Christopher John Myers

It used to be called 'work experience', but now we’ve borrowed the Americanism ‘intern’, with all its Monica Lewinsky associations, to describe today’s crop of whingeing ‘craft graduates’. The problem seems to be that it’s graduates coming into the workplace looking for ‘craft jobs’ like journalism or photography, where their degree is of no practical use and they are effectively thrown into direct competition with younger (obviously) school leavers who (presumably) have no unrealistic expectations of their birthright. Is it a middle class problem? Well, The Guardian is pretty middle class and in a very long (well it IS the Guardian) feature they focus on a crop of ‘interns’ who, it seems have all been exploited in the real world of work. Unsurprisingly, they are all in those ‘craft’ jobs, where a degree is of no practical use: journalism, fashion PR, ‘script-writing’ (for heaven’s sake), photography and the like.  There’s also an ‘intern in ‘politics’, as if tha...

What on earth is going on in the Attorney General’s head? First  Dominic Grieve QC, says corruption in Britain ’s Pakistani community is ‘endemic’ .. a few hours later he decides it isn’t?  As a lawyer he knows full well what words mean, so why seek out an interview to highlight the issue of electoral fraud and then retract EVERYTHING HE SAID? Let’s remind ourselves of what he said in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph about the growing problem of electoral corruption, 'Yes, it's mainly the Pakistani community, not the Indian community. I wouldn't draw it down to one. I'd be wary of saying it's just a Pakistani problem.' 'I can see many of them have come because of the opportunities that they get. But they also come from societies where they have been brought up to believe you can only get certain things through a favour culture. 'One of the things you have to make absolutely clear is that that is not the case and it's not acceptable....

If anyone doubted that the political class needed an injection of people with proper business experience, read Shadow Chancellor Ed Ball’s words on the embattled Co-Op Group, “Let’s be completely honest: the performance of the Co-operative group over recent years has been fabulous, across all its many different retail businesses. “And actually, as a bank, the Co-operative bank was one of the institutions which came through the financial crisis strong enough to step in and help other organisations in difficulty and in trouble. “That commitment to local engagement, and to local values, the ability to innovate – that is important for the future.’  This is pure fantasy. The Co-op is already closing its larger ex-Somerfield stores and is now planning more fire sales to reduce its £1.3bn of debt. The Bank is now 37 per cent owned by American hedge funds, including one described as a ‘Vulture Fund’. It’s writing off £500 million on a banking computer system that ne...

Rev Flowers – a man of our times You couldn’t make up the Rev Flowers story. A man who, in the words of the FT, is a modern day Falstaff who, “prefers young men to wenches and crystal meth to wine” is a product of our times.   His only talent seems to be for self-promotion.   If he’d been a few years younger (and less corpulent) he’d have been in I'm a Celebrity . There’s a great piece on ‘Rev’ Flowers in the FT. Normally, this would be behind the paywall, but today thanks to the modern technology, I am able to reproduce it here on my blog. The link is here, www.ft.com but may not work tomorrow! Read on, "The furore gives a government led by upper-class Conservatives an unmissable opportunity to bash the opposition Labour party. The Co-operative Group , owner of Co-op Bank, was set up in the 19th century as a self-help organisation for workers. The mutual business, whose interests range from shopkeeping to undertaking, is intrinsic to the Labour movement. ...

Triumph – the last truly British motor manufacturer – is going for the motorcycle world land speed record, currently 376.363 mph. But this isn’t one of those jet-engined thrust-powered machines - just aeroplanes with the landing gear down - this is a 1,000-hp machine with one powered rear wheel.   Just like a proper motorcycle. The Castrol Rocket is powered by two of Triumph’s 2.3litre Rocket Three engines and has been testing at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where Triumph once set world bike records 40 plus years ago. It’s a collaboration with Carpenter Racing – an American tuning outfit that’s been doing heroic things with Triumph’s Rocket Three motorcycle. For this project, Carpenter have bolted two of the in-line three cylinder engines togethe, with a custom-built crank and head to keep the overall displacement down to the 3 litre maximum allowed. There’s also a turbo-charger. In theory the Rocket III’s 2300 cc engine could have been stroked to c...