You may be aware that The Dublin Jack banned smoking a few months ago (Shaky mentioned it at the time).  However, it seems that the government is doing all it can to sabotage this sensible initiative.  This from the Irish Examiner The enterprising owner of the Dublin Jack banned smoking in his bar seeing an…

All the top news is in the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English language newspaper. Just before Christmas they reported the exciting news that the Marks & Spencer store in Pacific Place will be closing down in June.  It’s obviously important because they returned to the story the following day, and again last…

Shopping Centres have been in the news recently, with the government’s attempt to sell off the ones it (somewhat inexplicably) owns and manages. Seems like a good plan to me – most shopping centres on public housing estates are rundown and unattractive, and new management will surely bring about some improvements. Shopping Centres play a…

I am not sure whether they are supposed to be funny, but some of the articles in the Sunday Morning Post about other people’s homes can be quite entertaining.  This week we have a small family that have two adjacent properties on Lantau, each one a modest 2,000 square feet.  One for them, the other…

Travelling by minibus is one of the more, er, interesting public transport experiences in Hong Kong. The main advantage is that they (usually) get you to your destination quickly, but unfortunately this is only because the drivers are contractually bound to break at least one traffic regulation for each kilometre they travel. Usually it’s speeding,…

The latest brilliant idea from the advertising industry… I guess we all spend time every day waiting for a lift to arrive.  Well, now you can spend that time watching advertisements.  There is a company in Hong Kong installing LCD televisions in lift lobbies, and their slogan is "Reaching business executives in a captive environment".…

I see that Simon Patkin has graduated from writing letters to the SCMP, and is now a contributor. Still the same old nonsense (subscription required), of course. He is arguing in favour of the preservation of "property rights" in the context of the (now abandoned) redevelopment of Hunghom Peninsula and reconstruction of Central Police Station. …

Well, that was a surprise.  The two property developers involved in Hunghom Peninsula (Sun Hung Kai Properties and New World Development) have announced that they will be bowing to public pressure and upgrading rather than demolishing the apartments: The developers said they had abandoned their original plan because they did not want to foster discord…

At the start of the year, I mentioned the curious business of the housing estate in Hung Hom that the government built and then decided it didn’t want any more.  At the time, the developers who kindly took this so-called white elephant off the government’s hands said that they would probably knock it all down…

Simon has written about the ESF, something I have previously mentioned a few times myself. I won’t repeat what he has written, which is a mostly fair summary of the history and more recent problems.  Something has to change. However, I think it’s important to remember that the ESF was set up and given government…