LONDON, U.K. -- The Sunday Times published its this weekend鈥攐f the 1,000 richest people in the United Kingdom.
Here鈥檚 an easy way to remember who is number one:
Every time you slip your wet hands into one of those Dyson dryers in a pub or restaurant bathroom, think money.
Think, Sir James Dyson鈥檚 money鈥攁ll $27.6 billion dollars of it.
Think vacuum cleaners too. As in: 鈥淗ey, is that a Dyson?鈥
He also tried to make a car, a seven-seat, electric SUV, codenamed N526. He spent $853 million of his own money on that little hobby, before giving up.
One can understand, I suppose, his need to compete with a fellow billionaire carmaker like Elon Musk. As in: 鈥淗ey, is that a Tesla?鈥
鈥淥urs is a life of risk and failure,鈥 noted Sir James. 鈥淟ife isn鈥檛 easy.鈥
Really, says the man who owns more land than the Queen.
OK, let鈥檚 get back to lockdown. As in: 鈥淗ey, when will this misery be over?鈥
You might be interested to learn that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suffered a setback鈥攐ver his government鈥檚 popularity, not his health.
It started with last week鈥檚 stumbling address to the nation about getting the country back to work. There was some confusion鈥擮K, a lot of confusion鈥攁bout what he planned to do.
According to the latest polling, more people now think the government is messing up than think it鈥檚 doing well.
The Sunday Times told us that PM Boris made a little joke about his predicament:
鈥淚鈥檝e learnt that it鈥檚 much easier to take people鈥檚 freedoms away, than give them back.鈥
It was, said the newspaper, 鈥渁 rare moment of levity.鈥
Let鈥檚 backtrack now to last week, when I gave you an update on Amira, the five-year-old Canadian orphan stranded in a detention camp in eastern Syria.
I told you about her uncle from Toronto writing to Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne鈥攖wice鈥攁sking for a few minutes of his time. He never got an answer.
Well, there鈥檚 news.
This weekend the minister phoned him to say Amira has not been forgotten.
It wasn鈥檛 a promise to bring her home next week, but it was a commitment, and confirmation鈥攁s I read it鈥攖hat Canada is working on a plan to rescue her.
Amira鈥檚 uncle鈥攚ho has asked that he not be named鈥攚as surprised and pleased to hear from the minister. They spoke for 10 minutes鈥攚ith the promise that somebody from Global Affairs would follow up in the coming days.
There are obvious complications in rescuing an orphan from Syria, but other countries have done it. Amira鈥檚 uncle tried on his own, but got nowhere without Canada鈥檚 help.
The call was a gesture, and significant. But, a gesture is only as good as the intention behind it
