Is the UK Government making its people prejudiced?

Dear Mr Cameron,

I have watched and read with interest your comments on restricting the number of immigrants into the UK. As a business man – having worked successfully as an international property consultant based in London for the last 29 years – I support most of your business related policies. I further believe that you have the necessary qualities to become an excellent Prime Minister.

However, I strongly disagree with your assumption that it is possible to control the number of immigrants coming into the UK. It would be extremely difficult to stop determined economic migrants – searching for a better life in the UK – from finding clever ways to enter and remain in the UK. More importantly, I believe the main concern of voters is not the number of immigrants but the unfair system that allows many immigrants who have not paid any taxes in this country to take advantage of social housing, free schools and a free health service. Voters would in fact probably welcome any number of immigrants wishing to reside in the UK as long as they bring in either capital or the required skills and hard work necessary to help the UK economy grow.

In my opinion, if you wish to receive the required votes to become the next Prime Minister, you must start listening to what the voters really want from a strong Conservative leader on important issues such as immigration. It would be fair to say that unless a case requires genuine humane consideration, immigrants should not be entitled to any benefits. To quote the words of a taxi driver I once met: “We like foreigners living in our country, what we hate is our government allowing immigrants so many freebies at our expense. Our government is making us prejudiced.”

Regards,

Mohammad (Mamad) Kashani-Akhavan
info@glfinance.co.uk

Should British Airways shareholders challenge their managers decisions?

Dear All,

I believe that the one thing the Credit Crunch should have taught us by now is that we should all go to any length to put our point of view forward, especially where a subject as important as the survival of an important British Institution such as British Airways is concerned. In the past our silence and in particular the silence of Shareholders and Board members, has allowed the Senior Managers of important institutions such as the Royal Bank of Scotland to continue making irrational and bad decisions. In my open letter to BA Shareholders in the Times on 24.03.2010, I stated that as a frequent premium passenger, I strongly felt the only important remaining advantage in flying with British Airways was the quality and experience of its cabin crew. Having put my opinion as a passenger forward, I would now like to consider the situation from a business perspective. One does not have to be a financial genius to figure out that British Airways’ only chance of long term profitability and survival is by continued improvement in the service that it currently offers to its premium class passengers. It is these business passengers who are generating a significant proportion of BA’s profit and they expect an excellent service in return for their continued loyalty in flying with BA. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs having employed thousands of people and with my own successful career in the property industry spanning over 28 years, I completely understand the necessity in certain circumstances of reducing expenditure religiously to remain competitive. However, it is of utmost importance to act intelligently when implementing a reduction in expenditure. Costs should be cut only in areas where the decrease in expenditure does not result in a reduced and inferior service to high paying customers. In the case of British Airways, customer satisfaction is directly linked to the experience passengers have when flying with BA. Their experience with a professional and experienced cabin crew who are the face of BA and the one asset it has left to offer which distinguishes it from many other airlines, should not be sacrificed for a relatively insignificant cost saving. I received a huge response to my open letter in the Times on 24.03.2010. These included responses from BA Shareholders expressing their anger and disappointment with the inflexible and arrogant manner in which BA’s Managers have been dealing with their cabin crew. It is undeniable the BA’s Senior Managers have made many serious mistakes such as price fixing, bad planning for the opening of Terminal 5 and now their unfair and commercially unjustifiable treatment of their loyal cabin crew. I believe BA’s Shareholders should hold its Senior Managers accountable for their actions before it’s too late. It has bee proven time and again, that Senior Managers often happily retire with big bonuses whilst the Shareholders, other employees and general public are left to suffer the consequences and losses resulting from their bad decisions. Let us hope this does not happen with BA.

Kind regards,

Mamad Kashani-Akhavan
info@glfinance.co.uk