Wednesday
The Ukraine is not exactly famed for its high standards of probity and decency in the field of business, as this article suggests. It was certainly a bit of an eye-opener to see this failed, disgraced British cabinet minister, Stephen Byers, on the slate to opine at a conference all about the marvellous business opportunities out in that country. Great. The man who confiscated the assets of Railtrack shareholders - in retrospect a key point signalling the true intent of New Labour towards investors - is considered worthy to share his thoughts about encouraging enterprise in the Ukraine. Riiiight.
Perhaps in a fairer spirit, though, there may be a good case to make for economic opportunities in that country, and I could not help noticing that the organising firm of the conference goes by the moniker Adam Smith (no relation, it seems, to the Adam Smith Institute). It does strike me as mighty odd that a character like Byers should be prime billing at such an event, though. The citizens of that nation surely deserve better.
Could the solution be that S Byers is just an unprinciple toe-rag?
Occam's razor can be quite handy at times...
Posted by Nick M at May 3, 2006 08:10 PM
@Johnathon, who wrote: "the organising firm of the conference goes by the moniker Adam Smith (no relation, it seems, to the Adam Smith Institute)".
Are you sure of that. The referenced conference website is http://www.asi-conferences.com.
Their own "about us" page says they are the ASI (though it seems managed by another company). A Unix/Linux "whois asi-conferences.com" throws up confirmation (domain name first registered in 1999; registrant is the ASI).
Apologies for being a pedant. I don't think it changes the thrust of your argument; perhaps it makes it stranger still.
Best regards
Posted by Nigel Sedgwick at May 3, 2006 08:20 PM
I'm not sure your confidence in the Adam Smith's distance from this organisation is well founded. The URL is asi-conferences.com and the "about us" link at the top leads to text starting as follows:
The Adam Smith Institute is Britain's leading innovator of market economic policies. Since 1977, it has played a key role in the analysis and development of public policies and has published over 300 influential policy reports. It has been part of a worldwide movement towards free markets and free trade. It encourages discussion of policy ideas through its websites, conferences, newspapers, radio and television.
Posted by James of England at May 3, 2006 08:43 PM
It's pretty much guaranteed that if Stephen Byers is extolling the virtues of the Ukraine then someone sure as hell is dumping large sums of money into his bank account. I do like the notion of someone introducing large amounts of dioxin into Byers' soup should he, as usual, fail to live up to his promises.
Posted by Julian Taylor at May 3, 2006 10:45 PM
And so a cyanide soup they planned.
Steve Byers died with a spoon in his hand,
And his face in a hideous grin, a grin,
His face in a hideous grin.
With apologies to Tom Lehrer
Posted by Nick M at May 4, 2006 12:12 AM
Ukraine's lack of business ethics can be traced to the parasitical and predatory alien Jews who formed the majority of its legal profession and business class.
Posted by J Nugent at May 4, 2006 03:45 AM
Somehow I don't think it is - look at the creature's URL. Time to get out the Nuremburg Bugswatter I think
Posted by Julian Taylor at May 4, 2006 03:18 PM
