Rabbit Thought of the Day

Four current and former British Airways executives have been charged with involvement in fixing the prices of plane fuel surcharges. BA's head of sales Andrew Crawley and ex-commercial director Martin George are due to appear before City of London Magistrates Court on 24 September.

Also due up are former communications head Iain Burns and former UK and Ireland sales chief Alan Burnett. If convicted, the men could face prison sentences.  The charges have been brought by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The men are accused of "having dishonestly agreed with others to make or implement arrangements which directly or indirectly fixed the price for the supply in the UK of passenger air transport services by BA and Virgin Atlantic" between July 2004 and April 2006.

Mr George and Mr Burns resigned from BA in 2006, while Mr Burnett retired in the same year. Mr Crawley remains in his role.

The OFT has already fined BA £121.5m for colluding with Virgin Atlantic on fuel surcharges at least six times between 2004-06. Under whistle blower protection rules, Virgin was granted UK immunity after bringing the matter to the attention of the OFT. BA has also been fined $300m (£150m) by the US Department of Justice over the matter, after a guilty plea.

Passengers who travelled on long haul flights with either of the airlines during the relevant period can apply for a refund worth about one-third of the fuel surcharge, via a special website. BA said that about 11 million passengers had been affected, including about seven million in the UK.

The chances of these people going to jail; are quite slim, if found guilty it will probably a slap on the wrist and telling off! Unlike the America where they have long jail terms for executives found guilty of fraud and similar offences, we tend to let them of lightly, probably because they give money to the political parties and have friends in ‘High Places’

I have just been speaking with my better half, who was telling me about the thunder the storms last night. Which was news to me because I never heard a thing? I did see something some pictures on the BBC website this morning and was amazed at some of the pictures showing the lightning and of the hail stones but it never disturbed my sleep.

I have always said I could sleep anywhere and once I’m asleep it would take a bomb to wake me up, I normally wake up naturally before my alarm clock goes off and always have, so I must sleep deep and soundly.

I didn’t get the job from my first interview, although I got positive feed back from the interview, I believe I priced myself out of the job and they didn’t think I would like to work in such a company. Which in truth I was concerned about, a large organisation is more able to adapt to market forces while a small company does not have the resources to change it’s direction and may be at risk when times are hard.

Oh well never, mind I do so have a job and there are loads of opportunities out there.

I watched the ‘Lost Land of the Jaguar’, I love programs like this they are brilliant, and this one is no exception they have some of the best cameramen and naturalists around. The program is well put together and very informative.

However, who is like me in that some of the insects make my flesh creep, considering like most of British army we have at some point done some jungle training, I spent about 4 months in the jungles of Belize in 1986 and have encountered many similar insects, I was okay then so why does it affect me now?

Anyway it’s great program and the final episode is next, I think the climber falls out of his harness and breaks his legs, Rosemary spoilt by telling me she had seen on another program.

In a little over 24 hours the games will begin and with it the media circus that goes with it. The BBC has more staff out there than we have competitors, I bet half of them do bugger all; it will be a holiday for most of at our expense. Surely over 400 staff are not required, it’s not if they have taken they own camera equipment they just take they feed from the Chinese camera’s.

One more question on the BBC and they news coverage, why is the early evening news broadcast from the Beijing have the studio’s in London closed down?

Ah I have the answer, its a bit like telephone calls moving to places like India, its probably cheaper to rent studio space over there than it is here, and of course the staff get to see the culture of foreign parts a great job if you can get it!

God, am well early this morning I walked through the day at 06:30, I did leave home a little earlier than usual but I had to go and get some petrol, but here wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road, and I was straight across the Dartford bridge and through the tolls without any problems at all hence earlier in the office.

Mind you I have to leave early tonight because of the job interview I have.