Monday 27 April 2009

The United Kingdom Budget,

has just been announced, by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in most newspapers he is holding up a "Red Box" as with so many traditions in the UK it was started by a mistake, legend has it that when George Ward Hunt (30 July 1825 – 29 July 1877) went to make his budget speech he realised he had left his speech at home, so in future all Chancellors now hold up their speech in the red box to show they have it with them, as an aside, have you ever heard of the phrase "to steal my thunder"? well a friend used it a few days ago in a conversation, so I looked it up, it goes back to a chap named John Dennis (1657 - 6 January 1734), it appears he had developed a new way of making the sound of thunder, the play he used it for was scrapped but the sound effect was used in a latter version of the Scottish play, he then said, "That is my thunder, by God; the villains will play my thunder, but not my play." according to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the entry (under the headword thunder), is the origin of the phrase, "to steal one's thunder", so now I know!

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