An Englishman's Castle

Food crisis: rationing introduced in bid to protect rice supplies - Times Online

British shopkeepers and the US retailer Wal-Mart have rationed rice sales to protect dwindling supplies.

The move by the world’s biggest retailer, which owns Asda, constitutes the first time that food rationing has been introduced in the US. While Americans suffered some rationing during the Second World War for items such as petrol, light bulbs and stockings, they have never had to limit consumption of a key food item.

In Britain rice is being rationed by shopkeepers in Asian neighbourhoods to prevent hoarding.

Fuel supplies could be disrupted by a planned strike at a major refinery, a minister warned, as pump prices hit a new record high.

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, pleaded with motorists not to panic-buy

More than four out of 10 people fear they will be financially worse off this year as the credit crisis starts to bite, a report shows.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.