THE things people say...the UK tax authorities have released some of the excuses put forward by people for railing to submit their returns.
The Daily Express reports that top of the list was 'the dog ate it' as well as late payment reasons blamed on escaped parrots; being up a mountain in Wales and Barack Obama being in charge of one late-payer's finances.
A spokesperson commented: “People can have a genuine excuse for missing a tax deadline, but owning a pet with a taste for HMRC envelopes isn't one of them.
Other excuses included: ' I've been busy looking after a flock of escaped parrots and some fox cubs',
'A work colleague borrowed my tax return, to photocopy it, and didn't give it back', 'I live in a camper van in a supermarket car park', 'My girlfriend's pregnant' and 'I was in Australia.'
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The BBC tells us that last year was the UK's warmest since records began in 1910.
The Met Office revealed that it was also the warmest year in the Central England Temperature series, which dates back to 1659, and is the longest running record of its type.
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According to the Daily Star, a message in a bottle has been found washed up more than 3,000 miles away after it was hurled into the sea by a fisherman in 1973
John Souter chucked the lemonade bottle into the North sea 43 years ago, while sailing with his dad and his late brother-in-law and it ended up along the coast of New York and was picked up by German tourist Michael Scholz. He posted it back to Mr Souter's address in Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland.
Mr Souter said: “ I tore a bit of paper out of an old fishing almanac on board and wrote my name, address and the date on it, before putting it inside an old Hay's lemonade bottle and throwing it into the sea. It's amazing to think how far it travelled.”
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The Daily Mail says that London's population is on the verge of reaching an all-time high, beating the pre-Second World War peak of just over 8.615m. It has been estimated that the city will soon welcome its 8,615,246th inhabitant.
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Oh dear...embarrassment for a local council when it sent out a mobile library – complete with spelling mistake on it - to encourage children to read.
The Daily Mirror article said that the bus featured the slogan 'reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body' - with exercise misspelt as 'exerscie'.
A man who spotted the error when the bus visited Isle Brewers near Taunton, Somerset said: “ I asked the driver if the misspelling was a deliberate attempt to attract people to the library. He said it wasn't a deliberate typo, and that I was the first person to mention it.”
A spokesman for Somerset County Council said: “We are aware of the mistake on this particular mobile library and as far as we are aware this is the only vehicle with the mistake. It will be corrected at a minimal cost.”
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Glastonbury is one of Britain's most famous music festivals and attracts some of the biggest names in the business.
The Mirror reports that Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, Foo Fighters and David Bowie are rumoured to be headlining Glastonbury this year. But already one well-known figure has been confirmed – the Tibetan Buddhist leader The Dalai Lama.
His website has announced: “Public Talk in Glastonbury, Somerset, England on June 28. His Holiness will give a talk at the Glastonbury Festival in the morning.
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What a crazy world....the Daily Express says that the town of Brownhills in the West Midlands has waited until this week to put Christmas decorations on a tree.
Apparently this follows row over a set of bulbs – council agreement to come up with the £600 funding came too late for contractors to carry out the work in time for the Christmas period.
Rather than waiting until next winter - the council decided to erect the tree decorations this week - and rebranded the display as "Winter Lights" instead.
Reference list:
The Express (www.express.co.uk)
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Mirror (www.mirror.co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)
Daily Star (www.daily star.co.uk)