Latest news with #PaulBarker
Scotsman
25-07-2025
- Automotive
- Scotsman
A twin triumph: Edinburgh car retailer celebrates as popular models win big at prestigious award ceremonies
A car retailer in Edinburgh is celebrating a double win after two of its most popular models scooped prestigious awards for their performance, comfort and practicality. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... John Clark Volvo Edinburgh on Lonehead Drive is celebrating after the XC60 – recently crowned the best-selling Volvo of all time – was named 'Best Car for Towing' at this year's Autotrader Awards. Judges agreed the mid-sized Volvo SUV offered effortless performance, strong towing capability, excellent comfort levels and a roomy interior, along with easy driving characteristics. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The panel went on to praise the car's customer feedback, revealing how one owner commented: 'The whole 'being' of the car makes you feel like being wrapped up in a fluffy duvet, all warm, soft and comfortable.' Volvo EX30 Adding to John Clark Volvo Edinburgh's success, the car retailer's smallest model, the EX30, was named Small Premium SUV of the year at the Auto Express New Car Awards. The Auto Express New Car Awards are one of the highlights of the automotive calendar, picking out the best in the business across 27 categories and focusing on the things that matter to consumers – from practicality and efficiency to reliability and the driving experience. Designed with safety and sustainability in mind, the EX30 is made from recycled materials and has the smallest CO2 footprint of any Volvo car to date, thanks to a new pure-EV platform. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Announcing the award, Auto Express Editor, Paul Barker, said: 'Premium in brand but brilliantly priced to open up classy electric cars to a wider audience, the Volvo EX30 is an all-round star, combining sure-footed handling with comfort, space and plenty of performance. It's a small SUV, but it goes big on quality.' Nicole Melillo Shaw Managing Director at Volvo Car UK at the Drivers' Choice Awards 2025 Bryan Muir at John Clark Volvo Edinburgh, said: 'It's fantastic to see the Volvo XC60 and EX30 models receive much-valued seals of approval after rigorous judging processes in their respected categories and awards. 'Like Volvo's other award-winning models, this string of accolades for the XC60 and EX30 reflects the importance Volvo places on making its cars practical to own and use, as well as desirable, luxurious, safe and sustainable. 'I'd encourage Edinburgh drivers to visit John Clark Volvo Edinburgh to learn more about the XC60 and EX30, see the model's capabilities first-hand and to chat to our friendly team of experts.' To find further information about the XC60 or EX30, visit or call 0131 357 3344
Scotsman
25-07-2025
- Automotive
- Scotsman
A twin triumph: Local car retailer celebrates as popular models win big at prestigious award ceremonies
A car retailer in Perth is celebrating a double win after two of its most popular models scooped prestigious awards for their performance, comfort and practicality. Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Camerons Volvo Perth on Arran Road is celebrating after the XC60 – recently crowned the best-selling Volvo of all time – was named 'Best Car for Towing' at this year's Autotrader Awards. Judges agreed the mid-sized Volvo SUV offered effortless performance, strong towing capability, excellent comfort levels and a roomy interior, along with easy driving characteristics. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The panel went on to praise the car's customer feedback, revealing how one owner commented: 'The whole 'being' of the car makes you feel like being wrapped up in a fluffy duvet, all warm, soft and comfortable.' Robert Deane. Commercial Director at Volvo Cars UK at the Auto Exress New Car Awards Adding to Camerons Volvo Perth's success, the car retailer's smallest model, the EX30, was named Small Premium SUV of the year at the Auto Express New Car Awards. The Auto Express New Car Awards are one of the highlights of the automotive calendar, picking out the best in the business across 27 categories and focusing on the things that matter to consumers – from practicality and efficiency to reliability and the driving experience. Designed with safety and sustainability in mind, the EX30 is made from recycled materials and has the smallest CO2 footprint of any Volvo car to date, thanks to a new pure-EV platform. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Announcing the award, Auto Express Editor, Paul Barker, said: 'Premium in brand but brilliantly priced to open up classy electric cars to a wider audience, the Volvo EX30 is an all-round star, combining sure-footed handling with comfort, space and plenty of performance. It's a small SUV, but it goes big on quality.' Nicole Melillo Shaw Managing Director at Volvo Car UK at the Drivers' Choice Awards 2025 Norman Leishman at Camerons Volvo Perth, said: 'It's fantastic to see the Volvo XC60 and EX30 models receive much-valued seals of approval after rigorous judging processes in their respected categories and awards. 'Like Volvo's other award-winning models, this string of accolades for the XC60 and EX30 reflects the importance Volvo places on making its cars practical to own and use, as well as desirable, luxurious, safe and sustainable. 'I'd encourage Perth drivers to visit Camerons Volvo Perth to learn more about the XC60 and EX30, see the model's capabilities first-hand and to chat to our friendly team of experts.'
Scoop
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Violence In Papua New Guinea Appears To Be Increasing
, RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist Most recently there was an horrific murder in Hela where a mother of six was shot after being being burnt and tortured following accusations of sorcery. In Port Moresby, bus drivers this week retaliated after one of their colleagues was killed in the suburb of Hanuabada. National Capital District governor Powes Parkop pleaded with the drivers not to take the law into their own hands. There have also been prolonged battles in various Highlands provinces, and last year a police strike sparked a calamitous riot in the capital. Paul Barker, the executive director of the PNG Institute of National Affairs, spoke with RNZ Pacific about the violence. (This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) PAUL BARKER: We're certainly having law and order problems that have in the past tended to be restricted to certain provinces and locations seem to have extended to additional provinces that were hitherto relatively peaceful, including East New Britain and other places in the islands. But also, not just in the islands - through down to other coastal provinces, Madang and so on, and as you've seen, conflicts that have broken out in the streets of Moresby. To some extent it relates to a lack of economic opportunities, frustration by young people, particularly; on the other hand it's also weak capacity for application of the rule of law, not just by the police, but by communities and cooperation between the different parties. During this year, a major focus of the 2025 budget has been on enhancing police capacity. And that was a bit of a wake up call from the riots in January of last year. They have got extra police that they've recruited and that are in training. We also know that the commissioner has terminated quite a lot of police over the last period of time for abuse and poor conduct and sometimes aggressive conduct. Some of these problems emanate from some of the conflict zones in the Highlands, and you get young people, or whole families, who effectively are displaced from these Highlands communities, come to the towns and cities of PNG to escape pretty horrendous conflicts in Upper Highlands, particularly in Enga, Southern Highlands, Hela. And again, we've had this dialogue with various parties, including the police, saying it cannot be addressed simply by more police on the ground. It needs to have more effective policing, better cooperation. There are a lot of people who buy into that and who totally agree, including some in the government itself, who say, yes, just adding to the numbers of police without enhanced capacity, discipline and so on, will not, in itself, address these problems. In fact, it could even exacerbate that. DON WISEMAN: You would like to see what happen? PB: We would like to see a system of cooperation. In the past, government was seen to be a neutral hand the old system, going back into colonial times, with the Kiap and so on. They were impartial in conflicts. Unfortunately, what we tend to see now is that a lot of people in government are seen to be party to the conflict. You've got some instigating conflict for their own ends. They may be people who are living in Moresby or even sometimes outside the country, and they have effectively gangs who work for them back in their home provinces and stir up trouble. So we need to effectively neuter them to be able to work with the communities to establish effective community engagement and policing and early warning systems, and we need to make sure, for example, that the police do actually have the resources to be able to respond to cases very promptly. We've got these sorcery accusation related violence (SARV). As highlighted in the media just lately, it seems that always, the police don't have a vehicle or don't have any fuel for their vehicle at the critical time when you've got to go and intervene to rescue someone. The whole system of community engagement, the churches are some of the most effective at working on the ground, along with some of these other entities, human rights defenders and so on. But we do need this strong government, civil society. The answer is not the Terrorism Act, which was rushed through just recently, and which risks making the situation worse by casting everyone, including, school kids, as terrorists just because they may be young and wandering the streets or traveling. We need to have, instead of that antipathy and effectively, an autocratic approach, we need to establish our systems of community dialogue, and we need the leaders to be engaged and participating, not all remote, overseas, travelling or in their Land Cruisers somewhere else. We need them to roll up their sleeves. We've got some very good examples where we've actually brought sides together. There was one in Hagen, an ongoing tribal fight, and the leaders were all in Moresby, but some players on the ground brought conflicting sides together and said, 'Why are you even fighting each other? You're just doing this because your bosses tell you to do it, but if you actually look at it, you've got more in common with each other.' And the end of a long session, they were all playing football with each other and enjoying each other's company. And that was the end of a long conflict. But it was stirred by old antipathies and power broking by these, they call them warlords, but we're told not to use the word 'warlords,' because that sort of engrandises them. They're not lords of anything. They're just war mongers as it were. So clearly, money is involved. Money gets involved with the arms' trade. You've also got some of the other trades; the drugs trade and some of the other trades, but it's this melding of power, money, even the sorcery accusation related violence. It's a new form of power, intimidating people and making yourself powerful and everyone being compliant with you. So we've got to break those systems, and that requires cooperation. DW: Under the Terrorism Act, that's the lethal force allowance? PB: Yeah, that means you can go out and shoot anyone who happens to be inconvenient to you, and obviously that can open the Pandora's box. You can shoot political enemies, people who are critics, journalists, anyone else and it's certainly not what PNG needs. DW: What you're talking about here, it's something of a revolution that would take a huge amount to achieve, wouldn't it? Do you think there is the wherewithal within the country to do it, to achieve it? PB: I think it's going to need a lot of international assistance, but it's going to have to be ideas,the commitment are going to have to come from within the country, so the outside world can support, in training, in dispute resolution, training for not just police, but for community leaders. We need that commitment. There are certainly people who are seeing some of these issues, are seeing this is needed, and I think it's part of the dialog we have this 50 year review that's going on looking forward 20 years, 'How do we move forward and avoid many of the mistakes of the past'? So that review team is raising many of those issues. A committee chaired by former deputy prime minister, Charles Abel, so they're trying to think outside the box and see where we can go forward. But all across the board, if you look at the statistics just lately, which have been put together in the latest economic and social reports from the ADB, from the World Bank and others, you'll see absolutely atrocious social indicators. You see the economy growing slowly. You're seeing education capacity not growing. You get a lot of these functions, high malnutrition, low job creation, and so on and so forth. We've got to address those together with the impacts of that, which is growing frustration and conflict developing in the urban areas where people have re-migrated. The development partners, some of them, are aware of this, and they're throwing their hands a little bit in the air and saying, 'what do we do'? And academics are sort of doing that as well, and saying, 'Hey, look, you know, the only way is cooperation, working with those who are willing and able to provide leadership and think outside the box'.
RNZ News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Violence in Papua New Guinea appears to be increasing
Paul Barker says PNG will need international assistance to address the law and order issues in the country. (file image) Photo: AFP/RNZ Pacific Most recently there was an horrific murder in Hela where a mother of six was shot after being being burnt and tortured following accusations of sorcery. In Port Moresby, bus drivers this week retaliated after one of their colleagues was killed in the suburb of Hanuabada. National Capital District governor Powes Parkop pleaded with the drivers not to take the law into their own hands. There have also been prolonged battles in various Highlands provinces, and last year a police strike sparked a calamitous riot in the capital. Paul Barker, the executive director of the PNG Institute of National Affairs, spoke with RNZ Pacific about the violence. (This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) PAUL BARKER: We're certainly having law and order problems that have in the past tended to be restricted to certain provinces and locations seem to have extended to additional provinces that were hitherto relatively peaceful, including East New Britain and other places in the islands. But also, not just in the islands - through down to other coastal provinces, Madang and so on, and as you've seen, conflicts that have broken out in the streets of Moresby. To some extent it relates to a lack of economic opportunities, frustration by young people, particularly; on the other hand it's also weak capacity for application of the rule of law, not just by the police, but by communities and cooperation between the different parties. During this year, a major focus of the 2025 budget has been on enhancing police capacity. And that was a bit of a wake up call from the riots in January of last year. They have got extra police that they've recruited and that are in training. We also know that the commissioner has terminated quite a lot of police over the last period of time for abuse and poor conduct and sometimes aggressive conduct. Some of these problems emanate from some of the conflict zones in the Highlands, and you get young people, or whole families, who effectively are displaced from these Highlands communities, come to the towns and cities of PNG to escape pretty horrendous conflicts in Upper Highlands, particularly in Enga, Southern Highlands, Hela. And again, we've had this dialogue with various parties, including the police, saying it cannot be addressed simply by more police on the ground. It needs to have more effective policing, better cooperation. There are a lot of people who buy into that and who totally agree, including some in the government itself, who say, yes, just adding to the numbers of police without enhanced capacity, discipline and so on, will not, in itself, address these problems. In fact, it could even exacerbate that. DON WISEMAN: You would like to see what happen? PB: We would like to see a system of cooperation. In the past, government was seen to be a neutral hand the old system, going back into colonial times, with the Kiap and so on. They were impartial in conflicts. Unfortunately, what we tend to see now is that a lot of people in government are seen to be party to the conflict. You've got some instigating conflict for their own ends. They may be people who are living in Moresby or even sometimes outside the country, and they have effectively gangs who work for them back in their home provinces and stir up trouble. So we need to effectively neuter them to be able to work with the communities to establish effective community engagement and policing and early warning systems, and we need to make sure, for example, that the police do actually have the resources to be able to respond to cases very promptly. We've got these sorcery accusation related violence (SARV). As highlighted in the media just lately, it seems that always, the police don't have a vehicle or don't have any fuel for their vehicle at the critical time when you've got to go and intervene to rescue someone. The whole system of community engagement, the churches are some of the most effective at working on the ground, along with some of these other entities, human rights defenders and so on. But we do need this strong government, civil society. The answer is not the Terrorism Act, which was rushed through just recently, and which risks making the situation worse by casting everyone, including, school kids, as terrorists just because they may be young and wandering the streets or traveling. We need to have, instead of that antipathy and effectively, an autocratic approach, we need to establish our systems of community dialogue, and we need the leaders to be engaged and participating, not all remote, overseas, travelling or in their Land Cruisers somewhere else. We need them to roll up their sleeves. We've got some very good examples where we've actually brought sides together. There was one in Hagen, an ongoing tribal fight, and the leaders were all in Moresby, but some players on the ground brought conflicting sides together and said, 'Why are you even fighting each other? You're just doing this because your bosses tell you to do it, but if you actually look at it, you've got more in common with each other.' And the end of a long session, they were all playing football with each other and enjoying each other's company. And that was the end of a long conflict. But it was stirred by old antipathies and power broking by these, they call them warlords, but we're told not to use the word 'warlords,' because that sort of engrandises them. They're not lords of anything. They're just war mongers as it were. So clearly, money is involved. Money gets involved with the arms' trade. You've also got some of the other trades; the drugs trade and some of the other trades, but it's this melding of power, money, even the sorcery accusation related violence. It's a new form of power, intimidating people and making yourself powerful and everyone being compliant with you. So we've got to break those systems, and that requires cooperation. DW: Under the Terrorism Act, that's the lethal force allowance? PB: Yeah, that means you can go out and shoot anyone who happens to be inconvenient to you, and obviously that can open the Pandora's box. You can shoot political enemies, people who are critics, journalists, anyone else and it's certainly not what PNG needs. DW: What you're talking about here, it's something of a revolution that would take a huge amount to achieve, wouldn't it? Do you think there is the wherewithal within the country to do it, to achieve it? PB: I think it's going to need a lot of international assistance, but it's going to have to be ideas,the commitment are going to have to come from within the country, so the outside world can support, in training, in dispute resolution, training for not just police, but for community leaders. We need that commitment. There are certainly people who are seeing some of these issues, are seeing this is needed, and I think it's part of the dialog we have this 50 year review that's going on looking forward 20 years, 'How do we move forward and avoid many of the mistakes of the past'? So that review team is raising many of those issues. A committee chaired by former deputy prime minister, Charles Abel, so they're trying to think outside the box and see where we can go forward. But all across the board, if you look at the statistics just lately, which have been put together in the latest economic and social reports from the ADB, from the World Bank and others, you'll see absolutely atrocious social indicators. You see the economy growing slowly. You're seeing education capacity not growing. You get a lot of these functions, high malnutrition, low job creation, and so on and so forth. We've got to address those together with the impacts of that, which is growing frustration and conflict developing in the urban areas where people have re-migrated. The development partners, some of them, are aware of this, and they're throwing their hands a little bit in the air and saying, 'what do we do'? And academics are sort of doing that as well, and saying, 'Hey, look, you know, the only way is cooperation, working with those who are willing and able to provide leadership and think outside the box'.
North Wales Live
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- North Wales Live
Buyers told 'shop around' as car colour could quietly add £4,500 to cost
Car buyers have been warned that the colour of your vehicle could quietly add up to £4,500 onto the price you pay. Auto Express is urging buyers to take a closer look at paint pricing, which can significantly affect the final cost of a vehicle. While it's well known that high-end options such as upgraded audio systems or oversized alloy wheels can inflate the price, a less obvious – and often overlooked – cost is the paint colour itself. But analysis by Auto Express has found that for some mainstream models, buyers will be paying more than £700 over the base price just for choosing a colour that isn't white or red. 'People assume the colour of their car is a cosmetic decision – but in today's market, it can hit your wallet harder than you think,' said Paul Barker, Editor of Auto Express. 'We're seeing huge discrepancies in paint pricing between manufacturers, and they're not always obvious at first glance. It's catching people out – and can turn what should be a fun part of car buying into a bit of a nightmare.' Paint charges vary wildly between car makers, so if colour is a key consideration, Paul urges motorists to shop around. 'It's entirely likely that anyone shopping for a new Nissan Qashqai might also have a Skoda Karoq on their shortlist, for example,' said Paul, 'Unless you want your Qashqai in red, you'll need to budget another £745 above the list price to cover the paint, whereas you can have your Skoda in any one of five colours including a pearl finish and so-called Exclusive Meteor Grey completely free of charge. 'Even the optional bright red or orange finishes are only £410. So, if you're not having your Qashqai in red, the cost of this mid-size SUV has jumped up by at least £335 – and most likely more than £700 – versus the Skoda.' Premium brands take it even further. On a BMW X3, 26 paint options cost from £875 to over £4,500, while Audi only offers white as standard on the Q3, charging £575 for all other colours – or a £4,000 for a custom finish. Even within the VW Group, there's inconsistency: SEAT lets you pick any colour free on the Ateca, while VW's Tiguan includes eight out of nine colours at no cost – yet Audi holds firm on its charges. Paint pricing by model - what you'll really pay for colour Nissan Qashqai - free colour, red only. other colours: £745 extra Skoda Karoq - free colours, five options, including pearl-effect and exclusive meteor grey. optional bright finishes (e.g. red/orange): £410 Seat Ateca - all colours free of charge Volkswagen Tiguan - free colours, 8 out of 9 options, 'exclusive' paint option: £1,310 Audi Q3 - free colour, white only, standard colours: £575, custom finish: £4,000 BMW X3 - free colour, white only, optional colours: £875 to £4,585 Ford Kuga -free colour, white only, other colours: £800 Vauxhall Grandland - free colour, metallic black, other colours: £650 Maserati Granturismo Folgore (premium model example) - optional matte paint: up to £18,000 'Colour should be about personal taste, not personal financial pain,' Barker said. 'In many cases, the price of paint can be the difference between a deal and a disappointment. And if you're financing the car, those costs stick with you every month for years.' 'Don't get dazzled by a glossy showroom finish,' Barker added. 'It might look great under the lights, but it could be hiding a serious hit to your budget. Understand what you're paying for – and don't let colour choice cloud your judgement.'
