Strangers' Britain
Till bulldozer us do part
Angry husband Kree Kirkman had a ready answer when his wife demanded their £80,000 house in a divorce settlement. He reduced it to rubble.He waited until his wife Sandra, 26, had left the three-bedroomed house in Enumclaw and moved in with a bulldozer. Police say there is no risk of the husband being prosecuted. He obtained a £10 demolition permit before knocking the house down.
£1.3m 'gems' were marbles
A South African diamond dealer conned a group of British businessmen into paying him £1,372,000 for 43 children's marbles, the Old Bailey heard.Roland Skjoldhjammer, 55, convinced them that they were buying a £100 million fortune in diamonds left in an Amsterdam bank deposit box by a deposed President of Angola.
But when the box was opened, it contained only the worthless glass marbles. Prosecuting counsel said: "The mind boggles at the victims' naivety."
And defence counsel claimed they had been "motivated by greed to receive stolen property". Their eyes were "dazzled" by the chance of huge profits. Judge Jack Abdela, QC, said it was the "most blatant fraud which could have been practised on anyone."
Skjoldhammer, he said, belonged to the Salvation Army in South Africa and had brought "shame upon that noble heritage."
Skoldhammer, of The Avenue, Radlett, Herts, was jailed for seven years for fraud.
What a nice lot of chaps we are!
The new British male is changing from Mr Woeful to Mr WonderfulHe's sexier and more fun in bed.
He's more loving and caring and he's turning into a better father.
And he's even learning to treat his wife or girlfriend as an equal.
Praise for the way men are turning over a new leaf comes in a report issued from Zelda West-Meads, of the National Marriage Guidance Council.
She said: "The new British male is turning into just what women have been waiting for. "Out has gone the strong silent type - who women found so boring.
"The new Mark II Mr Britain is moving away from the macho image and allowing himself to show the caring side of his nature. The result is that more men are making better lovers, partners, husbands and fathers."
No ban on the flying dwarf
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd said he was powerless to ban dwarf throwing competitions.He put the dampers on a campaign by Labour MP Alf Morris, and the Restricted Growth Association to stamp out the sport.
The Home Secretary told Mr Morris: "I fully understand the concern about this activity. But neither I nor any Minister has any power to ban competitions of this nature." Restrictive Growth Association spokesman Pam Rutt stormed: "Dwarf throwing is degrading.
"It makes a person's physical abnormality the subject of public amusement." But the tide of protest has not stopped promoter Danny Bamford from planning the 1985 International Dwarf Throwing Contest.
Marriage? Take a test drive
Choosing a wife is like buying a car — a man insists on a test drive first and checks the handles, a marriage expert said. She added after studying thousands newly-weds: "Men have exactly the same attitude to women they are going to marry as they have to cars they are thinking of buying."They want to have a look under bonnet and they want to test drive them."
Penny Mansfield of the Marriage Research Centre, which carried out the six-year study told the National Marriage Guidance Council in London:
"In the old days of no sex before marriage, it was expected they would get the sex right at a later date.
"But now young people want to be sure they are sexually compatible before they marry."
Zelda West-Meads, of the guidance council, said: "More than 90 per cent young people now have sex before marriage."
Alice, 106, is only 87
A party for Alice Oldfield's 106 birthday turned sour recently when it was claimed that she was only 87. A Rolls took her from hospital to her childhood village of Great Hockham, Norfolk, for the celebrations. But as they got underway villager Cyril Smith, 86, said: "She's no more 106 than I am. She was in my class at school."Punch-up MP does it again
Labour MP Robert Kilroy-Silk, who punched a man through a window at the Party conference in Bournemouth has had another bust-up.His opponent was left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, who supports Militant breakaways who are trying to oust Mr Kilroy-Silk from the Knowsley North seat.
The pair clashed as they went in the division lobby of the House of Commons to vote. Mr Kilroy-Silk, a former champion schoolboy boxer, grabbed Mr Corbyn by the lapels and shouted abuse. Mr Corbyn said: "He may have been an amateur boxer, but I am an amateur runner so I ran." A senior Labour MP who saw the confrontation said: "It was a good job Corybn dashed away.
