Has John Cleese become embittered? He suggests that the Bond films after Die Another Day (his second and final) were humourless because the producers wanted to pursue Asian audiences. Humour, he says, was out. ‘Also the big money was coming from Asia, from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, where the audiences go to watch […]
Category: UK
Posts relating to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and to her territories.
How can the Yamaha Motiv make it into the top 10 British cars in Autocar?
Anyone notice the anomaly in Autocar’s top British cars? Let’s not debate what is British—let’s simply consider what is and has been on the market. Antony Ingram spotted this: Apparently this is a reader survey but I agree with Antony: how on earth can a car that is not even produced, the Yamaha Motiv, wind […]
Read More… from How can the Yamaha Motiv make it into the top 10 British cars in Autocar?
Sherlock Holmes, US-style
There’s a good reason (other than time) I do not watch Elementary, though I did try about 10 minutes’ worth before giving up. The last time I watched the US make Sherlock Holmes, it was the above: The Return of Sherlock Holmes (though I believe it was 4:3). CBS updated Holmes to the modern […]
Why I ran
In two elections, I told people some blarney on why I decided to run. In 2010: ‘I was working at Lew’s Diner and this guy had been picked on. I told him, “Stand tall, boy, show some respect for yourself. Do you think I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this […]
MG SUV soon a reality: good
I have to admit I get a bit bored of those crying foul now that MG will launch an SUV, one which seems to have some parallels with the Ssangyong Korando C (left). They say that MG should have made sports cars as part of its revival, and that the brand should not adorn […]
Frack away, IGas Energy: the Metropolitan Police has your back
The spirit of Gene Hunt is alive and well in the Greater Manchester Police, in the form of Sgt David Kehoe. Arresting someone over drink driving when he has neither drunk nor driven reminds me of The Professionals episode, ‘In the Public Interest’, about a corrupt police force in an unnamed English city outside […]
Read More… from Frack away, IGas Energy: the Metropolitan Police has your back
Finance is broken, and we still haven’t learned
I posted this quotation from I Acknowledge on my Tumblr today: The news that should have us all worried is: the derivatives market contains $700trn of these debts yet to implode. Global GDP stands at $69·4trn a year. This means that (primarily) Wall Street and the City of London have run up phantom paper debts […]
Read More… from Finance is broken, and we still haven’t learned
Four million page views on Autocade
I came across an old blog post that showed that Autocade took four years to get 2,000,000 page views: not bad for an encyclopædia that receives very little promotion. That was in March 2012. It has since crossed 4,000,000, which meant the second 2,000,000 took 21 months to achieve (in December 2013). If the growth […]
Joan Rivers had better facelifts, but it’s the future of the black cab
Part of me admires Nissan for going after the taxi market in a big way in New York and London. Another part of me wonders why on earth the London Hackney Carriage solution is so ugly. I think Nissan should have asked Mr Mitsuoka for advice on how to Anglicize one of its […]
Read More… from Joan Rivers had better facelifts, but it’s the future of the black cab
Open the shop and strip away the jargon
I’ve been reading this Grauniad interview with Rory Stewart, MP, referred by Jordan McCluskey. I’m told that Stewart, and Labour’s Frank Field are the two worth listening to these days in British politics. On Stewart, someone who can speak with a Scots accent and has lived in Hong Kong must be a good bloke. […]