The 25th anniversary of Live Aid is being used as an example of how generous people can be in supporting good causes. Nonsense: the concerts were all about commerce, not charity – self interest rather than selfless philanthropy.
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If the volcanic cloud that grounded UK aviation for a week has any silver lining it may be to provide a better understanding of risk. A safe flight is one that never takes off: the question is how much risk we are prepared to accept.
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Travellers expect their airlines to foot the bill for their enforced grounding. Airlines want governments to compensate them for their losses. Where are governments meant to find the money? Taxing travellers, presumably.
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The one company Labour’s proposed “Cadbury Law” would not have protected was Cadbury. Despite the French protection of their yoghurt industry, saving a chocolate company cannot be considered to be in the national interest.
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Perhaps it was just a pre-election publicity stunt, but the prime minister celebrated International Women’s Day by threatening action against companies that do not put more women on their boards. That’s rich from a man whose 22-member cabinet contains just four females.
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Profits warnings are common during recessions but the oddest seen so far comes from Goldshield Group. The new owner has looked at the books and said that for several years the pills company’s profits may have been understated. Yes, understated.
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Should a company remain independent when almost two-thirds of its shareholders want to sell it? The business secretary thinks so. Lord Mandelson has added his name to those who think the minority should outvote the majority on takeovers.
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Supermarkets are probably the most competitive business in the UK. Why then are they being lumbered with an ombudsman, a new supplier code and all the compliance bureaucracy that goes with them?
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A report detailing the gap between Britain’s rich and poor has been met with universal shock and promises to narrow the divide. But why? Isn’t inequality not only inevitable but desirable?
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What better monument to financial folly than the tower opened in Dubai at the start of 2010?
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