Welcome to Bongo Bongo Land.

The Ukip MEP, Godfrey Bloom, has caused a stir by suggesting the aid given by Britain to African countries would be better spent at home, particularly when the UK is still in recession. And, he added, much of the aid is squandered:  “How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month, when we’re in this sort of debt, to bongo bongo land is completely beyond me, to buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid.”

   He is of course absolutely correct in every respect bar one: the location of Bongo Bongo Land. For this mythical land is not confined to Africa, but has spread its empire to every country, in every continent of the globe, including his own. I've commented before on how the British taxpayer is aiding Goodwin and his ilk to enjoy a gilded life-style. Yesterday's Corriere della Sera carried an article which revealed how Italy, or Bunga Bunga Land, is outstripping the English province of Bongo Bongo Land. To cite just one example: Mauro Sentinelli, the former MD of Telecom Italia, receives a pension of €91,337 a month, paid for by - you've guessed it - the Italian taxpayer. Almost makes you feel sorry for poor old Fred struggling to get by on a mere £342,500 per annum.
  The paper also carried an article by Guido Rossi, Il mercato che uccide la democrazia è il nuovo Leviatano degli egoisti [The Market which is destroying democracy is the new Leviathan of the self-centred]. The Market, he suggests, is the 'regno dell'arrangiarsi e del diritto del più forte' [the kingdom of everyone having to shift for himself where might is right]. Or as, Godfrey Bloom would never put it, the true kingdom of Bongo Bongo Land.