Christopher John Myers

Well I never – gamekeeper turns poacher! Once Whitehall’s ‘most wined and dined civil servant’, Dave Hartnett, is joining HSBC – the bank that has just settled a $1.9bn money-laundering settlement                                                                                         Hartnett, made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2003, retired from HM Customs and Excise in 2012 after being widely criticised for the scandal that saw millions of people being asked for back dated tax. It was alleged that his department hadn't collected PAYE underpayments correctly. He told BBC Radio Four "I'm not sure a need to apologise ...We didn't get it wrong." He later did issue an unreserved apology. But the CB gong isn’t his first award – he already has a Golden Handshake award from UK Uncut for letting Goldman Sachs off their £20m tax bill. As Wikipedia reports, from October 2010 onwards protesters have been blockading and protesting outside

As the BBC censors Basily Fawlty (and the Major) I would like to remond people of the "Oval" episonde!! The Major: Strange creatures, women. I knew one once... striking-looking girl... tall, you know... father was a banker. Basil: Really? The Major: Don't remember the name of the bank. Basil: Never mind. The Major: I must have been rather keen on her because I took her to see... India! Basil: India? The Major: At the Oval... fine match, marvellous finish... now, Surrey had to get thirty-three in about half an hour... she went off to powder her... powder her hands or something... women... er... never came back. Basil: What a shame. The Major: And the strange thing was... throughout the morning she kept referring to the Indians as niggers. "No no no," I said, "the niggers are the West Indians. These people are wogs." "No, no," she said. "All cricketers are niggers." Basil: They do get awfully confused, don&#

Croydon Council’s charismatic Chief Exec Quits – what now for this failing town? Croydon Council’s Chief Executive Jon Rouse has quit after only five years.   He’s to be the new Director General for Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health. He’s had a torrid time, with Croydon’s regeneration problems multiplying as Nestle and other big employers leave for sunnier climes.   But one bit of good news – on the day he resigned – is that Westfield is coming to regenerate the town’s retail centre. Massive problems remain however. The question is, can Croydon afford another quarter of a million pounds a year for a CEO? Or would they be better sharing a Chief Exec with, say, Bromley, as Kensington and Chelsea has done with Wandsworth and Westminster Councils?   Might be worth a try? Typically, news was broken by the government and local papers – no news from the council’s headquarters.   Maybe next week??? Perplexingly, Jon R

Hope at last for Croydon as shopping giants join forces Australian shopping giant Westfield and developers Hammerson have signed a £1bn 50:50 deal to regenerate shopping centres in Croydon. The joint venture for the Whitgift and Centrale shopping centres  could create 5,000 new jobs. So long as the council don’t delay things or impose too many silly conditions, building work could start in 2015. London mayor Boris Johnson said it would return Croydon to "its former glory". As part of the deal, Westfield has acquired a 50% interest in the £115m Centrale shopping centre from Hammerson and the partners will also buy a quarter share interest in the Whitgift Centre. The development will include retail, leisure and residential units with the potential for hotels and offices. Croydon is also getting cash from the mayor's £50m Outer London Fund to boost the local economy, though it’s not clear how much exactly or what it will be used for.   So far

Latest Asian gang abuse case – BBC declares itself a race-free zone The ongoing Old Bailey case about a gang of nine Asian men in Oxford who allegedly groomed girls as young as 11 has parallels with the Rochdale abuse case of last year.   The Rochdale case involved men from rural Pakistan and other areas where women are given low status and frequently suffer abuse. Despite the best efforts of our PC brigade, there WAS a racist and a cultural dimension to that case, which has implications for the future of multiculturalism in the UK. But that’s no reason NOT to report the fact that every member of the alleged Oxford gang WAS Asian, as the BBC has evidently decided. (Despite publishing a photo that makes this fact clear). People who abuse women come from all classes and cultures, but the Asian dimension, must be properly investigated and addressed. www.telegraph.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Mark Twain’s ‘squttering’ tube recollections from 1896.   Published on the 150 th anniversary of this ‘invention of Satan himself’ This year is the 150 th anniversary of the London Underground and to mark this momentous event, I am reproducing below the incomparable Mark Twain’s hilarious encounter with the tube in the summer of 1896.   Little has changed, as you will see.   Enjoy … … underground railway, which is an invention of Satan himself. It goes no direct course, but always away around. When the train arrives you must jump, rush, fly, and swarm with the crowd into the first cigar box that is handy, lest you get left. You have hardly time to mash yourself into a portion of a seat before the train is off again. It goes blustering and squttering along, puking smoke and cinders in at the window, which some one has opened in pursuance of his right to make the whole cigar box uncomfortable if his comfort requires it; the fog of black smoke smothers the lamp and dims i