The Spectator

Barometer | 16 April 2011

This week's Barometer

issue 16 April 2011

Prince of cars

It was revealed that Audi has been enticing royal customers with 60 per cent discounts. It is not the first car company to target royalty to build its image.

— In 1898 the Daimler Motor Company of Coventry offered the Prince of Wales the use of five cars on a visit to Warwick Castle.

— The generosity was richly rewarded: in 1902, as King Edward VII, he ordered a 22 HP model from the company and bestowed a royal warrant.

— Daimler remained the sole supplier of vehicles to the Royal Family until 1949 when, after a gearbox failure in a Daimler given to him as a wedding present, Prince Philip ordered a Rolls-Royce instead.

Behind the veil

A ban on wearing burqas came into effect in France. Some estimates for the number of burqa-wearers in European countries:

France 367–2000
Holland 400
Belgium 215
Sweden 100
Denmark 3



There is no published estimate for the UK, but at least three girls’ schools specify a burqa or niqab as uniform, enough to take the number of wearers above that of any other western European country.

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