What's Going On?

Phillips Family Fortunes

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Thursday 15th May 2008, 10:30am

Some young members of the Royal Family have come under criticism recently for becoming what is described by older courtiers as the Heat magazine generation.

Wedding Bedding - £500,000 for duvet cover shot?

According to the Torygraph we may get to see the very wedding bedding photos from Peter and his Misus to be sleep in before and after their wedding.

Pete "Grins Widely" Phillips has creamed off a cool half million from top quality society magazine Hello! for exclusive wedding evening pictures with his fiancée Autumn Kelly. The mind boggles as to the nature of these piccies - a drunken hokey cokey photo taken at a squiffy angle is a treat indeed but will the coverage really extend to the bedroom?

Zara flys the Flag astride a Land Rover Freelander

Pete's sister, Zara, was the first person in direct line to the throne to be paid to appear in an advertisement, posing for Land Rover, a lthough it is understood that the decision was swayed byu a recent report that highlighted the Freelander safety standards at a time when the brand was under fire.

Zara went on to become the face of Rolex watches.

The article concludes: Is the Royal Family cheapening itself by earning cash advertising? Or do they have every right to make money as "celebrities"?

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You couldn't make it up

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Friday 2nd May 2008, 5:16pm

This is PRICELESS

Aussie Dream Pop Queen Kylie Minogue has launched a range of home furnishings. However the people she hired to market the brand missed an important "competitor" to the Divas brand.

Kylie "At Home" Bedding and Duvet Covers

Amidst the press releases and advertising campaigns an eagle-eyed shopper observed in the Guardian that there had been something of a branding blunder.

A web search for Kylie Bed Sheets reveals that there is a huge range of incontinence products carrying the Kylie brand name.

Kylie pants!

Worse, it turns out that 'Kylie' and 'pillow', 'Kylie' and 'duvet' are similarly afflicted. There's even a range of Kylie incontinence pants which I believe come in neither gold nor lamé.

Is it Curtains for Kylies Home furnishing fabrics?

After such an oversight you would expect a U Turn - however the gritty star has persisted in promoting her luxury bedding sets and is expected to reveal a new collection of stylish curtains to the UK market in the summer.

Kylie - Curtains - Pole yourself together!!!

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Tata's acquisition of the Jaguar and Land Rover.

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Tuesday 15th April 2008, 11:49am

Sale of their precious British icons to an Indian company?

Is it Tata for Land Rover's Freelander

There's reports of whisperings in British circles, and not very happy ones at that, about the new ownership of Land Rover. Too bloomin' right!

“Napoleon was right, this is a country of traders and shopkeepers. And as long as somebody buys their assets and makes something good out of it, as long as there are jobs, the British don't mind. I was saying somewhere, if somebody came with an offer for the royalty, the British would enter negotiations,” House of Lords Member, Lord Meghnad Desai said.

And the British sense of loss over the sale is quite evident. “There have been noises that this is an Indian company coming into British territory to purchase what is part of our heritage. I think there is a sense that we are, as a country, selling another important brand to another country. However, what is important is where this country is based, where the cars are based,” Motoring Editor of Auto Express, Freelander Landan Strong said.

But whoever owns the company, these cars will always be British, and for the foreseeable future, made in Britain.

British brands could still be made in the UK and some production overseas as well so long as the core brand is still seen as British. Following many troubled years Many drivers will want to see the rigourous quality assurance of the vehicles such as the safety standards of the Freelander upheld.

Meanwhile, many others say that the cars were so saleable because they had a British stamp on them.

Buying British - Freelander

Would Tata have bought Jaguar and Land Rover if they were not such emotional products? I think the fact that they are so British, and they have this tremendous reputation made them valuable enough for Tata to be interested in investing the money in the first place.

It is believed that Tata, too, wants the cars to go on looking British.

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The "Hole" Truth - Gone to Pot

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Wednesday 2nd April 2008, 5:20pm

Three Million potholes in UK

....and four thousand of them in Blackburn, Lancashire - although the holes are very small.

Where did this figure come from?

Is there a quango of "hole inspectors" out on the streets counting or are local authorities required to collate and document hole incidents and feed them to a central hole? Could it be that small action groups like http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/ provide these alarming statistics?

Another pothole site reminded me ot the lads mag section "readers wives" as Concerned of Derby writes in with a siting of a gaping hole on the A445.

Compare price of filling potholes to paying compensations

Local authorities paid a staggering £53 million in compensation and spent £12million handling claims in 2007, compared with £52million on fixing pothole.

The dangers of potholes

The Cycle Club reckon that pot heoles are responsible for 12% of compensation claims by CTC members. Lets face it taking a tumble in a bust road is no fun.

Solution

Upholding the great tradition of "look after yourself" it seems that one way to combat accidents and staggering garage repair bills is to selfishly drive around in a whopping great big off road vehicle.

Land Rover Hole Defyer

On its 60th Anniversary perhaps Land Rover should consider the needs of the urban motorists.

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Sorry - No Shorts

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Friday 14th March 2008, 5:00pm

According to tall scientists short men are the most likely to be jealous. Lofty researchers arrived at this conclusion after querying 549 adults men and women.

They wanted to rate how jealous short fatties felt and to identify the qualities that made them feel the most insecure.

The university researchers discovered that teeny weeny men felt insecure, nervous about attractive, rich and strong rivals, and taller men were the most relaxed.

Previous research has suggested that taller men are likely to be more successful in their careers, earn more and have more attractive girlfriends and this research also suggested taller chaps enjoyed psychological advantage.

"For many years we have been aware of SAS - Short-A***d-Syndrome and now we have the proof. I suppose the resentment and anger is to be expected - there's a limit to how many times you can be told by barstaff - sorry we don't serve shorts"

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