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London has long been the favourite hunting ground for Indian-origin tycoons — Lakshmi Mittal, Anil Agarwal, the Hinduja brothers, to name a few — when it came to snapping up some of its most expensive properties amid allegations of destroying the character of neighbourhoods by making tacky additions to their homes.

The latest to join the growing list of ‘nasty neighbours’ are Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor and her industrialist husband Anand Ahuja, who have acquired a 200-year-old mansion in fashionable Notting Hill for a cool £21 million.

However, their plans to gut the property — leaving only its four outer walls intact — have raised hackles. The redevelopments include a basement swimming pool and a subterranean basketball court.

Even as these plans were being scrutinised by the local council, a company linked to the couple is said to have spent £4.7 million buying flats in a nearby block over the past three years, allegedly to turn them into ‘servants’ quarters’, a concept alien to modern Britain.

These moves have provoked angry backlash from local residents, with the company accused of threatening anyone who ‘opposes’ their plans. A representative of the couple was quoted as saying they had no direct connection to the company that bought the flats, which were acquired for investment purposes.

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No bullying bosses, please. We’re British

For all its sins, the Keir Starmer government has got at least one thing right: securing workers’ rights in an increasingly exploitative gig economy. Not surprisingly though, its new law guaranteeing job security and fair wages is facing opposition from businesses who have warned that it would lead to a drop in new hires. There’s already talk of the government considering diluting some of the proposed reforms.

Meanwhile, at least one boss used to taking his staff for granted finds himself in hot water for showing disrespect towards an employee — a gym worker has been awarded nearly £150,000 after her boss ordered her to drive overnight from Germany back to Wales for a meeting he did not turn up at.

Bethan Littlewood, 29, was competing at the Canoe Polo European Championships in 2023 when she received the summons from the manager of the gym where she worked. An employment tribunal heard she arrived on time, only to discover her boss had ‘double booked’ and was elsewhere.

She told the tribunal it was the “last straw” in a string of similar incidents, including bullying.

The tribunal judge, Samantha Moore, ruled that the company’s conduct had “fundamentally breached the implied term of mutual trust and confidence” between the employer and its staff.

What Brits think of ‘broken Britain’

Oxford University and Britain’s Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion have launched a new project: The National Conversation. They are asking the public to “take a minute” to share their vision for their community and country in a voice note, which will then be analysed using AI.

The aim is to conduct what is claimed to be the most comprehensive mapping of what might bring people together in a time of “converging crises of social disconnection and division”.

Its chairman Sajid Javid, former home secretary, said: “Our country is in real peril. Unless we can regain a shared sense of what unites us, of what we have in common, we risk being torn apart by our differences. That vision won’t come from politicians, it can only come from the public.”

Polling shows that three-quarters of adults believe Britain is divided. Almost as many think the country has become more divided in the past five years.

Melinda Mills, professor of demography at Nuffield College, Oxford, said, “We hope that this National Conversation will build a new kind of national evidence base about what might hold us together.”

It would be interesting to know what a similar survey in India might reveal.

Calls grow to ban kirpans in public

The conviction of a Sikh teenager for murdering a white university student with a kirpan has reignited an old debate over religious exemptions that allow the carrying of sharp instruments in public.

Right-wing political parties are calling for the repeal of exemptions that legally allow Sikhs to carry kirpans in public spaces.

Last week, 23-year-old Vickrum Singh Digwa was convicted of killing 18-year-old Henry Nowak. Digwa’s mother Kiran Kaur was convicted of helping him remove the weapon from the scene.

The verdict by a jury at Southampton Crown Court has been welcomed, but police have been criticised for its treatment of the victim on the basis of Digwa’s unsubstantiated claim that he acted after being racially abused.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said it was “shameful” that the cops handcuffed Henry as he lay dying. The police have since apologised, but calls for a ban on carrying kirpans in public are growing.

Sikh groups have opposed penalising an entire faith and its religious freedoms due to the actions of one individual.

And, finally, British Airways’ habit of losing luggage has reminded old-timers of its catchy slogan to promote the now-defunct Concorde flight: ‘Breakfast in London, lunch in New York’. A wag has tweaked this to ‘Breakfast in London, lunch in New York… and baggage in Bermuda’.