For all the mighty symbolism, the torch can't shield Deighton from the sceptical audience gathered one evening in March to hear how they can profit from this summer's Olympics, The hall is filled with about 200 small-business owners, and a gloomy mood prevails as Britain struggles through its first double-dip recession since the 1970s.
One woman waves a London 2012 brochure and asks why it was printed in China when the games should be helping British businesses. "I'll look into it," Deighton promises. He gently reminds her that 95% of London 2012 contracts were awarded to British firms. Another man asks about a feared shortage of portable toilets in the Olympic Park.
Deighton politely reassures him that they've got that one covered. It's fitting that a former Goldman Sachs banker is running the business end of the Olympics - and getting dumped on by cantankerous Londoners.
In the Public Eye
Deighton, 56, says his 22-year career at Goldman didn't prepare him for being quizzed about such nitty-gritty details by a cynical British public. "When you're in investment banking, you're pretty much under everybody's radar all the time," he says.
Together with London 2012 committee chairman Sebastian Coe, the only man to have won 1,500-metre Olympic gold twice, Deighton is overseeing everything from transport to security while making sure he's got enough of those portable toilets. Surely his is one of the toughest jobs in the world right now?
"The best job in the world," Deighton says, smiling.
While the games will take place in an age of austerity, they won't be austere. In 2007, after underestimating the cost of cleaning up the site and constructing sports venues, the Blair government more than tripled the original spending plan, to 9.3 billion ($14.3 billion).
In addition, Deighton's LOCOG, has a separate 2.2-billion budget. For a country still reeling from the financial crisis, the money amounts to a backdoor Keynesian stimulus. Plus, Deighton says, the total outlay guarantees London a boost in tourism.
Dancing Nurses
Although the spending pales in comparison to the $67 billion China lavished on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is doing what it can to make Britain cool again.
The government even found an extra p41 million in public money to mount Olympic spectacles, including Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle's secrecy-shrouded opening ceremony, which somehow will merge Shakespeare's The Tempest, a play about a shipwreck, with dancing National Health Service nurses, singing schoolchildren and Paul McCartney.
Spending on security has risen to more than 1 billion as the government tries to guarantee a trouble-free Olympics.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Hume: London Mayor Boris Johnson says bikes civilize cities - Toronto Star
The Lord Mayor of London, England, Boris Johnson, wants to make it clear that until Friday morning, he had never been to Toronto, and never heard of Rob Ford.
With that out of the way, the great apostle of urban bicycling does have a message for Toronto.
“Bicycles,” declares the man who rides one to work every day, “civilize cities. Closing bike lanes; that’s not what we’re doing in London. In fact, I’m very proud that bicycle use went up 15 percent last year. Bicycles put the village back in the city. It’s not a war on motorists. I’m a motorist, too. We’re going to keep going, extending bicycle routes all the way out to the suburbs of London.”
In town to flog his latest book, Johnson’s Life of London (Harper Press), the shaggy-haired blonde is, by his own account, having the time of his life. Fresh from an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman — “How long have you been cutting your own hair?” — Johnson likes what he has sees.
“Toronto looks beautiful,” he enthuses, with apparent sincerity. “You have some lovely old buildings. The quality of life is obviously very potentially high.”
Johnson smiles nervously. As the use of the word, “potentially,” indicates, he knows things are seldom what they seem. Still, he insists, cities are where nations will succeed or fail:
“I keep on telling the government that if it wants the economy of the U.K. to grow and grow fast, it has to invest in London. We should be investing where it creates jobs. In Britain, for example, things are pretty sharply divided; there’s what’s happening in London and what’s happening everywhere else.
“My general view is that cities are where the world’s going to be in the future. I believe in cities. People who live in cities live longer, they have better health and they are better educated. Only in cities can we find the praise we all seek. Cities are where we find other people to impress. Cities are fame’s echo chamber …”
Suddenly, a bright red London double-decker bus drives by and Johnson falls momentarily silent.
“My God,” he splutters. “There’s an old Routemaster. They only made about 6,000 of those buses between 1956 and 1970, but they’re everywhere.”
“I’m also a believer in mass transit,” says Johnson, who points to the recent royal celebrations in the British capital and the changes unfolding in London’s East End due to the summer Olympics. “The Jubilee went well. We ticked a lot of boxes there. The crowd was huge, about 1.3 million, but transit worked well. We have a new LRT in East London, new train lines and thousands of new houses.”
In Toronto, Johnson would be dismissed by some as just another Don Cherry-style bike-riding pinko. But keep in mind he is a former Tory MP and a disciple of what he calls “compassionate conservatism.” He attended Eton and Oxford — on scholarship, mind you — and could easily be mistaken for a pillar of the British establishment.
He is also an author. Johnson’s Life of London, his sixth book, tells the story of the “City That Made the World,” from Roman times to the present, Emperor Hadrian to Keith Richards. Like the man, it is clever and quick, learned but not stuffy.
Then Johnson, a former journalist, has a few questions of his own. He wants to know about municipal politics in Toronto, federal politics under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the “cottages” to which Torontonians escape every weekend.
Oh, yes, and one more thing: “Do you have bears here?” he asks. Not in the city, comes the answer, but up north, behind the cottage.
Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca
Source: www.thestar.com
Goldsmith and Rothschild dynasties head for divorce - Daily Telegraph
Rothschild’s family is reported to be ''worried sick’’ about her new relationship. ''Her mother and all her family are very concerned that Kate is going off the rails,’’ another source said. ''Kate and Alice are talking, but most of the family are not on speaking terms with her at the moment. The whole situation is very sad.’’
So just how did this union descend into a debacle worthy of the Jeremy Kyle show?
Rothschild, who began her relationship with Goldsmith when she was 17, has been enjoying rather different interests of late to the family’s usual society pursuits. Her fledgling music career with Roundtable Records led to an ''increasingly nocturnal’’ lifestyle. Her husband’s fears were realised when, a friend says, he “found texts and email messages” between Rothschild and Jay Electronica, who is one of her clients. Worse still, “they were very intense messages planning sexual liaisons”. The “passionate” affair had reportedly been going on for a year. In the confrontation that followed, 31-year-old Goldsmith was arrested at the couple’s £20 million home in Kensington, on suspicion of actual bodily harm. He was said to have slapped his wife and kicked a toy at her, at which point she called the police. He was released without charge after accepting a caution, before taking their three children on holiday with his mother, Lady Annabel.
That, aside from the lawyers’ fees, could have been that, but for the couple taking to Twitter – an extraordinary act for a family that values privacy as much as the Goldsmiths do. Rothschild, 29, claimed she had been cheated on ''several times’’ and even posted a picture of the children, Iris, eight, Frankie, seven, and Isaac, four, being returned to her on a private jet, alongside a series of bitter and increasingly hysterical posts.
Goldsmith branded her behaviour ''appalling’’ and lapped up commiserating messages from the Twitterati. After reports that she had hired a PR firm to manage the crisis, he posted: ''A bit late surely? How about focusing on her devastated children?’’
Ten years ago, Goldsmith was named Britain’s most eligible bachelor by Tatler. Known as Ben-Ben by his family and born when his mother was 46, Goldsmith provided solace for Lady Annabel when her first-born son, Rupert [by first husband Mark Birley], disappeared off the coast of West Africa while swimming in 1986.
Kate comes from an equally illustrious line, her father from the Rothschild banking clan, and her mother from the reputedly cursed Guinness brewing heirs. She grew up at the family pile, Rushbrooke Hall, Bury St Edmunds and went to school at Bryanston, Dorset, where she had a reputation as a “party animal”.
It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to deem whether Goldsmith or Rothschild is richer. Goldsmith’s money is tied up in family trusts, which are so convoluted that his father boasted they could never be unravelled. When Sir James died, he left assets worth about £1.2 billion and each of his children was estimated to have received £10 million in spending money. The founder of a green investment business, Goldsmith is said to be now worth £300 million. He has invested in the concierge business quintessentially.com, set up by Ben Elliot, nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall. He also backed Marco Pierre White’s private dining club, Drones.
For her part, Rothschild shared an £18 million inheritance when her father, Amschel, killed himself in a Paris hotel room in 1996 at the age of 41. He had joined the family firm only nine years before, taking his place in what has been described as ''the closest thing to a Jewish Royal Family in exile’’. The half brother of Lord (Jacob) Rothschild, he was being groomed to take over the family bank, NM Rothschild, from his second cousin Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. He was found hanged after a business meeting, and his death, when Kate was 14, remains unexplained.
Rothschild is expected to gain custody of the couple’s children, unless her husband can prove that she is an unfit mother. The pair will divide the proceeds of the family home, bought for £5 million in June 2002, through a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Two days ago, Rothschild posted emotional late-night tweets: ''To all the vultures harassing and taunting me, the people calling me a whore and a bad mother, the threatening emailers and callers: I have been with my husband since I was 17, my whole life from then until now has been dedicated to him and our children. Ben in a rational mood would be the first to say that my devotion to my children is unshakeable. I am with them now, as I always am.
''Our marriage went bad a few years ago and none of you have any idea what I went through along with my husband. Then we separated for a while… anger and bitterness following that time led to a very one-sided story being released in order to shame and hurt me.
''I am not here to tell tales, I am not here for sympathy, or even to put my side across – this is a personal matter and none of your business. I am simply here to say that there is of course another side that would stop you all in your tracks, as with every break-up.’’
She added: ''I love my husband. He he is a brilliant and incredible man. We grew up together and I miss him painfully, but relationships go wrong.
''As for Jay Electronica... he saved my life in many ways and I am eternally grateful to him and hope that I can repay him by helping him, as his manager and friend.’’
In response to a flurry of criticism on the internet, she posted: ''This is the darkest time of my life; a weaker woman would be broken by your cruel, ignorant condemnations.’’
Jay Electronica, born Timothy Elpadaro Thedford and known for his sexually explicit lyrics, weighed in to post ''#LoveIsOnTheWay’’ as he returned to Britain from America, where he had been at his grandmother’s funeral.
Yesterday, in a belated attempt at dignity, Goldsmith and Rothschild issued a joint statement: “We are both deeply saddened that our marriage has ended after nine years. It is a matter of regret to us that, at a time when our emotions and those of our friends have run high, things have been said in public which should have been kept private. We accept our full share of responsibility for this. Contrary to what has been publicly stated, neither of us anticipates any major issues of contention to arise in the divorce, in which the interests of our children will come first. There will be no further comment, directly or indirectly, from us on any aspect of our family’s private life.”
Goldsmith and Rothschild have deleted many of their Twitter messages and both families appear to be battening down the hatches. Contacted yesterday, Lady Annabel said: ''I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t want to make any comment whatsoever.”
Jemima Khan responded via her BlackBerry: ''Sorry – I can’t discuss this. Hope you understand.’’
But with such public airing of dirty linen, the damage has already been done.
Additional Reporting: Martin Beckford
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Joint credit cards don't dissolve with divorce - CreditCards.com
Joint credit cards don't dissolve with divorce
Removing one person from a jointly held card typically isn't done
By Sally Herigstad
Dear To Her Credit,
How can I remove my husband from my Bank of America Visa
credit card that we have jointly? The bank says to close it and re-apply. We
have been married 17 years. We are getting divorced.
This was my card, and I added him to it years ago. I don't want to start over because I need the credit and credit rating. It also has a lot of mileage rewards on it. Besides, I don't make much money now, so I may not even qualify. Both my husband and I have very good credit scores with no outstanding debts. -- Teresa
Dear Teresa,
The bank has the last word on this one, I'm afraid.
If your soon-to-be ex were only an authorized user on this card, it would be easy to drop him. As a joint account holder, however, the bank is counting on both of you to pay off any debts on this card. Despite the fact that it was your card originally, they have been extending credit with two people responsible for paying it and can choose not to let one of them off the hook.
Divorce court can't help much, either. Divorce settlements commonly specify which spouse gets a credit card and the accompanying debt. But the bank is not party to the divorce, and the divorce court cannot change terms of the credit card contract. Between divorce law, contract law and a couple of ex-spouses still stinging from a recent divorce, you can see how leftover joint accounts can turn into nothing but trouble. Closing the account down and starting over starts to sound like a good idea!
You shouldn't have to lose your mileage points, however. One option, of course, is to use them before you close the account. That's what you've been saving them for, right? If you can't do that, you may be able to transfer them to your new account or gift them to family or friends. You can even donate your miles to charity, either directly to organizations like the Red Cross, or through MileDonor.com, an online connection point between charities that need mileage points and donors. Be sure to transfer or donate your miles before you close your account.
If the account has a balance, try to get it paid off with assets from the divorce. The credit card company can and will try to collect from both of you, regardless of who ran up the bill or who the divorce court said should pay it. This is true even if the account is "closed," but still has a balance.
With your good credit, you should be able to get a credit card on your own even with a reduced income level. The amount you can borrow will probably be much less than your previous limit, but that can work to your advantage. Credit cards are great payment tools. They make lousy long-term loans. A card with a low limit gives you all the advantages of plastic without the temptation to let the balance build up -- as almost everyone who has had a credit card has experienced at one time or another.
You won't lose your credit history from this card by closing it. Just as you cannot erase bad credit by closing an account, you don't lose your history of being a good customer, either. You may have less available credit, which can adversely affect your credit score, but if you keep your debt balances close to zero, this shouldn't be a huge issue.
Another thing to remember about your credit score is that it only matters when you use it; for example, when you apply for a loan or credit card, try to get into an apartment or sometimes when you apply for a job. It's not affected by your income level, and it's not a judgment of you as a person. Take your time building it up as a single person. The best way to improve a credit score is slowly and steadily over the years. Good luck, and take care of your credit!
See related: Where you live impacts debt liability in divorce
Sally Herigstad answers questions about credit every week for CreditCards.com. Herigstad is a certified public accountant, author and speaker. She also writes regularly for MSN Money, Interest.com, Bankrate.com and RedPlum.com, and has been a guest on Martha Stewart radio and other programs. You can read more about personal finance and download free budgeting worksheets at her website: www.sallyherigstad.com
To Her Credit answers a question about a debt or credit issue from a CreditCards.com reader each week. Send your question to Sally.
Published: January 27, 2012
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Source: www.creditcards.com
London hotels persist with Olympian price hikes - Daily Telegraph
This week JacTravel, which provides wholesale accommodation for inbound tour operators, said its London bookings were down by 35 per cent during July and 30 per cent during August, compared with the same months last year. By contrast, it said that bookings for summer holidays to Barcelona and Berlin had grown by more than 100 per cent.
JacTravel found that some four-star London hotels were charging up to £415 per night for stays during the Games, nearly four times more than usual.
A second hotel booking website, Hotels.com, found that the average price for a room during the Olympics had fallen slightly by five per cent since March, to £202. However, this is still 93 per cent more expensive than the same period last year.
A spokesman for Hotels.com said that some cheaper rooms could still be found if travellers were willing to look to outlying districts.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Turtle Divorce: Giant Turtles Divorce After 115 Years Together - Huffington Post
You can't say they didn't try.
After an impressive 115 years together, two giant turtles at an Austrian zoo are refusing to share their cage anymore, the Austrian Times reported Friday.
"We get the feeling they can't stand the sight of each other anymore," said Helga Happ, director of the Klagenfurt-based zoo, where the turtles -- Bibi, the female and Poldi, the male -- have lived for the last 36 years. Before that, they called Basel Zoo in Switzerland home.
According to the paper, zoo staff realized something was amiss when Bibi bit off a chunk of her partner's shell. When the attacks continued, Poldi was moved to another cage.
Animal experts even attempted couples' counseling -- feeding the turtles aphrodisiacs and encouraging them to play games together. But so far, efforts have failed to bring the shelled lovers back together.
Turtles aren't the only members of the animal kingdom known to "divorce" their partners. Studies have shown that some birds who mated successfully with a partner one year have "divorced" and moved on with another partner in successive years.
Click through the slideshow below for other strange, but true divorce stories.
Related on HuffPost:
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
'Bored' London diamond thief Arthur Rachel jailed - The Independent
Arthur "The Brain" Rachel, 73, was sentenced to eight and a half years for his involvement in planning robberies with two other accomplices, both of whom are also in their 70s.
Before the sentencing in Chicago, US District Court judge Harry Leinenweber asked Rachel why he got involved after spending nearly a decade in prison for the London diamond robbery.
"It's the way we are," Rachel answered. "We got nothing better to do. We sit around talking."
Rachel and Joseph "The Monk" Scalise staged a daring daytime theft of the Marlborough Diamond in 1980. Both men were convicted in Britain of threatening to use a hand grenade while robbing London's Graff Jewellers of £2.3 million worth of goods, including the diamond. They began serving 15-year prison terms in 1984 and were released in 1993.
The diamond was never recovered.
Federal prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu did not mince words in characterising Rachel, noting his long criminal history.
"This thug has the gall to ask for leniency when he does the same thing over and over," he told the court. "He is a parasite. He lives off of others. The public needs to be protected from this man."
Judge Leinenweber found Rachel guilty in a bench trial, while his co-defendants - Scalise, 74, and Robert Pullia, 70 - pleaded guilty earlier.
Evidence presented during Rachel's trial included a stepladder that the would-be robbers intended to use in a 2010 burglary at the home of the late Chicago mobster Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. Authorities arrested the senior citizens, dressed in black, outside the house.
They had also planned to rob an armoured car, prosecutors said.
The FBI has said Scalise's resume included serving as a technical adviser on the film Public Enemies about Depression-Era gangster John Dillinger, which was filmed in Chicago in 2008.
Asked by reporters as he left court earlier this year if the Marlborough Diamond could ever be located, Scalise said: "If Lloyd's wanted to pay enough money, maybe they could.
Source: www.independent.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Aaron Cook's Games dream over as BOA ratifies nomination of Lutalo Muhammad - Daily Telegraph
“The results are plain for everyone to see, he is world No 1, European champion and has beaten 10 of the top 15 athletes in the Olympic rankings in his most recent fights. It makes a mockery of the taekwondo -80kg competition in the London Olympics.”
Cook would have been selected if the criteria was on performance, one of the GB Taekwondo selectors, Dr Steve Peters, said. Peters sat in all three meetings but did not vote because he said his role was as an ‘athlete advocate’.
“We all agreed that if world ranking and success in tournaments were the only selection criteria, then Aaron would be selected as he’s an outstanding athlete who could get gold at the Olympics,” said Peters. “All we’re saying is that there are two athletes who can achieve this.”
Peters said Muhammad was ultimately chosen several compelling reasons: he was improving at a rapid rate, including a victory over Cook (although Cook beat his rival soon afterwards) and that his height and flexibility give him an advantage to double tap and earn extra points for headshots in fights.
“People have been confusing the issue, thinking there is something secret or underhand or another agenda and it is nonsense. The fact Aaron is working outside of the academy has never come into the meeting, it is not an issue,” said Peters.
However the BOA has reserved the right to reconsider Muhammad’s selection – an unlikely situation – subject to the findings of an inquiry instigated by the World Taekwondo Federation. Last night Cook was considering his legal options.
The BOA chief executive Andy Hunt said: “After a thorough review, the panel is now sufficiently satisfied that the agreed selection procedures have been followed, and it is on that basis we are ratifying the nomination.”
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London 2012: Selection 'a fairytale' for Mohamed Sbihi - BBC News
Mohamed Sbihi has described his selection in the men's eight boat for the London Olympics as "a dream".
The 24-year-old took up the sport nine years ago after being discovered through a talent identification scheme while at school in Surbiton.
He told BBC London 94.9: "An opportunity has become a dream and the dream has started to become a reality.
"I feel very fortunate. It's almost like a fairytale. If I hadn't gone into school that day, I wouldn't be here."
The Molesey Boat Club member was identified after British Rowing's World Class Start programme visited Hollyfield School in south west London.
"They wanted all the tall kids in the year to go to a special PE lesson," Sbihi added.
"I didn't really want to go because I wanted to play football but my PE teacher pulled me back and told me that as I was the tallest guy in the year, I had to go.
"Before I knew it, I was in the top four out of 10,000 kids who had been tested in our area. I didn't like it to start with but then it slowly hooked me.
"I feel honoured and proud to wear the GB flag. I have to thank everyone who has been involved in my development."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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