Last month, I reported on attempts to broaden the definition of ESG, so that investors in weapons systems could sleep easy at night knowing that the stock they were buying was helping turn Russians into pink mist on Ukraine’s front lines. Labour MPs were urging financial institutions to broaden the definition of ‘ethical’ to encompass things that those in the woke investment sphere, such as the Cooperative Bank, used to regard as ‘unethical’. Half-joking, I pointed out that if the definition of ‘ethical’ could be stretched to include bomb-makers, it could surely be allowed to include Big Oil. Reality was not far behind.
Last week, according to CNBC, executives at Goldman Sachs began pleading with investors “to re-evaluate their approach to oil and gas companies”. As has been widely reported, the last year or so has seen financial institutions in the USA and Canada reverse out of ‘alliances’ on Net Zero, mostly founded, at least ceremonially, at the COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow, back in 2021. These alliances were convened by Mark Carney – now the unelected Canadian PM – and supported by the offices of eco-billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Announcing the deals, then Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak took the stage following Carney’s presentation on money to declare that firms with $130 trillion of assets under management were now committed to Net Zero.
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Things that go Trump in the Night
Tuesday Morning A329 & A322 Downshire Way
Bracknell
Donald Trump reinstates Winston Churchill bust in Oval Office
“Telegram from the Admiralty, sir!’
‘Winston is back!’
Oxfam ‘weaponising history’ with claim Britain owes India £52 trillion
The British rule in India lasted from the mid-18th century until 1947.
Benefits:
Infrastructure Development:
The British established a vast network of railways, roads, and ports, which facilitated trade and movement across the subcontinent. The Indian Railways, in particular, became one of the largest railway networks in the world.
Education System:
The British introduced a formal education system, including universities and colleges, which laid the foundation for modern education in India. English became a medium of instruction, which helped create a class of educated Indians who later played crucial roles in the independence movement. There are now 88 million pupils in India enjoying a private education because it is a great deal better than that provided by the State.
Legal and Administrative Reforms:
The British established a structured legal system and administrative framework, including codified laws and a judiciary. This helped in standardizing laws and promoting a sense of order and governance.
Economic Changes:
Britain integrated India into the global economy. The introduction of cash crops and new agricultural practices changed the economic landscape, leading to increased agricultural productivity in some regions.
Public Health Initiatives:
Britain implemented public health measures in India, including the establishment of hospitals and vaccination programs, which improved health standards in some areas. This included efforts to combat diseases like cholera and smallpox.
Transport and Communication:
Britain improved communication systems by introducing telegraphs and postal services, which connected different parts of the country and facilitated faster communication.
Cultural Exchange:
Britain led a cultural exchange that influenced art, literature, and architecture. The fusion of British and Indian styles produced unique forms of art and architecture, such as Indo-Saracenic architecture.
Social Reform Movements:
Britain also sparked social reform movements within India. Reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and others advocated for social changes, such as the abolition of sati (the practice of widow immolation) and child marriage, influenced by Western ideas of rights and freedoms.
Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, Bangalore
Government Museum, Madras
Hodson’s Horse
The Lahore Hunt
The Kadir Cup
Etc., etc…..and so on and so forth
Using the future value formula is FV=PV*(1+r)^n, where PV is the present value of the investment, r is the annual interest rate, and n is the number of years the money is invested, that comes out at approximately…….a great deal more than ‘£52 dillions’
When may we expect our money back?
On the downside we let the subcontinent partition itself again.
‘The question of a division of India, as proposed by the Muslim League, is based on the fundamental fact that there are two nations- Hindus and Muslims- and the underlying principle is that we want a national home and a national state in our homelands which are predominately Muslim and compromise the six units of the Punjab, the N.W.F.P., Sind, Baluchistan, Bengal and Assam. This will give the Hindus their national home and a national state of Hindustan, which means three-fourths of British India.’
Muhammad Jinnah, 04 May 1947
Quite so, but I don’t believe that a united ‘Greater India’ was, by that stage, any longer in our gift.
Totally agree. ‘We’ had made a right hash of abandoning Empire well before partition.
That said: I’ve briefly visited many countries on business trips (though not India or Pakistan) and it strikes me that ‘we’ left behind better functioning bureaucracies than other European ‘powers’.
So Muslims wanted their own Muslim state, and yet we accused of racism for wanting a Christian or secular state. Shame on them.
Why bother to argue these issues. The UK is broke. No money.
Worse than broke – in hock.
Indeed, and I now believe that the UK will continue to worsen and this condition will persist for decades if not permanently.
My apologies. The Lahore Hunt is, of course, now in Pakistan. I think they still exist. The PVH is still going.
https://m.facebook.com/pvhpak/
“Wanted – a politically and economically viable path to low emissions”
I read the opening paragraph and decided the rest could wait until I have nothing better to do.
Know your enemy.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/21/british-left-has-to-take-feminism-lessons-donald-trump/
Julie Bindel has had an undeserved rough time and bravo for her to be still standing. I’m of a generation out of time with the mores of today but let’s not fall for the media version of Trump she outlines:
”He doesn’t like gender ideology in exactly the same way as other misogynists don’t like it – because women should be in the kitchen, barefoot, preferably pregnant, and men are men and women are women, in the most traditional and regressive way.”
Traditional doesn’t mean regressive. I worked then when I had our children Mr B worked while I stayed home with our children, that’s not regressive and I certainly wasn’t subjugated, we were and are still equal partners. I’ve worked with tradesmen who could curse and catcall with the best of them who when they swore in front of me they apologised, they were who would be called misogynists today but were just normal men. Trump doesn’t talk down to them.
Trump has stayed on good terms with his wives and his children respect him and work with him. He wasn’t the most articulate of people but seems to have calmed more listening to his inauguration.
Broad brushes don’t help anyone and the left seem to have the broadest brushes to tar people with.
Indeed. How on earth does Bindel presume to know that Trump thinks women should be barefoot in the kitchen? Where is her evidence for this? There’s some evidence that one way Trump sees women is as sex objects. Breaking news – that’s not uncommon (biology) but it doesn’t mean that is the ONLY way he sees them. I have the impression it’s not uncommon for women to sometimes view men as sex objects.
Exactly, but it’s typical nowadays. It puzzles me how people are absolutely certain of their viewpoint and won’t believe or listen to alternatives. I admit I have bias myself (being a Conservative) but if someone showed me that my viewpoint on anything was wrong without stooping to emotions I’m open to changing my mind, these people aren’t.
Are they’re not teaching critical thinking nowadays but motivated reasoning, appealing to feelings and emotions? Is education just indoctrination of the herd?
So the elites want us to believe that if this bloke had been told by Amazon “you’re too young to buy a knife” he would instead have gone back to his homework.
He wouldn’t have used the same ingenuity that he applied to manufacture ricin or travel to Southport or get the terrorist training manuals.
Meanwhile, Labour want to give him the vote.
Or, walked down to kitchen, open the cutlery drawer & take out a knife. Is there a home in Britain that doesn’t have carving knives, bread knives, vegetable knives, chisels, craft knives?
Classic misdirection by Yvette Cooper.
Indeed, what a crock of crap. Problem-reaction-solution. Import violent people, then stop everyone buying knives online.
Ed Miliband warns Trump that Net Zero is ‘unstoppable’”
Trump: ‘Who?’
‘Disgrace’ that Axel Rudakubana could buy a knife on Amazon’ says the brain dead Home Secretary. I wonder what conclusion she have come to if he’d gone into his parents kitchen and grabbed a knife from the cutlery draw?
Biden has done a great job confirming the guilt of all the crooks by pardoning them.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/01/20/her-name-is-emily-damari/ The left will never live down the shame of staying silent on the racist kidnapping of a British Jew, writes Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
Silly Brendan hasn’t he learned? The left don’t feel shame.