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So, he's back in the news again. I was amused a few weeks ago to see a regular sketch in a comedy show (was it the new Harry Enfield one, I can't remember?) where every time there is a Metropolitan Police press conference they give figures on the amount of officer time they've spent arresting Pete Doherty.

And it is a bit of a joke. I wonder if any of our MPs (or perhaps our putative mayoral candidate) might take up the idea and see if the Metropolitan Police could produce figures for just how much the police and courts service have spent hounding this pathetic specimen?

Was this sort of thing what Sir Iain Blair meant when he said he wanted to go after the "dinner party cocaine set"? I have to say I always assumed that was aimed at former Bullingdon Club members in glittering Notting Hill and similar socialite snorters.

Since the Vatican last week tried to redefine the "Seven Deadly Sins" and the events of the last few days in the financial markets I thought I would share a nice quote by a chap called Josiah Stamp, a liberal economist, tax policy expert, director of he Bank of England for a while, chairman of the LMS Railway company, and at the time reputed to be the second wealthiest man in Britain:

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money."