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Charity hopes to find homes for kittens abandoned on Christmas Eve - by naming them after Star Wars characters

The seven kittens were left at London’s Wood Green Animal Charity on 24 December.

Star wars kittens Back row (l to r): Han Solo, Rey, C-3PO Front row (l to r): Yoda, Leia, Chewy, Padme Matt Alexander / PA Matt Alexander / PA / PA

STAR WARS MANIA has been a global epidemic for over a week now since the release of the new movie.

Now an English animal charity is hoping to tap into the power of the Force and use it to re-home seven kitten brothers and sisters that were abandoned on Christmas Eve.

Star wars kittens Leia Matt Alexander / PA Matt Alexander / PA / PA

The seven cats, four female and three male, were left at the Wood Green Animals Charity in London on 24 December.

So the charity has done the logical thing and named the seven for Star Wars characters in the hope of rehoming them in the new year.

Star wars kittens Chewy Matt Alexander Matt Alexander

It seems that within minutes of being left with the charity the seven kittens were gleefully playing with wrapping-paper cardboard tube inserts, which reminded the amused staff of lightsabers.

There’s definitely a likeness with some of the seven:

photo2 Clockwise from top left: Human Han Solo, Kitten Han Solo, Kitten Yoda, Green Yoda Youtube / PA Youtube / PA / PA

Others maybe not so much.

c3po3 Droid C-3PO (l) and Kitten C-3PO Youtube / PA Youtube / PA / PA

Ten out of ten for cuteness though.

Read: Star Wars: The Force Awakens has just taken in $1 billion in record time

Read: This little girl’s excited reaction to the Star Wars trailer is just too adorable

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    May 1st 2013, 9:05 AM

    this ‘carbon tax’ is a government imposed rip off, there is no eu/eec agreement for such a tax, it was brought in by the last government to keep the green’s on side, and has been increased in every budget since. we have absolutly NO obligation under any treaty or agreement (kyoto etc) to imposes this tax ,yet succesive governments keep pileing the pressure on to the people in order to grab more money for the troika and the banks. i was listening to a guy on newstalk yesterday ,a climate control proffesser, he stated that on the world trading markets ‘carbon credits’ are trading at less than 3 euro per tonne, yet we are being forced to pay 10 euro per tonne, 3 TIMES THE GOING RATE, and even that is not enough for our greedy politicians by next year they want to double that to 20 euro per tonne. and dont think that just because you dont burn coal, briquettes or turf you are getting away with paying this unjust tax, it has been payable on home heating oil (kerosene) and electricity bills since the last budget. this winter saw a 60% rise in people suffering fuel poverty, st vincent paul reported a huge rise in the number of people seeking help just to stay warm, add this latest rise in fuel tax’s to the cuts made to the most vunerable in sociaty via the heating/ fuel allowence, cut by 3 weeks over the year, and cuts to the electricity/gas allowence and yet again this shower of overpaid gombeens are attacking the elderly, the disabled and the poorest in the country,while leaving the rich alone. what sort of country is ireland becoming?

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    Mute Tom Rooney
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    May 1st 2013, 9:14 AM

    Someone has to pay the bondholders, and it’s clear by now that every status quo political party in Ireland is intent on forcing the Irish people to pay every last penny to them, they don’t care if it is not our debt.
    The question remains, what are we as a Nation going to do about it?

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    Mute Larry T Bird
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    May 1st 2013, 9:18 AM

    Probably better to let the country go bankrupt (after Fianna Fails abuse of power), then your bag of coal wil be the least of your worries.

    Its not nice but we are spending millions and millions more than we are taking in, and it needs to be rebalanced.
    I dislike it as much as you, but am just getting on with it for a better future for my kids

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    Mute Tom Rooney
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    May 1st 2013, 9:32 AM

    Not exactly an expert in economics Larry, are you?

    How come Iceland didn’t go bankrupt, they burned the bondholders and are now experiencing growth, low unemployment and have brought the corrupt politicians and bankers to justice.

    Your kids don’t have a future in Ireland, the country is economically destroyed and that’s not going to change for at least 15 years. People like you are the problem, you bury your head in the sand and think everything is going to be okay because the morons in Leinster house told you we’re turning another corner.

    The reason we’re spending millions more than we’re bringing in is because the idiots in government continue to pay for debts that have nothing to do with the Irish people.
    Fine Gale are as bad if not worse that Fianna Fail, they along with labour lied their way into government and continue to force austerity on the Irish people despite promising otherwise.

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    Mute John Sheridan
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    May 1st 2013, 9:39 AM

    Exactly most sensible comment I have seen in a while. Everyone here gives out about every tax and payment also they conplain about any restriction in service or quality.. How would these people fix the massive budget imbalance I don’t like it but If they have a better idea/approach lets hear it!??

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    Mute Evin Lee
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    May 1st 2013, 9:51 AM

    Yeah seriously Tom grow up with your moaning and insulting people. What you said about Iceland is valid (assuming it’s true) and then you go ruining it with the rest of your comment

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    Mute Tom Rooney
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    May 1st 2013, 12:48 PM

    For a start I would declare all of the unsecured bond holders debt to be odious, nothing to do with Irish tax payers.
    Second I would force a 50% cut to all salaries of TD’s and ministers, lead by example.

    After this I would cut the pay of all banking executives and government quangos, and salaries of senior civil servants, increase corporation tax by 3% then I would nationalise all Irish natural resources and begin to develop an oil and gas industry in Ireland.
    Bring in a wealth tax for citizens, similar to to the system the USA use in relation to tax obligations, so moving out of the country for a year wouldn’t negate any obligation.

    Privatise Dublin bus, DART and any other national service that does not operate efficiently.

    Cancel the jobsbridge scheme and bring in legislation to criminalise employers who have been proven to exploit workers on a continuing basis.

    Hold all politicians and bankers accountable for the decisions they made that led to the destruction of our economy.

    Reduce tax on fuel, thus increasing cash flow of businesses and putting more money into the ordinary peoples pockets with the knock on effect being an increase in expendable income and increased spending throughout the economy.

    I repeat, the ONLY reason why we have a deficit is because our moronic political representatives in Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour party have agreed to borrow hundreds of billions of euro so they can pay it all to private speculators who took a risk and should have lost. This is an odious debt and is not owed by the Irish people!

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    Mute Tom Rooney
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    May 1st 2013, 12:52 PM

    If the truth insults you Evin stop reading my posts.
    You and your ilk are the reason why this country is being shafted, you’re nothing but a yes man and a boot licker. Wake up and start thinking, stop believing the lies and propaganda that you are being bombarded with every day.

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    May 1st 2013, 3:01 PM

    very well said tom, between them the political parties in this country are bleeding the citizens of ireland dry and the don’t give a hoot, their futures are secure, nice big pension, lump sum on early retirement, all tax free of course, their friends in the banking and financial sector will no doubt give them a bit of an auld job on some board or other as a thanks for getting them out of the mire, meanwhile the elderly, sick and ordinary people of ireland will be left to try and get by on next to nothing. this is not the peoples debt, never was ,never will be. if any of our so called leaders had any balls they would have stood up and told merkell and her eurocrat’s that ireland does not owe europe 1 cent, drop out of the euro and go back to the punt .

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    Mute Evin Lee
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    May 1st 2013, 10:29 PM

    Tom, your insults were the insulting part.
    I’m neither a yes man nor a boot licker but thanks for throwing around more unfounded insults…

    You’re saying you wouldn’t pay back the bond holders, but do you not think that that could harm Ireland’s reputation with international investors and reduce future investment in Ireland as a result? How would you solve that problem without paying back the bondholders?

    Saying you’d cut the salaries of TD’s and ministers by 50% is a bit of an extreme and very sudden change. How would you make sure to attract people who are experts at what they do and who could be a huge benefit to Ireland, with salaries that low (particularly if you were to look at what these experts could get in the private sector)? Maybe linking TD’s and ministers’ salaries to the GDP of the country so that the better the country performs, the greater salary they get (hence those that do a great job get rewarded for it) might be a good idea? Or having their salaries being multiples of the average salary of an Irish citizen?

    Increasing corporation tax could work as much against us as with us if it discourages corporate growth more than it increases tax revenue. Personally I think we should be making things as easy as possible for businesses to grow given the economic climate and the fact that there are so many people unemployed.

    What’s the wealth tax?

    Privatising national services could be a really good idea, so long as there was some fail-safe built into that plan to make sure places that need public transport but may not be considered very profitable, still operate. You’d also need to make sure that the transport system works with national and local government growth plans. Like say the local or national government were developing a certain area for certain types of business, then the transport systems would have to support those plans.

    Why would you cancel the jobsbridge scheme?? There’s even another article on the journal today saying it’s one of the most successful schemes of it’s kind across Europe, with 3 in 5 interns being taken on by the companies after their internships. That sounds like an unreal way of combating unemployment and helping struggling companies to me. In fact, I think everyone on unemployment benefit should have to do work somewhere for free in order to get their social welfare payments. That would do a lot towards getting rid of people frauding the system an/or relying on it.

    Politicians and bankers wouldn’t have been able to make the mistakes they made if we had proper regulation in place to prevent it. They were simply operating in the environment we allowed them to operate in. If we spend our time trying to punish people who’ve made mistakes, in my mind we’re saying that we’re relying on others not making the same mistakes because they’d fear the repercussions if they were caught doing something untoward. I think spending our time legislating and regulating these things so not mistakes like this don’t happen again would be a much better use of our time.

    If the government takes in more tax they can invest in programs that encourage new start up companies and encourage research and development. These are the kinds of things that can seriously help to turn around an economy and create a lot more jobs, and a lot more higher paid jobs. Putting more money in the hands of ordinary people I can’t really see growing many areas besides from the bar and restaurant industries, retail and recreational industries. They’re not the kind of industries that create a strong economy as all of these industries are very reliant on how the economy around them is performing. The growth of these industries is also fairly well confined to how well the economy in which they operate is performing so probably isn’t as valuable to a country’s economy as other industries like the ones I mentioned above.
    Carbon tax is also needed to encourage people to move away from unsustainable energy sources that are more polluting to the environment. The benefits are far greater than how much it could put us out.

    There are a lot of reasons we have a deficit. Mainly it’s because we’re spending a lot more than we’re taking in in tax.

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    Mute Tom Rooney
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    May 1st 2013, 11:22 PM

    Evin, you said,
    ‘You’re saying you wouldn’t pay back the bond holders, but do you not think that that could harm Ireland’s reputation with international investors and reduce future investment in Ireland as a result? How would you solve that problem without paying back the bondholders’

    No I do not, Ireland’s reputation is already in the mud now because our politicians are considered to be a rabble of inept careerist gombeens. Iceland are in a great position because they burned the bond holders. You don’t seem to realise that none of these bond holders ever expected to get paid once the economy began to crumble, they took a risk and lost, risk taking is what investment is all about. Our political leaders had not got the balls to stand up for the Irish people and we are now suffering because of it.

    Evin you said, “Saying you’d cut the salaries of TD’s and ministers by 50% is a bit of an extreme and very sudden change. How would you make sure to attract people who are experts at what they do and who could be a huge benefit to Ireland, with salaries that low (particularly if you were to look at what these experts could get in the private sector)”

    Are you having a bloody laugh or what? What experts are there in the Irish government, besides them all being expert liars. It is an honour to serve ones country, it is an honour to hold public office in the Republic and it is an honour to be chosen to represent your peers on the local and international stage. What it should not be is a well paying handy number with “jobs for the boys” after you retire. If you have any sense of loyalty, civic duty or respect for Ireland or the people of Ireland you would gladly serve as a TD for 60 to 80 thousand euro per year. What we currently have running the country are failed teachers, accountants and solicitors, these people are incompetent and are destroying the future for our generation and the generations to come.

    Further more, our taoiseach is higher paid than Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and the president of France, no sane person with an ounce of rational would believe that is justified, it is a national disgrace. Also these “experts” you talk of have been grossly over paid for decades now and they still managed to destroy our country.

    We already have a carbon tax Evin and it is pointless, just another way to squeeze more money out of hard pressed individuals and family’s.

    The rest of your post is not worth responding to, because quite frankly it is utter nonsense. I don’t care if you are insulted by that, the truth hurts.

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    Mute Evin Lee
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    May 2nd 2013, 12:31 AM

    Ireland’s reputation is not in the mud, and our politicians have respect by the barrel-full rolling in from international leaders and experts. Enda Kenny was on the front cover of Time magazine because of the excellent turnaround his government has managed to achieve compared with what would be expected from anyone else. There’s also been a good bit of attention brought to the huge difference between the high opinion that the rest of the world holds for our current government vs the extremely low opinion the Irish people seem to have for them.

    I’m not saying government salaries shouldn’t be cut. I totally believe salaries are out of control. I think a 50% reduction is a bit extreme though. As much as it’s an honour to serve your country, if a salary isn’t attractive enough you won’t get experts aiming for the job. Experts can choose where they make their impact, whether it be internationally or nationally or whatever else. If we want to hold on to our talent we need to make sure the important jobs are enough to attract the kind of people who could be the most benefit for Ireland, otherwise they’ll just go elsewhere. What we need to avoid is cutting salaries across the board without giving an opportunity for those that do a good job to get the reward they deserve.

    Thanks for more insults.

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    Mute Evin Lee
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    May 2nd 2013, 12:46 AM

    Oh and totally agree about Ireland’s national resources. We should definitely be nationalising our resources and developing them. Giving that wealth away is absolutely ridiculous.

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    Mute Solbank Sabadell
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    May 1st 2013, 9:09 AM

    There is a legal challenge to household charge and property tax – at attackthetax.com no reason to pay either. It’s not about the money any more is about the insanity of the four loopers out of control trying to push us off the cliff

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    Mute Billy Nomates
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    May 1st 2013, 9:03 AM

    It’s Wednesday

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    Mute John Wooldridge
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    May 1st 2013, 12:11 PM

    Yeah the bondholders like Bill Gates and others like him really need to be bailed out! How on earth could they survive without the Irish taxpayer bailing them out. The Irish people can go homeless and hungry and have no pot to piss in, as long as the bondholders are ok.

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