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Olympics gave Britain a $15 bn boost: government

July 19, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

The Olympic Games in London last year gave the British economy a boost worth $15 billion, the government said on Friday, a figure far higher than the cost of staging the event.

Business Secretary Vince Cable, putting the benefits at ??9.9 billion (11.5 billion euros), conceded that some of the investment might have happened anyway, but insisted the Games had acted as a “key catalyst” for deals to be agreed.

The Olympics and Paralympics last summer were a huge success for British athletes, netting them a haul of medals including 29 golds.

The cost was even slightly under budget at ??8.92 billion.

But the government has always stressed the importance of the economic and sporting legacy from the event, and an official report from UK Trade and Investment suggests progress on this is going well.

The ??9.9 billion boost to the economy comes from businesses securing new contracts, additional sales and new foreign investment in the last year.

This includes ??120 million of contracts won by British companies for the Rio Games and Brazil World Cup next year.

Some projects included in the report do not appear directly linked to the Games, such as a new shopping centre planned for Croydon, south London, and the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station by the River Thames by a Malaysian consortium.

But Cable defended the report, saying it was compiled by asking the companies making investments whether they would have spent their money without the Games.

“The answer we’ve had with a lot of the high-profile investment — like the Malaysians in Battersea Power Station — is that a lot of the key negotiations and support came out of the events that we organised around the Olympics,” he told BBC radio.

“Would this have happened anyway? Some of these activities clearly would, but the Olympics were a key catalyst in making those investment decisions real.”

The business secretary said he had personally been sceptical about the Games before Britain won the bid, warning that it would be “a big cost and there would be no benefit”.

But he said: “What happened around the Olympics was an enormous amount of effort put in by my department and other ministers to try to attract big inward investment here, to try to support British businesses to get business on the back of it.

“It was done in a very sustained systematic way and it continues. This is a positive over and above the ‘party’, and I think it is very real,” he said.

Automobiles

Report: Jeremy Clarkson banked $21M from BBC last year

July 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Brandon Turkus

Filed under:

Jeremy Clarkson, host of Top Gear, is known for many things. He’s arguably the most polite, unoffensive person… in the world. His consideration for people, countries, and causes is renowned. No, wait – that’s wrong.

While he may be none of the things listed above, he is now known, for the second year in a row, we might add, as the highest-paid employee of the BBC. According to a post in The Guardian, Jezza raked in about $21 million last year from a few different sources.

Before our British readers get too outraged over the misuse of their license fees, it should be known that Clarkson’s presenting fee, which is paid by the BBC’s license fee, was only about one million pounds ($1.51 million at today’s rates).

So where’s the rest of the money from? Well, like most all wealthy folk, from a series of shrewd financial decisions. Clarkson, along with Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman, set up a company called Bedder 6 to leverage the global brand created by the TV show. Setup alongside the BBC, Clarkson’s 30-percent share brought him a 4.86-million-pound ($7.4 million) dividend cut last year.

In September, Clarkson sold his stake to the BBC, bringing in an additional 8.4 million pounds ($12.7 million). While the Top Gear star’s income might be rage-inducing for British citizens forced to endure an economy that is far from recovered, it should be noted that Clarkson wasn’t the only one making sound financial decisions. For the 16.2 million pounds ($24.6 million) the BBC paid for the 50 percent of Bedder 6 it didn’t already own, it’s already recouped 7.5 million pounds ($11.39 million). The BBC is also receiving 100 percent of the profits from the Top Gear name and associated properties.

There’s even some good news for car fans here. According to a BBC spokesman, “The deal also secured the future of the Top Gear brand for the BBC and BBC Worldwide.” Along with news of renewed contracts, that should mean many more years of automotive shenanigans. And on that bombshell, it’s time to end.

Jeremy Clarkson banked $21M from BBC last year originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Jul 2013 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

PayPal Makes Man a Quadrillionaire—by Accident

July 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Kate Seamons

It’s not too often you see the word “quadrillionaire” in a headline. Actually, probably never, considering Chris Reynolds of Media, Penn., was the first man to ever be one—albeit very, very briefly. Reynolds opened his PayPal statement this month to find he had been credited $92,233,720,368,547,800. (As ABC News explains, his account read “-92,233,720,368,547,800.00,” which represented not a negative balance but a credit.) But as the saying goes, his good fortune was fleeting: He logged on to find his balance had been reverted to zero.

PayPal addressed the mishap yesterday, telling the BBC, “This was obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr. Reynolds understands this was the case.” As a thank you for that understanding, it has offered to make a donation to the charity of Reynolds’ choice. But what PayPal told Reynolds had to smart a bit: It apologized for the “inconvenience,” he says. Turns out it’s an inconvenience for the rest of us, too: Had the balance been a correct one, Reynolds tells the Philadelphia Daily News he would have used it to “pay the national debt down. Then I would buy the Phillies, if I could get a great price.” (In other tales of riches denied, click to read about inventors who saw no windfall from their big idea.)

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Great Finds

Young doctor is new Apprentice

July 17, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Irish doctor Leah Totton bagged a ??250,000 cash boost for her cosmetic procedures business after winning the ninth series of BBC hit show The Apprentice.

Lord Alan Sugar, the programme’s supremo, put aside previous misgivings about the enterprise’s morality to utter the fabled words “you’re hired” to the 25-year-old, who beat off competition from friend Luisa Zissman and her cake-shop business.

Totton called the victory “completely overwhelming” and said it gave her business a “good platform”.

“I was more prepared for losing,” she claimed.

Past winners have not always found immediate success, and it is often the runner-up whose business ended up thriving.

Last year’s loser Tom Gearing said that second-place offered more scope for success.

“One of the biggest bonuses is that you have the profile but you still have complete freedom,” he said.

“The winners are tied in with Lord Sugar’s PR company which decides what you can and cannot do. They want you to knuckle down. Whereas I could make the most of the opportunity.”

Totton, 25, hopes to develop anti-ageing skin treatments at a chain of clinics but will continue with her masters degree and plans a low-key celebration.

“I’m not really a big partier,” she said. “My colleagues are coming round tonight, I’m going to cook and we’ll watch the show together. I’m going to go back to Ireland and be around my family.”

Miller takes BBC to task over 'derogatory' remark

July 17, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Culture Secretary Maria Miller has written to ask the BBC what action will be taken over “derogatory” comments made by sports presenter John Inverdale about Wimbledon winner Marion Bartoli.

Miller’s letter to director general Tony Hall attacked Inverdale’s suggestion that the French player was “never going to be a looker”.

She asked to be kept informed about the “further action that is likely to be taken” after more than 600 complaints were received.

“It is … a matter of some concern to me that any comment on the looks and stature of a female athlete could be made in the context of one of the highlights of the UK’s, and indeed the world’s, sporting calendar,” said the letter, printed in the Daily Mail on Thursday.

“I am sure you will agree with me that it is vital that young women and girls in this country feel motivated both to take part in and to watch coverage of sport, and to know that they are included in the enjoyment of sport, and catered for by the media just as much as the male audience,” she added.

Inverdale said he had written to Bartoli to apologise for using a “clumsy phrase”.

“The point I was trying to make in a rather ham-fisted kind of way is that the public perception of tennis players is that they’re all 6 feet-tall Amazonian athletes,” he explained.

Cuba: Weapons Seized on North Korea Ship Are Ours—and Old

July 17, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Rob Quinn

North Korea—antiques weapons repairer? The Cuban government says it owns the military equipment found on a North Korean ship seized by Panamanian authorities, and the “obsolete defensive weapons” found hidden in a cargo of sugar were to be repaired in the country before being returned to Cuba, the BBC… …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

By Suw Charman-Anderson, Contributor

Wildseed Studios Seeks Original Genre Fiction

July 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

We’re all familiar with business incubators, but Wildseed Studios are applying the idea to the creative industries, launching a new ‘content and talent’ incubator. They are seeking original sci-fi, fantasy and horror ideas and will be investing up to £10,000 in each of 50 projects over the next few years. The company was founded by Miles Bullough, formerly Aardman Animations’ Head of Broadcast, and Jesse Cleverly, who previously worked at the BBC as a creative executive. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Forbes Exec Meredith Levien Tapped For Top Advertising Job At New York Times

July 15, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Jeff Bercovici, Forbes Staff In a move suggesting a possible new approach to its advertising business, The New York Times Co. has hired Meredith Kopit Levien of Forbes as its new chief revenue officer. It’s the first major appointment of a business-side executive by Times Co. CEO Mark Thompson, who joined the publisher last November after serving as head of the BBC. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Benefits cap introduced across Britain

July 15, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A cap on the amount of benefits households can claim is being rolled out across England, Scotland and Wales from Monday as part of a major government overhaul of welfare.

Under the changes, couples and single parents of working age will be entitled to no more than ??500 a week in benefits, including jobseekers allowance, housing and child benefits, while single people can receive up to ??350 a week.

The changes aim to ensure that people on benefits do not earn more than the average working family.

The government says the reforms will encourage more people back into work but critics argue that they will unfairly hit larger families and say they fail to take into account regional differences in the cost of living.

The cap, which does not apply in Northern Ireland, has been in place in the London boroughs of Haringey, Enfield, Croydon and Bromley since April.

Defending the changes, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the reforms had already led to more people returning to work in those areas.

“A very, very significant number have gone out to work; in fact, what the Jobcentre staff have told us as we have been going round is that they have seen a genuine increase since they have alerted people to the fact that they are likely to be in the cap,” he told the BBC.

“This is both about saving money and, more particularly, about changing a culture that had left families, particularly large families, finding it easy and a reality for their lives to stay out of work on taxpayers’ benefits.”

The cap will incorporate a whole range of benefits, including the new Universal Credit for jobseekers and those on low incomes, being rolled out nationally from October as part of the shake-up.

UK soldier suicides 'exceed' Afghanistan war deaths

July 14, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A total of 50 serving and veteran British soldiers committed suicide last year, more than were killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to figures reported on Sunday.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that seven serving soldiers killed themselves in 2012 and a further 14 died in suspected suicides, although inquests have not yet been held.

An investigation by the BBC found that at least 29 veterans also took their lives last year. There are no official figures.

A total of 40 British soldiers died in action in Afghanistan in the same period, while serving as part of a decade-long British deployment that reached 9,500 troops at its peak.

Relatives of those who killed themselves told the BBC the military should do more to tackle post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and treat it like a physical injury.

One soldier who committed suicide, Dan Collins, had twice survived being shot in Helmand, was blown off his feet by a roadside bomb and then witnessed a close friend killed in front of him.

He was diagnosed with PTSD and given treatment, but after 10 months the army said he had recovered. He was later released back home and on New Year’s Eve 2011, he hanged himself.

“You’ve got units for soldiers that are severely injured and they’re treated. You should have a unit for treating soldiers with PTSD,” said his mother Deana Collins.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “Every suicide is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the families of all those who have sadly taken their own lives.

“Mental health of our personnel and veterans is a top priority for the government, that is why we have committed ??7.4 million ($11 million, 8.5 million euros) to ensure there is extensive mental health support in place for everyone who needs it.”

Christian News

After Morsi, Violence Escalate Against Christians, Who Are Seen as Betrayers

July 12, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Christians in Egypt are suffering from intensified violence against them after the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi in what the BBC called “the largest political event in the history of the world.” …read more

Source: The Christian Post

From: http://pheed.upi.com/click.phdo?i=90f90e3078162df8630d665aa5bfcff3

Boeing 787 Catches Fire Again, Closes London Airport

July 12, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Kevin Spak

Looks like the Boeing 787’s fire issues aren’t entirely behind it . A parked Dreamliner, owned by Ethiopian Airlines, caught fire today at Heathrow airport, prompting a suspension of all arrivals and departures to the London airport, the BBC reports. No passengers were aboard, no injuries have been reported, and the… …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Entertainment

Comic actress Dawn French marries charity worker Mark Bignell

April 22, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

LONDON, April 22 (UPI) — British writer, comedian and actress Dawn French has married charity worker Mark Bignell at the Scarlet hotel near Newquay in Cornwall, the BBC reported.

From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/04/22/of-course-google-isnt-doing-tax-avoidance-in-britain/

Of Course Google Isn't Doing Tax Avoidance In Britain

April 22, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Tim Worstall, Contributor It comes to a pretty pass when the Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, has to go on the BBC and point out hwat everyone should already know about business taxation. Google is not tax avoiding in the UK (and most certainly not tax evading). This is the system that the politicians set up, this is how it is supposed to work. Heck, even HMRC (our equivalent of the IRS) says that this isn’t even vaguely dodgy, this is just how the system is supposed to work: Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has defended his company paying just £6m in UK corporation tax.

From: http://www.newser.com/story/166619/hunger-strike-spreads-to-half-of-gitmo.html

Hunger Strike Spreads to Half of Gitmo

April 22, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Matt Cantor Guantanamo Bay’s hunger strike is spreading fast. Eighty-four of 166 detainees are now engaged in the protest, up from 52 less than a week ago, the BBC reports. Sixteen are being force-fed and five have been hospitalized. “How can the military, even the military, hope to maintain discipline over a…