The
gnomes of Zurich (Zurich Premiership, that is) would have winced last weekend when they saw the cash returns on the sixth round of the Powergen Cup.
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Yesterday 1,300 of them set out to prove that there's more to Switzerland than the
Gnomes of Zurich by becoming the Nudes of Neuchatel.
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Caught between the Trade Unions, the captains of industry and the international financiers, whom he famously dubbed 'the
gnomes of Zurich', he steered an essentially reformist course.
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When I lived in England in the 1960s, one could hear Prime Minister Harold Wilson denounce the "
gnomes of Zurich" on an almost daily basis.
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This is not necessarily bad, some argue: at the helms of central banks, it is better to have the
gnomes of Zurich than the kleptocrats of Kinshasa.
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But the faceless
gnomes of Zurich had other ideas and blew a hole in the hopes of those struggling to get a life by acquiring a home.
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A nation of bankers, known as the
Gnomes of Zurich, they keep most of the world's money stuffed in their vaults.
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'Perhaps the
gnomes of Zurich are music lovers,' suggested Dreary Derek, who thinks Val Doonican is a bit of a tearaway, let alone the argumentative lads from Manchester.
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High-pitched Ingerland chanting ahoy as our small boys take on the
gnomes of Zurich. Rating:
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Alexander said the "gnome of Melbourne" could take lessons from the "
gnomes of Zurich" who looked around Europe for the best places to develop life sciences and bio-technolgy - two of the best three were in Scotland.
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The
gnomes of Zurich and their exchange-bureau colleagues in railway stations give you the best rates and charge nil commission.
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And he knows, above all, that cannabis is so harmless that even Switzerland - no-one's idea of an anarchist paradise - decriminalised it last year, with no disturbing reports so far of vastly-increased chocolate consumption among the
Gnomes of Zurich.
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