Slips of the tongue

Politicians the world over need to study their scripts more carefully and, in some cases go back to school to brush up on maths or geography.

In Panama, as everywhere in the political stratosphere, campaign promises for which there is no money, Christmas parades and carnivals with no previous approved budgets but lots of no-bid contracts,pilloried by local political cartoonists as "corruption".

In the U.S. Sarah Palin, being interviewed by an adoring TV commentator, recently spoke of America’s ally: “North Korea”. This follows her “I can see Russia from Alaska” comment when running for Vice President.

In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to evict Lord Howard Flight from the Tory party after the newly installed peer told the London Evening Standard: "We're going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it's jolly expensive … But for those on benefits, there is every incentive. Well, that's not very sensible."
It follows Tory peer Lord Young's "you never had it so good" howler soon after the announcement of massive cuts to everything from baby bonuses to education. {jathumbnail off}