Car giant Ford has been...
Car giant Ford has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority over a misleading commercial.
Love or hate mobiles...
Love or hate mobiles, they and their hands-free kits are a virtually inevitable part of driving today, and I"d recommend that every motorist carries one. Businessmen such as John Caudwell of Phones 4U, the 21st wealthiest person in Britain with í‚á£1,280m, and Charles Dunstone of the Carphone Warehouse (92nd richest with í‚á£427m) probably share my view. Well, they would, wouldn"t they? Carphone Warehouse is so profitable that it still has enough in the kitty to make Dunstone"s colleagues such as David Ross, Guy Johnson and Martin Dawes multi-millionaires as well.
Car parking is another way to make a fortune, it seems. The recently retired NCP duo of Don Gosling, who"s a í‚á£448m man and Ron Hobson, who"s only a few shillings behind on í‚á£398m, feature prominently in the Sunday Times list. And on the occasions we get out of our cars to use trains or buses, what do we find? That people such as Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, who work in the "cash-strapped" public transport industry, are worth í‚á£327m thanks to their Stagecoach operation and involvement with South West Trains.
It"s a similar situation in the world of Formula One. Ticket prices and merchandise are prohibitively expensive, and many true fans can"t afford to watch a live race. But F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone is sitting pretty with a personal fortune of í‚á£2,323m. Then there are the scores of millions that team bosses Ron Dennis, Sir Frank Williams and Eddie Jordan are worth, despite their lack of success in recent times. Even a retired, run-of-the-mill driver such as Eddie Irvine can largely thank the sport for the í‚á£153m he"s acquired, according to BusinessF1. A bloke called Paddy McNally takes care of the hospitality at F1 races. For his efforts, he has í‚á£402m and is one of Britain"s richest 100 men.
Do I have a problem with the principle of risk-taking, hard-working entrepreneurial individuals making personal fortunes? Absolutely not. But I do believe that many of these business people have room to manoeuvre, and are in a position to look after their loyal customers better by charging them a little less for goods and services. They can afford it and their clients deserve it. I also have a big problem with highly profitable public transport operators being given and accepting subsidies which are ultimately paid for by ordinary working people through their taxes. That"s not fair.