Guyana and Norway in the second stage of a deal whereby Norway would make annual payments to Guyana to keep its forests This week a further historic step is taken in the battle to hang on the world’s remaining tropical rainforests. It is unlikely to make too many headlines, but on Friday two countries will take forward the kind of arrangement that many have talked about but few have had the boldness to actually do. Guyana and Norway’s leadership is seen in the second stage of a ground-breaking deal through which one (Norway) makes annual payments to the other (Guyana) to keep its forests. The amount of money to change hands is calculated on the basis of how well Guyana has done in holding back deforestation, and the value of that in terms of avoided carbon dioxide emissions. A complex calculation is made to determine how well the recipient country has done but this year $40m is being transferred. Guyana spends the money paid by Norway – a total of $250m spread over a period of years – on projects that will help with environmentally sound development, for example through funding solar panels on all the houses belonging to the indigenous people. In remote rainforests these are no fashion accessories. They are the means for children to read books at night and mark the end of the kerosene lamps and candles which cause indoor air pollution and fire hazards. There is also money to connect remote settlements to the internet, again powered with solar electricity. There is money to pay for the costly job of legally demarking Amerindian lands and there are plans for health, education and business support. The overall strategy is geared to keeping the forest intact, and thus the priceless services they provide for the entire world. Any rational economic calculation must conclude the world is getting the bargain of the century. Without this kind of support from Norway, the pressures on the forests might become irresistible. Guyana is poor. The country needs jobs, foreign exchange and tax revenues. And there are plenty of takers for the natural resources that await plunder in delivering these benefits. Since Brazil has cracked down on deforestation, the loggers, ranchers and soya farmers there have been looking for other places to expand their industries. Guyana is next door, connected by a new road and a prime target. I wrote about this in 2009 , but fortunately there has so far been no major incursion. Part of the reason is because Guyana’s President Jagdeo has been able to hold the line politically, in part because Norway has delivered money on a different basis. But even with the best will, Guyana needs to undertake some forest clearance. There are plans for a new hydropower dam that will flood 45 square kilometres of forest. It will lead to the loss of 0.05% of the country’s forest and is by any standard a major project. There has also been forest loss to gold mining. In the last year forest clearance has nearly tripled, mainly because of an expansion of this industry, from about 40 square kilometres to about 110. It is important, however, to put this change into the context of a tiny original deforestation rate – at six hundredths of 1% per annum, Guyana’s present rate of forest loss is about 95% below the global average. With forest nearly the size of England and Scotland combined, the total loss from the dam and mining will lead to the equivalent of 10% of Norfolk being deforested. And the very fact that we know this is a major step forward. Both the low deforestation rate and the rapid rate of change were revealed by satellite monitoring funded from the first tranche of Norwegian money paid last year. Guyana has sent a signal – and it is being heard. One consequence is seen in the fact that land-hungry natural resource companies looking for space in which to expand agriculture and logging are heading toward neighbouring Surinam. That country has no such deal with Norway, or anyone else for that matter, and unfortunately business as usual prevails there. History is being made; and not just history in human affairs. It is about the history of life on Earth and whether we will find the means to co-operate in arresting the destruction of our planet’s verdant lifebelt of tropical rainforests. Forests Deforestation Conservation Endangered habitats Wildlife Tony Juniper guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
The family of Zhao Wei, 23, were told he jumped to his death at a railway station, but they believe he was murdered This much is certain: on a freezing January evening, a 23-year-old student boarded a train to inner Mongolia, to spend the Chinese new year with his family. Zhao Wei never reached home. By early next morning, he was dead. Police said he had jumped to his death from a building at a railway station halfway along the line. But an online letter signed in his parents’ names offers another, chilling version of events. It alleges he was led away by railway police after a petty dispute with train staff; that his corpse was covered in unexplained injuries; that officials had “left a hundred questions unanswered” and that he was murdered. Perhaps it was the letter’s anguish that spoke to its readers. Perhaps it was Zhao’s ordinariness. Perhaps it was underlying distrust of officials, fuelled by a series of death in custody scandals . Whatever the reason, it seized attention: within a few days internet users had forwarded two posts about the case more than 100,000 times on the country’s most popular microblog. But shortly afterwards the appeal disappeared from the Chinese website hosting it and the news report on the case was deleted from most sites. This week, state news agency Xinhua issued the official verdict. A careful investigation had found conclusive evidence that Zhao got off the train at Daqing in Heilongjiang “due to his own reasons; fell off the building while he was climbing over a fence and died from severe brain injury”. There had been no dispute with the train crew or passengers. With no further details forthcoming, the findings raise more questions than they answer. Why did Zhao climb off the train at an unknown station hundreds of miles from home in the middle of the night? What was he doing on the building when he fell and why was he climbing its fence? “So Zhao Wei committed suicide … the statement chills the heart of those who still have hope for this society,” wrote one person. Another declared his suspicion more bluntly: “They killed you because they knew that if they did, they wouldn’t be held accountable.” According to the online letter, Zhao moved carriages at about 10pm, telling a fellow student that he seemed to have upset the conductor by complaining that an attendant had ridiculed him in a disagreement over a seat change. It went on: “At around 3am, the railway police came and asked Zhao Wei to come with them. “When this classmate next saw Zhao Wei, [his] eyes were already black and blue, and his life was gone.” Photographs purportedly of Zhao showed a young man with a blackened, swollen right eye and marks on his jaw and by his ear. “There were three wounds inside and outside his left ear … wounds in two places on his right lower jaw … a large purple bruise on his right hip and buttock, and a wound in the middle … five wounds on his right groin, and his scrotum had swollen up to the size of a pear. There were many wounds on both hands, and his left wrist bore purplish red marks that suggested he had been handcuffed,” the letter added. It begged leaders for a full investigation, warning: “If we cannot get to the bottom of Zhao Wei’s death, there is a risk the same kind of thing could happen to a Qian Wei, a Sun Wei or a Li Wei. “Deal with the murderers, return justice to this harmonious society, and hand justice back to this simple peasant couple who raised Zhao Wei these 23 years.” The Xinhua article published this week said all Zhao’s injuries resulted from his fall. It added that his family had witnessed a re-examination of his body, which had subsequently been cremated, and had no objection to the investigation’s results. The Guardian has been unable to contact his family directly, despite repeated attempts over several weeks. An Oriental Morning Post article said a relative confirmed that Zhao’s parents wrote the online letter. The Hebei University of Technology, where Zhao studied, said it “didn’t know anything” about the case. The ministry of railways and the railway police did not respond to faxed requests for more information. “From the brief glimpse we were given in China’s microblogs and a single mainstream media report, it seems the Zhao Wei case epitomised many issues of concern to ordinary Chinese. Most importantly, though, I think it spoke to the desire for real answers and for real justice,” said David Bandurski of the China Media Project, which has archived much of the deleted material relating to the case. He added: “This was a tragedy that might befall any Chinese family. Would this family be able to find justice against vested political interests determined to cover up the truth and avoid responsibility? “Unfortunately, this single Xinhua release, claiming against a background of complete silence that justice has been served, suggests that the answer to that question is no.” China Internet Social media Digital media Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Hammond says High Speed Two could provide 160 extra services a day as roadshow attempts to win over opponents Commuters in towns and cities on the High Speed Two rail route will benefit from 160 extra services a day into the capital if a new London-to-Birmingham line is built, the government has claimed. In the latest attempt to win over sceptical home counties residents about the £17bn project, the transport secretary, Philip Hammond, has launched a sound simulation of the 225mph route and is seeking to convince passengers who live near the line that extra space will be created on the nearby West Coast and Chiltern lines. According to the Department for Transport, the biggest beneficiaries could be Milton Keynes, which could see services increase by 90%, Northampton, with a near-50% rise, and Tamworth and Lichfield, with 80% increases. None of these will have a station on the line, and Lichfield residents have expressed concerns about the route’s proximity to the town. Having admitted that the environmental case is weaker than expected, and ratcheted down the business benefits of the line, the government is now targeting commuters in an attempt to overcome strong local opposition. Hammond said: “Our proposed new high-speed rail network would free up a huge amount of space on current railways for more trains to operate. Building a whole new line would create scope for people who live near the current stations to get more frequent services that are less crowded – I would also hope that this additional competition could mean cheaper fares as well.” He said commuters in some towns, such as Milton Keynes, could see a near doubling in the number of trains from their station to London. “The reality is that many of our current trains are full and too many people have to stand – we desperately need the extra trains and capacity that a new high-speed rail network would bring.” The HS2 roadshow will include sound booths that play simulations of the route in four locations: Northolt in west London; Great Missenden and Wendover in Buckinghamshire; and Ladbroke in Warwickshire. The 3D system, created by the engineering firm Arup, uses sound recordings taken from French TGV high-speed services and lays them over background recordings taken from the four locations. Arup stressed that the clip given to the Guardian is a reduced and simplified version of the roadshow recordings. However, opposition to the line remains fierce in the countryside sections of the 140-mile route. Julian Smyth-Osbourne, spokesman for HS2 Action Alliance, said: “How loud or quiet the high-speed train may be is an issue for the poor people who live and work near the line. “What is becoming increasingly clear is that HS2 will be a white elephant costing billions that will be a millstone round all of our necks for generations to come and that is an issue for every single one of us.” Rail transport Transport policy Transport Rail travel Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Unlike Hamas and Hezbollah, the young want peace and progress in our region The Middle East has to make a historic choice: to join the new global age of democratic peace and liberal economy, or to stay clinging to its history of closed societies and autocracy. A great revolt has been initiated by young people and women , to gain freedom, bread and hope. Israel is watching with great expectation. These events are both unprecedented and unplanned. The internet, Facebook and Twitter have created mass communications and social spaces that regimes cannot control. These developments allowed young people to compare notes with their contemporaries in other countries, and to see clearly how their own governments wasted wealth and time to enhance their own power while ignoring the needs of their people. It opened their eyes. The upheaval we see today in our region is driven by a clash of generations rather than a clash of civilisations. The older generation had greater respect for land than science. But we live in an age when science, more than soil, has become the provider of growth and abundance. Living just on the land creates loneliness in an age of globality. Israel is an example of that today: technology and not territory are the drivers of wealth. We have shown that with a small piece of land, little water and no oil, it is possible to create a thriving economy and a sustainable democracy. Israel welcomes the wind of change, and sees a window of opportunity. Democratic and science-based economies by nature desire peace. Israel does not want to be an island of affluence in an ocean of poverty. Improvements in our neighbours’ lives mean improvements to the neighbourhood in which we live. Israelis understand that this is no less true of the Palestinians . That is why successive Israeli governments have given their full support to the efforts of Palestinians in the West Bank to build their own economy, their own institutions, and their own security forces. Economic growth in the West Bank is now close to 10% annually. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians see the tangible fruit of this co-operation. Knowledge, freedom and peace are inseparable. Peace is needed and can be achieved by direct negotiations. This was the case with Egypt and Jordan, and can happen with the Palestinians. The gap between ourselves and the Palestinians is more psychological than material. Bringing an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may help the young Arab generation to realise their aspirations. Israel is more than willing to offer our experience in building a modern economy in spite of limited resources to the whole region. We seek only the acceptance from our neighbours and the opportunity to play a full role in the life of the region. Israel was born under the British mandate. We learned from the British what democracy means, and how it behaves in a time of danger, war and terror. We thank Britain for introducing freedom and respect of human rights both in normal and demanding circumstances. It was a great lesson and a necessary one for a country such as Israel, which has been attacked seven times in the 63 years of its existence without compromising democracy and without giving up our quest for peace. However, there are other forces in our region that want to resist the spread of these values. They are ready to abuse democratic institutions to gain power, but without the commitment to maintain the integrity of those institutions once they are in power. Hamas and Hezbollah, backed by Iran, are representatives of these forces. Those reactionary forces, that would hijack their countries back down the path of radicalism, are also the enemies of peace with Israel. That is why we hope our neighbours will choose to join the family of democratic nations. Shimon Peres is president of Israel Palestinian territories Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Israel Social media Digital media Shimon Peres guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Businesses are gearing up for compliance as facilitation payments and hospitality are set to come under closer scrutiny After widespread criticism of the lack of clarity in the original draft guidance to the Bribery Act 2010, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has rewritten it and the act will come into force on 1 July. The UK is under immense pressure to bring the act into force to ensure we comply with our international obligations, but businesses are justifiably concerned about the new law . It includes an extremely broadly drawn corporate criminal offence of “failing to prevent a bribe by an associated person”. This wide form of vicarious liability is subject only to a defence that the company had “adequate procedures” in place to prevent the commission of an offence. The company’s senior executives can also be liable if the offence is committed with their consent or connivance. The government was wary of making the guidance a detailed checklist, for fear that this could straitjacket the law’s flexibility or fetter charging decisions. Instead, the guidance sets out six key principles for businesses to consider and now includes some practical guidance for them to follow. So, for example, Principle 1 – Proportionate Procedures includes an accompanying case study about a medium-sized company which has acquired a new customer in a foreign country in which “facilitation payments” are the norm. The guidance suggests enlisting UK diplomatic channels in order to apply pressure on the foreign authorities to take action to stop demands for such payments. Pretty campaigning stuff for a medium-sized company involved in a new and possibly small contract, you might think. In the meantime, many businesses are devoting considerable energy to gearing up for compliance. One multinational, for example, is interrogating all its advisers on their corruption policies and extending that to law firms who advise third parties involved in joint ventures. Other global corporates are aggressively recruiting experienced regulatory lawyers to beef up their compliance departments. Many sectors are especially concerned about facilitation payments. They are already prohibited, but the act extends the territoriality of bribery to persons who have a “close connection” with the UK. Controversially, the guidance states that the mere fact that a company has a listing on a UK stock market does not of itself establish a sufficient link. And a subsidiary in the UK will not necessarily mean that the parent company has a sufficient nexus with the UK to be caught by the act either. Some contend that the guidance, produced under the current coalition government, has unlawfully watered down the territoriality of the act (which was passed by the previous Labour government). More generally, businesses will be closely scrutinising the guidance for the factors the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), in particular, will take into account when assessing whether to prosecute, such as self-reporting, post-investigation improvement and monitoring measures. In tandem with the MoJ guidance, the director of public prosecutions and the SFO director have issued joint prosecution guidance on the Bribery Act which spells out, for example, that facilitation payments are more likely to attract prosecution if premeditated. The act applies to commercial bribery but it also applies to individuals who attempt to influence the application of rules, regulations and normal procedures – hence the possibility of both CPS and SFO prosecutions. Other sectors are currently exercised about hospitality issues, although the SFO is likely to take a commonsense view of these – especially when it is reportedly only receiving an extra £2m to enforce the new law. And “reasonable hospitality to meet, network and improve relationships with customers” is excluded from the act. Nevertheless, some professional advisers have felt the need to clarify whether the provision for marketing purposes of company-branded mouse mats, calendars and golf umbrellas would be likely to attract criminal prosecution. The justice secretary, Ken Clarke, has now made it clear that “no-one is going to try to stop businesses getting to know their clients by taking them to events like Wimbledon, Twickenham or the Grand Prix”. The guidance goes further and considers whether providing free baseball tickets in New York is the wrong side of line. Unless the Big Apple has been chosen as a deliberately seductive location and is not at all incidental to the business being transacted, going to see the Yankees is unlikely to give rise to a prosecution at Southwark crown court. Another major issue is the scope of the public procurement rules, which prohibit companies convicted of corruption from tendering for EU public contracts. The government is proposing to amend those rules so that the new corporate bribery offence does not trigger debarment. At present, the only way to avoid this is for a company to self-report and to reach a purely civil settlement with the SFO, or to negotiate a plea bargain for non-corruption (eg “books and records”) offences. When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought about western civilisation, he replied that he thought it would be a good idea in principle. I imagine that most people would take the same stance concerning broader criminal liability for bribery and corruption. All the more reason that the law should be crystal clear: it will not be a level playing field otherwise. The revamped guidance is surely a welcome attempt at that goal. Alex Bailin QC is a barrister at Matrix chambers and previously was a derivatives trader in the City of London Bribery Act corruption index Serious Fraud Office Alex Bailin guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The rise of child-men like David Cameron and Jeremy Clarkson suggests an alarming shift in modern masculinity Call it “preadulthood”: the period between late adolescence and one’s late 30s, when there are far more questions than answers. Jobs and relationships may only be fleeting. Life, particularly for those passing through higher education or in the midst of it, will appear to brim with choice and freedom – but eventually feel weighted with angst, exhaustion, and the realisation that any halfway livable existence should be altogether more settled. I should know: it’s not that long since I left. Another thought: could women be better at navigating this phase than men? Bring in a few modern archetypes, and see why this might hold true. While no end of cultural noise is devoted to twenty- and thirtysomething career women, making haste in case motherhood brings things to a halt, how is it that the most common image of their male contemporaries tends to be silliness, ineptitude and too much booze? Higher female attainment at school is traditionally put down to girls maturing more quickly than boys, with the gap closing by university. Not so: in higher education there have long been concerns about a growing gender difference reflected in participation rates and finals results (men are more likely to get 2:2s and thirds). At the last count, 11% of young women graduates had failed to find a job, and 17% of men . The chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters credits women with being “more mature and focused”; by contrast, to quote a US writer, might it be that millions of young men have yet to be more than “giant frat boys, maladroit geeks, or unwashed slackers”? Those words, along with the term “preadulthood”, come from a new book called Manning Up , subtitled “How the rise of women has turned men into boys”, by the conservative polemicist Kay S Hymowitz. US publishing seems to produce these breathlessly written, often maddening texts by the score. But this one picks apart something that has been bugging me for years: a suspicion that my generation blazed a trail for a newly puerile kind of masculinity that has been locked into millions of lives. I hit my 20s as preadulthood’s basics were being identified, and so-called laddism was at its peak. I recognise Hymowitz’s picture of the Anglo-American culture it spawned: “child-man” icons such as Adam Sandler and Owen Wilson, and male-fronted TV shows – Top Gear, obviously – that “wink at contemporary man’s shallowness and puerility, as if the dudes know full well just how ridiculous they are”. Reading her book, I even started to wonder if the failure of modern male politicians to exude the authority of their predecessors might be down to the malaise she describes: witness the noticeable decline in the tone of PMQs once David Cameron got involved – usually put down to his Etonian “Flashman” tendencies , though perhaps just as traceable to a male generation for whom crass mockery is much more ingrained than elegant repartee. That said, I’m not sure about her implication that inside every man is a semi-feral ubermensch who needs an outlet; better, surely, to encourage an updated version of the New Man wiped out in the backlash against the right-on 1980s. Though she cites evidence that female graduates are out-earning male contemporaries in some US cities (but not, it has to be said, in the UK), her picture of an insurgent postfeminist sisterhood bumps up against the gender pay gap, and the inability of most industrial economies to know what to do about motherhood. But there is something in her conviction that, among the vociferous middle class at least, one result of the embrace of female empowerment has been a dangerous downgrading of men, particularly when it comes to the importance of fatherhood. From that, a lot follows. If you’re writing dads out of the script via blithe claims that their role is overrated and the celebration of reproductive independence (for the rich, at least), don’t be surprised if educated male thirtysomethings remain stubbornly dissolute and commitment-phobic, and at the more difficult edges of society you sow chaos. It’s also right to wonder about the pernicious effects of TV, movies and more, and what our public-service broadcaster is doing funding the rise and rise of Clarkson and co; right too, perhaps, to fear the consequences of “child-men” not just on our screens, but in power. This is something Hymowitz doesn’t consider: gender inequalities staying much the same, and made more toxic by the arrival of a new male elite emerging from extended adolescence even less qualified to lord it around than its predecessors. In fact, on current evidence, might we be there already? Gender Women David Cameron Jeremy Clarkson John Harris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Long-running feud between country and internet company flares up again as Beijing alleges tax violations by subsidiaries Chinese authorities have found three companies linked to Google Inc broke tax rules and are investigating possible tax avoidance, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday, raising the risk of renewed pressure on the internet search giant. Google said two of the companies named were its units, and a third was a separate firm that works closely with Google. But Google denied the tax violations alleged in the Chinese-language Economic Daily. “We believe we are, and always have been, in full compliance with Chinese tax law,” Google said in a statement. Even if the report is unfounded or embellished, it could bring fresh headaches in China for Google, which has gone through difficult times there since early last year when it clashed with the government over internet censorship and hacking attacks . China generates a small percentage of Google’s revenues, but is the world’s largest internet market with more than 450 million users. The country’s search market, dominated by homegrown Baidu Inc, was worth 11bn yuan (£1.05bn) in 2010 and is likely to grow by about 50% each year for the next four years, according to iResearch. The Economic Daily said that the three companies investigated and punished were “Google enterprises in China”. “The taxation authorities have already investigated and punished the three companies according to the law,” said the report on its front page. The companies were accused of presenting false and unjustified claims to the total value of 40m yuan, said the report. It did not say when the claimed violations are alleged to have happened. “It is understood by this reporter that the taxation authorities are further investigating Google businesses in China on suspicion of tax avoidance,” said the brief story, which was also later reported by China’s official Xinhua news agency. A Google spokesperson said the two of the accused companies – Google Information Technology (China) Co Ltd and and Google Information Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd – were its sub-units. It said the third company named, Google Advertising (Shanghai) Co Ltd, was a separate firm which works “closely with Google as Google’s sole first-tier reseller in China” of advertising on the search engine’s web pages. “Most foreign companies in China, especially high-profile companies with a global reputation at stake, are pretty careful to make sure they are in full compliance with the relevant tax laws,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a Beijing-based company that advises investors about China’s Internet and telecommunications sectors. China’s foreign ministry would not comment directly about the report. “Generally speaking, any companies operating abroad should obey the laws and regulations of the host country,” said the ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. The report appeared after Google again clashed with the Chinese government over internet censorship. Earlier this month, Google said any difficulty that users in China may have faced opening its email service were likely the result of government blocks. China’s ruling Communist party has intensified censorship in recent months, fearing that calls for protests inspired by anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Middle East and north Africa could gather momentum. Google’s serious run-ins with the Chinese government began in January 2010, when the company said it was no longer willing to censor search results in the country. Previously, the company included a disclaimer on its China service that searches may not be complete because of local laws. Google China Internet guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Ten years after its exit from Europe sparked street protests, the retailer is taking over a 15,000 square foot site in Paris Marks & Spencer is returning to France, opening a store on the Champs Elysées a decade after its retreat across the Channel sparked street protests in Paris. The company replanted a British flag in the heart of the Gallic retail industry this morning by disclosing that it would open a shop on the central-Paris boulevard. As well as opening other general stores around Paris, M&S is in talks to open a number of Simply Food outlets in the city. In a first for the company, it will accompany the expansion with a new French-language website, which will trade in euros. The main M&S store will extend to 15,000 sq ft over three floors and sell womenswear and food, taking over a site currently occupied by the Espirit clothing chain. M&S executives are hoping that the group’s return to France will receive a more positive response than its exit. In 2001, trade unions demonstrated against the closure or sale of 38 stores across France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux countries. The reaction in France was particularly vociferous, with government ministers backing protests . However, M&S already appears to have learned from the past: it has pledged to retain and retrain the 30 Esprit staff. Unveiling the “bricks and clicks” strategy in Paris this morning, M&S chief executive Marc Bolland said the new shops would launch before Christmas. “Marks & Spencer has great brand awareness here in France and a place in customers’ hearts,” he added. “We’re very excited to be returning with an e-commerce and retail offer to delight customers with our full range of clothing and home products, and the exceptional food from our Paris store.” M&S said it would open Simply Food sites in collaboration with SSP, a UK franchise partner. Despite the street protests, M&S remains well-regarded in France. The group said seven out of ten people questioned for a survey were aware of the brand. However, M&S is not expected to restrict its ambitions to France. It was recently reported to be in talks to buy back some of the nine stores it sold to Spanish department chain El Corte Ingles as part of its European exit. The mainland Europe move has been expected for some time after Sir Stuart Rose, who chaired M&S until January this year, made clear his desire to reverse the 2001 exit. M&S, which has more than 600 shops in the UK, has been expanding abroad aggressively in recent years, with new outlets in India, Dubai and China. It plans to generate up to a fifth of sales overseas. Retail industry Marks & Spencer Marc Bolland Supermarkets France Europe Europe Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Ten National Trust walking guides let embarrassed walkers find their way to Booby’s Bay or Scrubby Bottoms without asking Ever fancied putting your foot down on Kiss Me Arse Steps or taking a ramble to Slapper’s Rock but have been too embarrassed to ask the way? Walkers searching for the best route down to Scrubby Bottoms or picking their way through The Nostrils can consult a new range of online guides to the slightly rudely named places of Britain. Ten walking guides to some of our silliest-named beauty spots are now available to download free from the National Trust, showing the way to Booby’s Bay in Cornwall and Windy Gap in Surrey. According to Paul Cavill, editor of the English Place-Name Society journal, such names are very old. “Most describe the geography or land ownership, so finding out the meaning may be useful to walkers,” he said. Often the silly names are blunt and literal: Kiss Me Arse Steps, at Lansallos, Cornwall, is inspired by the steep steps that result in the person in front of you having their backside in your face, while Slapper’s Rock, North Helford, Cornwall, is probably named after the sound of the sea hitting the rock, although “slap” in Old English also means a “slippery muddy place”. Pisser Clough near Hardcastle Crags, West Yorkshire is more complex. Clough comes from the Old English for a wooded vale, while “pisser” may stem from “pissant”, meaning insignificant and also slang for an ant. “Lowly valley” hardly does justice to the glories of the local scenery which offers tumbling streams, plentiful birdlife and the northern hairy wood ant. A final warning: the biggest hazard for those fancying these treks is Googling the names. Far safer to go straight to www.nationaltrust.org.uk/walks . Walking holidays Yorkshire Cornwall United Kingdom Europe Patrick Barkham guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Flagship Odeon Leicester Square cinema is part of private equity firm Terra Firma’s portfolio Financier Guy Hands, the boss of private equity outfit Terra Firma, is considering selling the market-leading Odeon & UCI cinema chain as he begins rebuilding a City reputation that was dented by the EMI debacle. Hands has seen his image as a master dealmaker tarnished by his firm’s disastrous acquisition of music group EMI, which was seized by Citigroup in February , leaving Hands’s company with a loss of £1.75bn. However, Hands is already giving serious consideration to his next step and is mulling the sale of Europe’s largest cinema group and one of the UK’s big three chains, after rivals expressed interest in the business. According to initial reports in the Financial Times , Bank of America Merrill Lynch is expected to run the auction if one goes ahead, but it is understood that Hands has made no definitive decision yet. Another option on the table includes refinancing the business with new debt of about £600m and holding on to the company. BC Partners, a UK buyout firm, is a leading potential buyer of the chain, which owns around 200 cinemas with a total of 1,850 screens. The majority of its portfolio is in the UK, including the flagship Odeon Leicester Square cinema which often hosts gala premieres. However, the sheer scale of the business means that a bid from rival Vue Entertainment would likely face competition hurdles. Odeon & UCI generated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £80m in 2009. Despite the travails of the movie business in the home entertainment market, cinemas are still viewed as an attractive investment because 3D films are giving a new boost to the market, although UK attendance slipped 2.4% last year. Odeon & UCI leads the UK by market share, with 23%, followed by Cineworld on 21% and Vue with 17%. Analysts said the neck-and-neck positioning of the businesses would make any sector consolidation a likely target of regulators. Film industry Guy Hands Private equity Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …