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Tuesday 1 November 2016

A Commodity

source

A Statesman who attended a meeting of a Chamber of Commerce rose to speak, but was objected to on the ground that he had nothing to do with commerce.

“Mr. Chairman,” said an Aged Member, rising, “I conceive that the objection is not well taken; the gentleman’s connection with commerce is close and intimate. He is a Commodity.”

Ambrose Bierce - Fantastic Fables (1899)

7 comments:

Demetrius said...

If trading in the markets go short on statesmen.

Sam Vega said...

Very few of us are not commodities, in some sense.

Scrobs. said...

I have instructed all my suppliers and agents that with immediate effect, they will buy no more goods and services from any address in the Leicester East constituency.

This will take several million pounds worth of business away from the thirty-three companies with offices and factories we deal with there. To my knowledge, and I need to check this, the income lost will amount to well over seventeen million pounds. Eight of the companies are on pro-forma, so will lose everything and probably go bust within two months.

Sorry, but there it is.

Anonymous said...

Let not honour and decency stand in the way of political game playing. This is all about party positioning on a powerful committee and of course Vaz has not been found guilty of anything a politician would regard as heinous. When it comes to politics - think of the lowest motive you can think of and then go three steps lower.

wiggiatlarge said...

This gives a pretty good breakdown for the reasons they voted for Vaz, what it fails to do is explain why they are prepared to alienate further those who already beleive that Parliament has a different code by which they judge people from the rest of the country.
The sexual indescretions of Vaz are one thing, his litany of past and present "alleged" criminal activety is another, yet the Labour party put parliament in this position by backing him in the first place, once again putting party before the country and they wonder, but certainly don't seem to care, about the public disgust and apathy towards them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/01/amber-rudd-and-10-cabinet-members-under-fire-for-giving-keith-va/

James Higham said...

Indeed.

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - we are permanently short on statesmen.

Sam - but surely not so oily, expensive and unreliable.

Scrobs - drastic but fair in my view.

Roger - only three?

Wiggia - and the Telegraph doesn't seem to want comments these days.

James - creepy isn't it?