The [Rover] story is one of an unviable company, a gullible workforce and a spineless government taken for a ride by entrepreneurs who succeeded only in enriching themselves… Phoenix [the company with bought Rover] failed, but not before its directors enriched themselves as efficiently as any private equity investor. BMW’s £427 million could have funded a £50,000-plus payoff for each departing employee. Now they will get a fraction of this in statutory redundancy payments. They, like BMW and the government, must feel like mugs… The four Phoenix partners were able to award themselves a £10 million loan note, gain personal control of a lucrative financing business and fund a £16.5 million directors pension pot. They also transferred valuable assets from Rover to the parent Phoenix. This is capitalism at its ugliest.

Financial Times editorial, “A Tale of Greed and Gullibility”, Saturday, April 9, 2005

Yesterday, Tony Blair, during his panic-stricken visit to Rover, refused to answer questions about the quality of the management that burned its way through £500 million and took the company to the verge of liquidation. When John Towers and three colleagues took on Rover five years ago, they were regarded by the company’s employees as “white knights”. Hmmm… An interesting piece in this morning’s Financial Times suggests that these gents are looking, well, tarnished.

Taking on Rover presented them with some risks, but nothing like as big as they were prone to make out. Each put up about £65,000 to convince BMW and the government of their good intentions. But the incentives were substantial: a token to buy the company and a dowry of more than £500m, mostly in the form of a loan BMW never really expected to be repaid, to run it.

Also, since buying Rover, the four have granted themselves £10m through a loan note and set up a £16.5m pension scheme, in addition to their pay. They have also made millions of pounds from a side venture in leased Rover cars.

As someone who saw the repressiveness of the Catholic church at close quarters as a lad, I am less than impressed by the unctuous posturing on display in Rome today. This little report in The New York Times nicely conveys the institutional hypocrisy of the regime presided over by JP II.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who was forced to resign in disgrace as archbishop of Boston two years ago for protecting sexually abusive priests, was named by the Vatican today as one of nine prelates who will have the honor of presiding over funeral Masses for Pope John Paul II.

And how nice to see that not everyone in Britain is going overboard on the premature canonisation of a pope whose medieval stance on Aids, among other things, has contributed to the death of millions. Lovely Op-Ed piece by Polly Toynbee in today’s Guardian. Excerpt:

The millions pouring into Rome (pray there is no Mecca-style disaster) herald no resurgence of Catholicism. The devout are there, but this is essentially a Diana moment, a Queen Mother’s catafalque. People queue to join great public spectacles, hoping it’s a tell-my-grandchildren event. Communing with public emotion is easy now travel is cheap. These things are driven by rolling, unctuous television telling people a great event is unfolding, focusing on the few hysterics in tears and not the many who come to feel their pain.

Thanks to Boyd Harris for the Toynbee link.