TomMorris Morris's Open Salon Blog

Shamed MG Rover chiefs bank extra £11m

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:11:23 -0500

FIVE disgraced former directors of MG Rover, the failed Midlands car maker, are to receive an early Christmas present with an £11m-plus payout from the wreckage of the firm.

Their windfall will bring to £42m the total they have extracted from the collapsed company in one of Britain’s biggest business scandals.

The five — John Towers, Nick Stephenson, John Edwards, Peter Beale and Kevin Howe — will share the payout from the winding up of MGR Capital, a car finance operation kept separate from the rest of the group.

MG Rover workers, who lost their jobs overnight, received only the minimum statutory redundancy pay and had their pension entitlements cut. While most have found new jobs, they have suffered an average pay cut of £6,000 a year, according to a recent study.

End in sight for school tables based on test results

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:11:22 -0500

Ed Balls today signalled the beginning of the end for primary school league tables based on test results.

The Schools Secretary announced that the national curriculum tests, traditionally known as SATs, for 11-year-olds would remain next year.

But in a move that signalled their future was limited, he said that he would also publish teacher-assessed results for the first time.

Teaching unions have long called for the abolishment of the externally marked exams, which they want to replace with teacher-assessed papers.

Chicken cacciatore

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:11:33 -0500

Method

1 Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy-based pan or casserole dish over a medium heat. Season the chicken pieces and add to the pan along with the garlic and rosemary. Sauté until the chicken has browned evenly — about eight minutes.

2 Turn up the heat and pour in the white wine, when most of the wine has evaporated, add enough stock to cover the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat and cover the pan. Simmer for 15 -20 minutes, basting the chicken occasionally to ensure that it stays moist.

3 Spoon off any excess fat that has risen to the surface during cooking, and serve the chicken with the juices and a hunk of good bread

How to buy Christmas presents for men

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:11:46 -0500

Last week Luke Leitch did sterling work in this slot suggesting what men might buy women for Christmas. Obviously, it will look bad for me if I don’t reciprocate. Equally obviously, I’ve got the more challenging task. Men, as we all know, are impossible to buy for – not, as they like to think, because they aren’t acquisitive, but because they refuse to be acquisitive on a sensible scale. Ask them what they want and they say Ferraris, yachts or socks, which is just another way of saying, work it out yourself, baby, I’m busy. So, with the help of all the women I canvassed, I have worked it out.

Upgrades on anything he loves. If he’s an M&S white shirt man, try him out on über versions from Martin Margiela (from £219 at Dover Street Market and Joseph). The same route works for jeans (around £330). If he wears scarves, he’d love one from Loro Piana or Denis Colomb (from £240) or, if those seem painfully pricey, from Aubin & Wills (from £49), the grown-up labelmate of Jack Wills. Any of these will probably be subtly superior to his normal attire, but won’t terrify him.