All My Net Biz

Michael Booth and the hulk

Specifications

Would suit People who are sick of their Freelanders breaking down
Price on the road 24,749
Performance 116mph, 0-62mph in 10.6 secs
Combined fuel consumption 40.9mpg
Further information 0845 070 2000

It is with a weary heart indeed that, this week, I have been driving the new Mitsubishi Outlander. I know, I know, one more wretched SUV. Does the world really need another? Trust me, no one is as tired as I am of Chelsea Tractors, Toff Roaders, Tonbridge Tanks and all those other tired euphemisms for what are, essentially, risible, jacked-up, four-wheel-drive estate cars. That’s why I have been at least trying to cut back on my consumption this year.

This will, I am sure, have prompted countless puzzled frowns over the breakfast tables of Britain these last few Sundays, as faithful readers ponder the continued absence of a review of, for instance, the new Honda CR-V on this page. “When’s Boothie going to try that new Nissan Qashqai?” must be right up there with “Must William Rees-Mogg have a picture byline?” and, “Mummy, what’s ‘dogging?’ ” as one of the questions most frequently asked by casual readers of the Sunday newspapers right now.

I will have a go in the Nissan soon, but unless they break down spectacularly - as the Freelander I tested a while back did - it remains one of the greatest challenges in automotive journalism to say anything of interest about these kinds of cars. And any rational appraisal of their qualities or deficiencies is rendered redundant by the British public’s apparently endless appetite for the things, regardless of their faults, which include poor handling, performance and braking; poor fuel economy; offensive girth; ugliness; and impracticality. The automotive arms race that has transformed our roads over the past 10 years suggests that many of you (although, I suspect not too many Independent readers) covet these kinds of cars and, if that is the case, I am sure you will like the Outlander. (That’s taking it as read that you are so wracked with insecurity, so emotionally stunted, that you need to have a car with quasi-military styling; and must always sit a few inches above the rest of humanity.)

I am not necessarily opposed to SUVs on environmental grounds - the Outlander manages a respectable 40.9mpg, takes up no more space on the road than a Vectra estate and chugs out less black stuff than a Zafira - it is just that, to me, they seem like a quantum step backwards in the evolution of the motor car. For almost a hundred years cars seemed to be getting lighter, handling and performing better, and using less and less petrol. Then along came the Land Rover Freelander, Toyota RAV4 and their ilk, and suddenly it was as if evolution had suffered a setback.

As SUVs go, the Outlander isn’t bad. The interior has baggy leather and video-box plastics, and the VW-sourced diesel engine is a bit rough, but at least Mitsubishi has been building proper 4×4s for some years now and they do it with some authority. Mine also had a wireless made by someone called Rockford Fosgate - which I am sure means something to What Hi-Fi? readers but sounds more like the character in a F Scott Fitzgerald story to me - and it seats seven (although the last row of seats appears to have been taken from a 1937 Fiat Topolino). But every cloud has silver coach-lines: due to a platform-sharing deal, the Outlander is essentially the same car as the upcoming French SUVs: the Citroen C-Crosser and Peugeot 4007. This means that I can look upon this as a three-in-one test, and won’t need to bother with either of them.

It’s a classic: Starion 2000

One of the reasons why I detest SUVs is that they are a relatively new abhorrence, making the “It’s a Classic” slot a tricky one to fill. But here is, at least, an old Mitsubishi, the Starion 2000, built - and named - at a time when the year 2000 still possessed a “blue sky”, sci-fi frisson, and pop-up headlamps were the very height of technological sophistication (secretly, I reckon they still are). The Starion was launched in 1982 as Mitsubishi’s first serious attempt at a conventional front-engined, two-seater sports car. Its turbo-charged, two-litre engine suffered from the usual delays in power supply but, once up to speed, gave the Starion impressive thrust - it’s 0-60mph time of 6.9 seconds remains respectable 20 years on. But the Starion’s greatest claim to fame is, of course, as the super-hi-tech, rocket-engined car driven by Jackie Chan in the second Cannonball Run movie.

Real time volatility indexes complement equity index volume trade analysis.

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See http://www.marketvolume.com/content/products/mktsum/mktsum_volatility.asp.

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Press Contact:
Gerry Wisz
GW Communications
(201) 280-2816

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Caryn Franklin lives in Hadleigh, Suffolk, with her husband, Ian, and two daughters Г Mateda, 14, and Roseby, seven

I first discovered the area when I came here for a friend’s wedding about eight years ago. The beautiful countryside, the fresh air and the quaint and colourful houses made me fall in love with the place immediately.

We looked at about 25 places until we hit on this one. There are so many things I adore about it. It has a little wishing well in the garden and fantastic low wooden beams and it’s full of authentic charm. I bought it for 170,000, which was quite a bargain at the time.

My favourite room is the bathroom upstairs. I love to just lie in the bath looking out on to the fields, it is so relaxing. We had to specially strengthen the ceiling so it would take the weight of the wrought-iron roll-top bath. Each of the two bathrooms has its own unique look, and I spent a lot of time making them comfortable and luxurious. We papered the downstairs bathroom with some old newspapers that we found in the attic, which gives it a cool, vintage edge. When people go in there, they don’t to tend to come out for ages, as they’re so engrossed in reading the old stories from the Daily Mail of the 1920s.

We’ve had to put in a hell of lot of work to get it to this stage. Everything needed updating. No one had lived here for over 20 years, so we had to start completely afresh – from the terracotta brick floor that we put in, to the inglenook fireplace that has been rebuilt. The first time we used the fire, we smoked the house out – and it was only after two years, and two grand, that we were able to have a proper fire. But I was insistent that we needed to have a real open fire.

Ian and I met quite late in life. I already had a three-bedroom flat in Dalston [east London], and he had a house in Yorkshire. We both sold up, but rather than putting our money together and spending a fortune on a place in Queen’s Park [north-west London], we thought, why not buy two homes? So he got a cheaper place in Kensal Green [north-west London], and I bought this one. It’s been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

When we first came here, the house was all white, but we painted it a cool bubblegum pink. My daughter Mateda suggested it, and at first I thought she’s mad, we can’t do that – but then around here there are lots of brightly coloured houses, so we went for what she thought, and now it looks really lovely among the greenery of the fields.

It is quite a spacious house, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large open-plan sitting room which leads through to the kitchen. We have a huge range cooker, which is immensely practical. I make some really huge family meals here – we’re talking Christmas dinner for 20 people and Easter lunch for more than 16, so you need an oven that is going to do the business. Both my husband and I adore cooking. He’s into slightly more adventurous, medieval-style banquets, like venison coated in chocolate sauce. I like making vegetable curries and soups – the nearby farmers’ market is wonderful for fresh and organic vegetables.

I don’t miss the buzz of the city. One of the things I love most about being here is the lack of the city’s daily grind. I adore just going around in my wellies, with no make-up, and not bothering what people are thinking. I think when people recognise me, they are rather disappointed that I am so badly dressed! It is refreshing to be here, because you can’t live fashion all the time. When I’m going back to London, I’ll put on my black nail varnish and get back into it again.

Our furniture is a mix of old and new, some more contemporary things from Ikea, mixed with antiques and family heirlooms, like a grandfather clock from my husband’s house in Yorkshire. I don’t like things that look too uniform or part of a set.

I love having lots of candles and fresh flowers. We have a huge garden that looks out on to open fields, with swings and a trampoline for the children. It’s a wonderful safe haven. The garden takes quite a lot of tending, but I find it very therapeutic. While my husband tends to cook more, I love to garden.

The girls love it here. The only thing they don’t like is that they can’t get broadband. But for me that’s a blessing. We’re wildly untechnological here. Our music system is a Hacker wind-up gramophone, on which we listen to old jazz records.

I was brought up in Hounslow [west London], and when I moved into the city to go to St Martins College, I spent about a year living on a sofa. But when you’re young you can live like that. I love the space and freedom this place affords and the fact that you don’t have any neighbours in your face.

When we’re not here we sometimes go on camping trips to the Lake District and to France. I’m not one for boutique hotel breaks in Barcelona or smart weekends in New York – when I’m not working I just like to live as simply as possible.

‘The Clothes Show’ is screened on Sundays at 6pm on UKTV Style, www.uktvstyle.co.uk. www.howtolookgood.com

A BBC weather presenter who described the Western Isles as “nowheresville” has been forced to apologise for his onscreen insult.

Tomasz Schafernaker triggered a flurry of complaints from viewers who felt he had besmirched their part of Scotland during a broadcast on Saturday afternoon on BBC1. He repeated the “nowheresville” description on a later broadcast on the BBC News 24 channel.

During the forecasts, the meteorologist said there would be rain in the north-west of Scotland.

He then added that it would be “mainly in the Western Isles, mainly in nowheresville”.

In a statement, Polish-born Mr Schafernaker said: “I wish to sincerely apologise for any offence caused.

“On the spur of the moment, during a live weather tour of Scotland, I pointed to a mountainous area in the Highlands and referred to it as ‘nowheresville’, while describing isolated showers occurring in that area.

“My intention was only to convey that very few people were likely to catch a shower on that day.

“It was in no way a comment or opinion on the area or the people that live there.

“I deeply regret my choice of words and fully understand why it offended viewers,” he went on.

“That was far from my intention, and I am very sorry.”

Angus MacNeil, the SNP Western Isles MP and former BBC journalist, said angry constituents had alerted him to the gaffe.

Yesterday, Mr MacNeil accepted the broadcaster’s a pology and added that he wished Mr Schafernaker well in his future television career.

Related topic

- http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=507
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=507

BY JESSE EMSPAK

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 3/5/2007

It may have been China that sparked the worldwide sell-off late last month, but Latin America felt the brunt of the decline.

Funds that invest abroad fell an average 0.31%, compared to a 0.98% drop by U.S. domestic funds, according to Lipper. Latin American funds tumbled 3.27%. China region funds actually ended up with a small gain of 0.22%, despite an 8.8% nose-dive in the Shanghai composite stock market index on Feb. 27.

Concern remained that further fallout from China could emerge, but some managers are still cautiously optimistic about growth there.

China’s problems were caused by a lack of real liquidity and government efforts to tamp speculation before it got really bad, said Michael Donnelly, vice president and senior portfolio manager at American Century Investments. Donnelly runs the $690 million American Century Emerging Markets Fund.

“There was a lot of lending going into the market,” he said, citing reports of investors borrowing to buy stocks. “[Chinese] banks probably had a lot of bad loans already.”

Slowdown Normal

Meanwhile, Donnelly said, other foreign markets were supercharged in 2006, and a slowdown is normal.

Such corrections are felt in other countries because China is more closely linked to the outside world especially Latin America than ever before.

“The guys selling commodities in Latin America, they’re going to take a hit because of stepped-up trade with Asia over the last five years,” Donnelly said.

But even against that background, Donnelly and others said there are sectors that will be hurt less. The recent sell-off was a short-term event, they said, and likely not a sign of a bear market.

James Oberweis, president of Oberweis Asset Management oversees the $650 million Oberweis China Opportunities Fund. He said Chinese consumption has gone up and shows no signs of slowing.

Oberweis has put money into companies fueled by discretionary spending such as advertising and apparel.

Infrastructure spending in China and other emerging markets is also a good sign, said Daniel Geber, managing director at Epoch Investment Partners and portfolio manager for $314 million International Small-Cap Fund .

Most Visible Spending

Geber said China is the most visible example of an infrastructure boom, which drives growth. But other countries are also preparing to drop lots of money on big-ticket projects.

That’s why one big holding is the Dutch dredging company Royal Boskalis Westminster.

“We love the dredging business,” Geber said. Ports need to be expanded in Brazil, the Panama Canal plans to expand to allow bigger ships, and there are only three other dredging firms that operate globally, he noted.

Markets in China can also automatically limit downturns. A stock stops trading if it drops by more than a certain amount. This cuts down the damage the Chinese market can cause, Geber said.

Donnelly disagrees that infrastructure is the way to go, citing the cyclical nature of the business. He likes energy and consumer goods better, though for different reasons.

One big holding in consumer goods is Cencosud of Chile, which had 1.76% of the fund as of Dec. 31. It is “the Chilean version of Wal-Mart () ” Donnelly said.

Chile has a fiscally conservative government and a budget surplus. Teachers are getting raises and even miners are getting bonuses. Consumption is up and Cencosud has expanded into Argentina.

Donnelly’s energy stocks are United Energy System of Russia, Gazprom OAO and Petroleo Brasileiro. ()

Russia’s gas reserves help shield its economy from the rest of the world’s, he said. The price of gas is set far in advance, which limits volatility for those companies. Oil producers also are good bets as prices have gone up slightly.

But there still are reasons for concern in foreign markets. Geber said Americans’ spending is rising faster than incomes, and that can’t go on forever.

Japanese consumers may not be able to pick up the slack yet. Chinese consumers are spending more but they earn much less.

Donnelly said even a mild recession in the U.S. would have a big effect on China and the rest of the world.

China’s growth might slow from 10% per year to 7%, which in turn slows down the rest of Asia. Europe also relies heavily on exports to the U.S.

Stock markets everywhere are likely to feel it. “If you see the world’s largest economy slowing and the world’s fastest growing economy slow down, you’ll see a pull back,” he said.