Meghan's keepsake packaging

This morning Mrs H and I were chatting about the celebrity antics of Meghan and Harry, particularly the entertaining attempts by Meghan to create a lifestyle brand. She isn't the only one playing this tawdry game of course, but she is remarkably unconvincing even by celebrity standards.

Mrs H was particularly amused by this advice from Meghan -

Her raspberry jam - which is made in a factory - will be 'presented in keepsake packaging,' and she advised fans to 'repurpose' the jars 'to tuck away love notes or special treasures, and to remember this pivotal moment with me', adding: 'Think of it as our time capsule'.

Meghan, 43, continued: 'And by the way, once you've enjoyed every spoonful of this fruit spread, you may want to do what I do: rinse the jar and use it as a small bud vase for flowers on your nightstand, or to hold your pens on your desk.'


The entertaining aspect is its transparent shallowness, the idea that any sensible adult could go along with such crudely tacky marketing. Some will go along with it presumably, just as some adults accept free tickets to Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter shows.

Yet is anyone seriously interested in the Meghan Markle show, except as a casually entertaining demonstration of just how vacuous celebrity marketing can be?

But were they cheaper than Amazon?

  

N. Korean state security agency orders thousands of spy camera glasses from China

The ministry's control over smuggling and distribution channels enables it to import spy cameras despite sanctions violations and their use in illegal activities

North Korean traders have ordered a large shipment of spy camera glasses from China, Daily NK has learned. The cameras will likely be used for undercover investigations by the country’s state security apparatus.

A source in China told Daily NK recently that North Korean traders ordered thousands of spy camera glasses in early March.

Legal plunder

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Frédéric Bastiat - The Law (1850)

 
Among the husbands was Shalikov, the tax-collector—a narrow, spiteful soul, given to drink, with a big, closely cropped head, and thick, protruding lips. He had had a university education; there had been a time when he used to read progressive literature and sing students' songs, but now, as he said of himself, he was a tax-collector and nothing more.

Anton Chekhov - The Husband (1886)

In the prosperous year of 1856, incomes of between a hundred and a hundred and fifty pounds were chargeable with a tax of elevenpence halfpenny in the pound: persons who enjoyed a revenue of a hundred and fifty or more had the honour of paying one and fourpence. Abatements there were none, and families supporting life on two pounds a week might in some cases, perchance, be reconciled to the mulct by considering how equitably its incidence was graduated.

George Gissing - Born in Exile (1892)

Boost

My workers’ rights Bill will boost the economy, insists Rayner

Angela Rayner insisted her workers’ rights package would boost the economy after a Cabinet colleague suggested it could be watered down...

Businesses have also warned that the unintended consequences of the reforms risk strangling entrepreneurs in red tape and undermining Sir Keir Starmer’s drive to get people back to work.

But in a rebuke to her critics, the Deputy Prime Minister insisted that both her legislation and the 6.7 per cent minimum wage rise this week would drive economic growth.

Well 'boost' is a change from 'turbocharge', but maybe 'boost' is more suitably modest for measures which aren't likely to boost anything much, although we shouldn't exclude the possibility of unemployment receiving a boost. 

Angela's colleagues are likely to be happy enough that she refers to it a "my" workers' rights Bill though. They'll vote for it but don't necessarily want ownership.

Strangely Wealthy

 

Not an April fools' jape

Met Office warns of sunburn risk as temperatures soar to 22C across UK

The Met Office has urged Britons to put protect themselves from the sun this week, as the UK prepares to bask in temperatures as high as 22C.

The mercury is set to climb gradually this week and could peak at 22C on Thursday in the south of England, the Met Office said.

This means the UK could be enjoying sunny weather with temperatures even higher than Athens or Barcelona on Thursday, where highs of 17C and 16C are forecast respectively.

A Night Shift For Solar Panels?

Net Zero here we come: Boffins work out how to power solar panels with moonshine. 

Jaw dropping potential: British solar panels which work at night

As we all know, solar panels work best when it’s sunny and don’t work quite so well overnight, but a British start-up called MoonPwr has developed a patented nano-film coating composed of certain novel molecular structures based on selenium which are particularly sensitive to moonshine.

Encouraging laboratory pilot studies suggest how more funding could turbocharge the project to fruition and thereby pave the way for solar panels which work fairly normally by day and generate a certain amount of moonshine electricity at night.

“Obviously our new coating doesn’t provide a night output which is strictly comparable to that generated during the day,” said an AI spokesthing, “but we have been working on the principle that some output is better than none.”