Evil Knievil: Flybe in perspective

It now emerges that HRH the Duchess of Sussex is highly questionable. So be it. But what would be really interesting is to know what her lawyer advised her as the wise course of action. I cannot believe that, given the facts that Associated News will rely upon, any lawyer could possibly advise her to proceed.

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In a normal world Flybe would have been sued for the outstanding Air Passenger Duty and immediately closed down. Instead, the shareholders, such as Branson, have been subsidised by taxpayers.

Were aviation fuel taxed properly it might be 300% dearer. But the Conservatives have been concerned to retain what they term as regional connectivity and, as a result, this unholy mess has been allowed to develop.

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I am told that the licences held by the chairman’s Webis (LON:WEB) are worth $25m. This contrasts with WEB’s capitalisation of well under half that. The fact is that online sports gambling is coming to California and WEB is right in there. I have paid 2p.

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People who choose to use their credit cards to pay for bets are to be denied this feature of their economic life from mid-April onwards. Curiously, money thus applied is not regarded as that of the card holder at the moment he/she takes it out. This is of course a consequence of the utterly childish way people nowadays behave as a result of HMG’s molly-coddling and ineffectual intervention in citizens’ lives.