Indian rhapsody

DE LA RUE is entangled in a corruption probe involving India’s former Finance secretary Arvind Mayaram.

The Gateshead company, which produces bank notes, recently learnt that India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI­I) began investigating Mayaram’s activities before 2016.

Together with Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India officials, he faces charges of criminal conspiracy, corruption and abusing his official position.

All allegedly conspired to unduly favour De La Rue in a deal to sell bank note security features “to the detriment of the Indian exchequer.”

De La Rue learnt of the scandal following Press reports and said it had not worked for the Indian government or central bank since 2016.

Eurostar slowdown

EUROSTAR’S chief executive, Gwendoline Cazenave, announced that the UK­Paris trains now carry 30 per cent fewer passengers.

The company currently runs 14 trains each day between London and Paris compared with 18 in 2019, owing to holdups in stations resulting from post­Brexit border checks and fewer border staff, Cazenave explained.

Suspended trains included the direct service from London to Disneyland Paris and connections for the Ebbsfleet or Ashford International stations.

The Eurostar boss said that faced with these problems, it was possible the company would decide not to restore some of the suspended services, although it was at present “working hard” with both the French and UK authorities to find solutions.

PLEASANTLY surprised to read an article published in the UK Sunday Times last week. Nice to know there are still a few respected columnists who hold the ‘old fashioned’ views of Leapy to their journalistic chests.

The article stated, among many other observations; and I quote ‘There is now a full­on left wing campaign to unstitch and burn the very fabric of Britain’ (unquote). It went on to state that in a typically military style operation the woke society had already seized control of the TV and radio stations, to such an extent that recently at the end of the BBC’s News at Six, the presenter actually announced ‘Now over to our LGBT and diversity correspondent’. You really couldn’t make it up.

According to the same report, the diversity outfit has now moved their operation to schools, endeavouring to convince (and confuse) young children that their misinformed parents have also embraced racism and prejudice in the past. Well this ol’ boy has been taking plenty of flack (and often very welcome agreement) about these types of observations for some years, nice to have some consensus from other pretty well placed sources.

Also pleased to witness a keen example of the excellent reputation our own publication enjoys for allowing different opinions to flourish among its broad