Margaret Thatcher privatised Jaguar in 1984 to howls of protest from people who liked big rusty cars that broke down a lot. Ford bought the brand for $2.5 billion in 1990, to more howls from Bufton Tufton (67) stalwart of the Enoch Powell Golf Club, Jaguar’s only customer. Sales fell to around 15,000 units [...]
Category Archives: India
It's Sunday, so it must be Islamabad
December 14, 2008 – 4:37 pm
UPDATE: They seek him here, they seek him there. Gordon Brown has moved on to Pakistan, wearing the same suit and tie, where he has applied pressure to allow the Metropolitan Police to ‘interview’ one or more of the Mumbai bombing suspects. The strategy is simple. Render them to London, buy them an Oyster Card and invite [...]
The Daily Mail finds an immigrant who wants to ban immigration
December 1, 2008 – 12:55 pm
. . . and his name is Sir Gulam Noon, who became a self-made multi-millionaire by popularising Indian ready meals and allegedly donating £250,000 to New Labour in the mistaken and unfounded misunderstanding that this would earn him a peerage. Sir G, a genuinely impressive self-made monument to bootstrap free enterprise, says that Britain is [...]
Take me to the river…
November 30, 2008 – 2:17 pm
As the furore over Mumbai resolves into Indian rage towards Pakistan, it is worth taking a step back to look at what the tensions between these countries are about. Traditional explanations centre around partition, and about the holy status of Kashmir in the Hindu imaginary as a place of heaven, portrayed as a form of [...]
Ahoy there me hearties…
November 24, 2008 – 9:55 am
Pirates are suddenly everywhere: Indian Navy sinks Pirate Ship, Somali Pirates Hijack Saudi Oil Tanker: Cadbury’s Old Jamaica chocolate bar futures are set to surge. Why the sudden interest? Piracy is not new. Nor is this revival of interest so ephemeral either. We have had quite a few Pirates of the Caribbean to contend with [...]
Human capital is only useful if you don't break the bank
November 16, 2008 – 11:30 pm
The mantra of the Third Way seems to be about “capabilities”. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband pontificated in The New Statesman that this it is about creating an “I can” society. But what exactly is the point of all this? Coming from a Development background, it took me a while to realise that all politics, [...]
It does not have to be that way
November 4, 2008 – 10:49 am
THUS aims to consolidate fresh thinking about life-changing issues, bridge the truth gap left by today’s political and business coverage and add fact-based appraisal of the best forward thinking from a host of informed sources. It will do so with good humour, optimism and empathy. You should not need a PhD to understand or enjoy [...]