Tag Archives: bernie ecclestone

Eric Avebury writes… Bernie Ecclestone, F1 and Britain’s shameful friendship with Bahrain

By Eric Avebury | Mon 8th April 2013 - 8:45 am

Bernie Ecclestone is an appropriate person to be the public face of Formula 1, a ‘sport’ which is fast becoming known as the event of choice for autocrats who wish to launder their international reputation, as evidenced by the appearance of races in Bahrain and Dubai in recent years.

Ecclestone famously praised Thatcher, Hitler and Saddam a few years ago, saying that he preferred strong leaders, that Hitler was a man who was ‘able to get things done’, and yet paradoxically, that politics ‘is not for me’.

Equally bizarre, he …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bahrain, featured and formula 1 | 3 Comments

Opinion: Campaigning for F1

By Andy Darley | Thu 29th October 2009 - 9:18 am

Somewhere around 2003, after almost 20 years of ALDC-approved campaigning and concentrated Rennardism, I burned out and resigned from every bit of Libdemmery I was involved in bar party membership.

Goodbye campaigning, I thought, and went off to do quieter things, like setting up a motorsports website supporting British drivers, www.BritsOnPole.com.

All went well until a chancer named Simon Gillett met a bigger chancer named Bernie Ecclestone and won a deal to take the Formula One British Grand Prix to cosy old Donington Park. Quite how the necessary redevelopment work would be paid for was unclear.

Since then, the slow, painful, but wholly predictable collapse of Gillett’s plans have led to worried fans of British motorsport arriving in droves at our site in search of news and reassurance.

Posted in News, Online politics and Op-eds | Also tagged caron lindsay, chris rennard, donington, donington park, duncan stephen, featured, formula 1, grand prix, jenson button, silverstone and simon gillett | 11 Comments

Reform of political donations: within the gift of the Lib Dems?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 20th April 2009 - 10:02 am

Yesterday’s Observer reported that one of the Lib Dems’ bigger donors, Sudhir Choudhrie, faces allegations of “accepting tens of millions of pounds in kickbacks from an arms deal between an Israeli company and the Indian government”:

Sudhir Choudhrie, who has personally donated £95,000 to the party and whose relatives’ companies have donated a further £475,000, was named as a key arms broker in foreign reports. … This is the second time that Choudhrie, 59, has been accused of being paid an illegal commission from a major arms deal in India. The allegations are said to be politically motivated, and to

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