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Archive for September 26th, 2007

  Give Your Kids to a Stranger
  by Charis Whitcombe 26 Sep 07 - 15:46

Posted in news 

“Now is the time to start lobbying your MP and inviting him or her to pick up your children after school,” is the opening line of a press release from GEM Motoring Assist (formerly the Guild of Experienced Motorists).

Switching to a completely separate news story, I note that a senior aide to MPs at the House of Commons was recently jailed for having child porn on his computer. 

Jumping back to the first story, however, GEM Motoring Assist suggests that your MP should be asked to pick up your kids from school in November, when the “darker, murky afternoons have set in”. This will help your MP to realise that putting the clocks back each autumn is “endangering life and limb of our younger population.” GEM doesn’t, however, see any risks in letting a stranger pick up your children from school on a dark, murky afternoon. 

It goes without saying that all MPs are entirely good, honest people on account of their profession. They’re politicians, after all, and so naturally we trust each and every one of them. Even the recently jailed child pornographer was said to be “a highly respected member of the civil staff who was implicitly trusted by colleagues and MPs.” So that’s all right then. 

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  Cheque mate
  by Graham Whyte 26 Sep 07 - 8:29

Posted in news 

"How you say? You can stick Logan."

Renault makes a cheap car called the Logan. It’s made in the old Dacia plant in Romania and you wouldn’t want one, especially if you can recall the truly dreadful Dacia Duster.

The Logan is not intended for Europe: it’s a car made for ‘emerging markets’ where anything with four wheels is preferable to a camel or a donkey. And it’s selling like hot cakes, particularly in Iran, where 89,000 punters have already paid to take delivery even though the local factory – it can hardly be called a plant - that assembles the Logan from crates of bits shipped from Romania can’t cope with the rush of orders.

And there is an interesting sub-plot to add to Renault’s woes. The French government is preparing for possible sanctions against Iran and will expect Renault and others to back its stance, by restricting business with the country until it shelves its nuclear programme. I believe the word is dichotomy. Whom to upset: Nicolas Sarkozy or Mahmud Ahmadinejad?

According to Reuters, Renault’s strategy chief Patrick Pelata is reported to have said (in connection with pressure from the French government): “Together we have to find a solution, we cannot let the clients down. They have written out a cheque and they need to get a car or get their money back,” adding that the latter “…would not be good for Renault’s reputation”.

If the Iranian situation gets out of hand, I imagine that being a supplier to a Middle East aggressor “…would not be good for Renault’s reputation,” either. What was that word again?

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