably futile’.

Meanwhile, the Department of Work & Pensions has called for ‘calm and commonsense’.  “The best advice,” said Vince Cable, “is for everyone to relax, take a deep breath and get back to what you’re supposed to be – ” but he was cut short as he spontaneously disappeared in a puff of smoke.

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Filed under Business, Health, International News, Nature, Politics, science, Travel

Sadness as UK loses capacity to build massive, deadly warships

ship

The thought of not being able to do this is too much for many to bear.

Politicians of all persuasions have spoken of their sadness that the UK can no longer build as many massive, deadly warships as it once did.

Massive, deadly warships have been a traditional part of British life for over 500 years, and a traditional part of the lives of many other countries that happen to have a shoreline.

From such historic facilities as Portsmouth, Rosyth and the Clyde, Britain has launched an endless stream of massive, deadly warships for the offspring of local families to use as killing platforms or a heroic, watery grave.
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Supermarket ‘face scan’ spots wide faces – refuses to sell them cake

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‘Beep! No butter for you, Mr Wilson. Or shampoo.’

A local shop keeper claims to have developed a ‘face scanning’ tool, that can automatically target fat people and then deny them biscuits or doughnuts.

But sceptics have claimed that the inventor is just shouting ‘beep!’ himself, and then making personal remarks about local known pie botherers.

Woodrow Gunther, owner of Harold’s second-favourite supermarket, ‘Guntco’s’,  claims he developed the device to ‘help save the public from themselves’.
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McDonald’s to replace ketchup with orangutan blood

barrow of apes

Urangutans are delivered to ape rendering plant using low carbon transport

Following the discovery that Heinz ketchup doesn’t have any affect on rain forests, McDonald’s has announced it will phase the condiment out in favour of orangutan blood.

McDonald’s restaurants have served Heinz ketchup for over 40 years, despite the tomato-based product actually tasting of something. But now Heinz has realigned the product by popping it in the bin, and using something more typically bland that you don’t want to think about where it came from.

“Orangutans are the ideal source for orangutan blood and it’s a source that’s  sustainable, for at least as long as there are orangutans”, explained Nigel Manning, the company’s head of near-human resauces. “There have been a few teething problems with this natural product being a little bit too runny, but our food scientists are busy tackling that problem.”
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Filed under Business, Economy, Farming

Supermarkets to cut down on food waste by no longer selling stupid stuff

You have never and you will never need one of these.

You have never and you will never need one of these.

Following an announcement by Tesco yesterday that it’s dropping some of its promotions in order to prevent food waste British supermarkets have vowed to stop selling stupid stuff.

‘Apparently four million tonnes of food that’s perfectly edible, and I mean proper edible not food you’d maybe donate to a food bank then feel slightly guilty about, is thrown away in Britain each year,’ said Sue Gordon, spokesperson for the British Association of Supermarket Retailers. ‘Our members which include every major chain looked at the problem in depth and realised much of this could be avoided if they simply stopped selling stupid stuff. I mean did you know Waitrose sell ostrich eggs that cost nearly twenty quid each. Ostrich eggs! Have we all lost our minds?’ Continue reading

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British Gas blame 9.2% price rise on ‘Global Christmas Party Markets’

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Not wishing to be left behind in the daylight robbery business, British Gas has announced average price rises to its customers of 9.2%

Centrica, British Gas’s parent company said: “We regret having to increase prices, especially at this time of year, but we have very little control over external factors that help us deliver energy such as global prices of Champagne, an unstable caviar market and the ‘shareholders’ Christmas party’ venue’s payment terms of 100% up front.
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Royal Mail sell-off ‘a Greenback plot’ claims Danger Mouse

Sell-off was brainchild of evil, greedy toad

The world’s greatest rodent detective could soon be living in a dog poo bin, thanks to an evil plot to evict him by Baron Silas Greenback.

That’s the claim of an angry-sounding mouse in a white catsuit, who told us his secret lair has been privatised from under his whiskers.

Danger Mouse and long-term partner Penfold (a chubby, bookish hamster) have co-habited their central London apartment since the mid 1980s. With their shared interests in galactic politics, animal rights and all types of cosplay,  the couple have spent many a happy hour gnawing at bars and putting the world to rights.

But now the vintage pillar box that they have so long called home has been sold from over them in a stock market flotation. The pair fear they will no longer be able to return from a hard-days super-heroing and relax in the bath:  Danger Mouse claims he can smell a rat.
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