Charles Stross highlights a very odd speech in the House of Lords on Monday night–

For the past 20 weeks I have been engaged in a very strange dialogue with the two noble Lords, in the course of which I have been trying to bring to their attention the willing availability of a strange organisation which wishes to make a great deal of money available to assist the recovery of the economy in this country. For want of a better name, I shall call it foundation X.

It all sounds very familiar, as I read the ramblings of at least one deluded conspiracy theorist. Variations of the old conspiracy theorist canard, “The experts say I’m wrong, but I know secrets the experts aren’t privy to.” are deployed at least twice, making it all quite hard to believe.

Stross says that it all sounds very Robert Ludlum. I haven’t read any Ludlum stuff recently, and mention of the Vatican makes a Dan Brown comparison feel more natural. Either way, I’ll wait to see if any other revelations are forthcoming. In the meantime, would it be possible to learn more about Lord James of Blackheath’s earlier career laundering money for the IRA with the Bank of England’s blessing?

It makes you wonder what other strange stuff is uttered under Parliamentary privilege which we don’t get to hear about.