Politics and Public Life
Haji-Ioannou is a member of the New Enterprise Council, a group set up to advise the Conservative Party on business policy. He stated at the time that this appointment did not reflect his political affiliations, adding "I agreed to be included in the group of entrepreneurs because I was assured it will be non-partisan. not much difference between Left and Right any more."
On 1 April 2010, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, Haji-Ioannou joined 23 other UK business leaders, including Marks & Spencer's Stuart Rose and Next's Simon Wolfson, criticising the Labour government's plans to raise National Insurance contribution rates.
The character of Omar Baba in the BBC TV comedy Come Fly With Me was based on Stelios.
Read more about this topic: Stelios Haji-Ioannou
Famous quotes containing the words politics, public and/or life:
“Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mud stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime records unique, violin player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Navajo men and boys have an odd way of showing their friendship. When two young men meet at the trading post, a “Sing”, or a dance they greet each other, inquire about the health of their respective families, then stand silently some ten or fifteen minutes while one feels the other’s arms, shoulders, and chest.”
—Administration in the State of Ariz, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have some sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be. The question is not what we can do now for the hypothetical Mexican, the hypothetical Negro. The question is what we really want out of life, for ourselves, what we think is real.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)