Monthly Archives: August 2010

Few would deny that Nicolas Sarkozy's political rise has been full of drama. But with his term due to expire in two years' time, the French President may not be overjoyed to learn that his career is to be made into a film about "the conquest of power" – to be released uncomfortably close to [...]

drive from www.guardian.co.uk

Impenetrable "clusters of privilege" are forming around the best state schools, Barnardo's, Britain's biggest children's charity, warns today. Poorer families are losing out to better-off neighbours who move house or attend church to get a better education.
Unfair admissions practices result in schools with skewed intakes that do not reflect their neighbourhoods, Barnardo's says, citing research [...]

The great philosopher John Travolta once observed that, in France, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese is known as a "Royale with Cheese", while they call a Big Mac "Le Big Mac" and allow you to wash it down with beer. That's the "funniest thing" about Europe, he concluded, during the often quoted opening scene of [...]

It was hard to ignore the symbolism in the Manchester City directors' box on Monday night. On one side was Kenny Dalglish, the greatest player ever to play for the most successful club in Britain, and a few rows away was Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, who will never know what it is like [...]

Pupils at independent schools are three times more likely to gain the A* grade as those in comprehensive schools, yesterday's A-level results revealed. The finding prompted the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, to warn that the school system was "one of the most segregated in the world".
The new grade, introduced this year, was awarded for 8.1 [...]

No more elephants should be imported into Britain, the RSPCA has said, calling for the animals to be phased out from British zoos.
Recent research has shown that they were suffering from severe welfare problems which range from lameness and obesity to obsessive behaviour, and that it was inappropriate and cruel to keep them in confinement, [...]

Lady Gaga performing at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. The singer is now the most followed person on Twitter. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
Perhaps fittingly for a pop-artist whose debut album was called The Fame, Lady Gaga has increased her dominance of social media by overhauling Britney Spears to become the most followed person on [...]

Benefits for the elderly, including the winter fuel allowance and free bus travel, are being targeted by ministers in the hunt for spending cuts.
The Government is also considering whether to scrap child benefit payments to better-off families to help fund an overhaul of the welfare state.
As ministers grapple with politically unpalatable decisions, George Osborne, the [...]

There is no doubt that Simon Murdoch knows a thing or two about start-ups and the internet. As a co-founder of amazon.co.uk and a serial entrepreneur specialising in internet businesses, he is as good a person as anybody to ask about what sort of business works in this area.
“I like businesses that are very customer-centric,” [...]