A recent Channel 4 Dispatches documentary Politicians for Hire trawled twelve well-known names with fake offers of lucrative consultancy work for a very rich Chinese businessman and two respected Commons elders Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Conservative) and Jack Straw (Labour) took the bait and came across on film as anxious to leverage their political experience and contacts for personal gain.

As a result of the revelations Rifkind’s political career has come to a sudden halt and he joins Geoff Hoon and Stephen “I’m like a cab for hire” Byers, both caught in the last Channel 4 sting five years ago, on the wall of the political Hall of Shame. Along with Straw who commented five years ago that Hoon and Byers had generated much anger and incredulity in the House of Commons for their stupidity in “being suckered into a stew like this”, or perhaps put another way, being caught. Now however it’s our Jack’s turn to drive the nails in the coffin having told his fake potential client “I have managed to keep out of any kind of scandal all my political career” He then went on to show how he earned a £60,000 a year fee from a commodity broker by getting laws changed in the Ukraine and the EU in their commercial favour, and saying that “the best way of dealing with these things is under the radar”. Continue reading →

The marketing of cigarettes is to be restricted in the UK after MPs in the House of Commons voted by 367 to 113 to require tobacco companies to sell their products in plain standardised packs.

The new regulations, which were bitterly opposed by some Conservative MPs with a history of tobacco industry support and Ukip, go to the House of Lords next week and, providing there are not too many highly-paid tobacco company consultants (lobbyists) there, should take effect from May next year. The move has been welcomed by the British Heart Foundation, Asthma UK and Action on Smoking and Health on the basis that it will save thousands of lives and help prevent the next generation from taking up the habit. Continue reading →

Legal action for allegedly misleading its customers with its marketing is being brought against pharma firm Reckitt Benckiser in Australia by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Reckitt sell a variety of pain-specific pills, for back pain, period pain, headaches, migraine etc, but the ACCC is concerned that they all contain the same active ingredient, ibuprofen lysine in the amount of 342mg, and that this is misleading and deceptive. Reckitt’s tablets are around double the price of the standard Nurofen brand and significantly more expensive than generic ibuprofen.

If the ACCC prove their case against Reckitt the company could face a fine of more than £2 million. Trust in the pharma industry would also be eroded, damage worth a lot more.

TV manufacturers Samsung has advised its customers that its Smart sets that have a voice recognition system and connection to the internet could be hacked by a third party interested in their private conversations.

The company have advised customers with the sets not to discuss anything sensitive in front of them, or to switch off the voice recognition system.

Tiger Mobiles, a smart phone comparison site rejected for a slot on the Dragon’s Den reality BBC2 TV series by the producers in 2008 have revealed that 76 (half) of the 153 companies over 11 series that were pledged money by the top entrepreneurs never saw a penny of it, and that only £5.8 million of the £13 million pledged was ever actually invested by the “dragons”.

According to Tiger Mobiles the BBC produce the show as a contrived affair that puts viewer entertainment above genuine business success.

So not to be taken too seriously then? That’s TV for you…

A recent BT TV survey of books that adapted into successful films placed the Harry Potter collection by J K Rowling top of the list, followed by the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming.

However it was author Stephen King that had a good share of the rest with two books in the top ten and a total of five in the top 50. These were The Green Mile at three, The Shawshank Redemption at seven, The Shining at sixteen, Carrie at thirty-five and Misery at forty-six. Continue reading →

News that mild-mannered and softly-spoken Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC from its popular Top Gear shows for allegedly punching a producer in a North Yorks hotel for not having his dinner ready on time has polarised those who care deeply about such things.

Some claim that Clarkson is a good reason to pay the BBCs overpriced and redundant TV licence fee whereas others cite him as the best reason not to, though Jonathan Ross may well be close too. Continue reading →