CELEBRITY CIRCUIT BECKONS FOR THE BEEB’S RESIDENT HEARTTHROB May 17, 2009 THAT Robert Peston just keeps popping up on the celebrity circuit. The BBC business editor has enjoyed something of a meteoric rise to fame since his scoop about the crisis at Northern Rock back in 2007 – so much so that he even managed to scoop eighth place in a recent Britain’s Sexiest Brains poll, [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK May 17, 2009 IF anyone out there believed elaborate dinners were going out of fashion in these straitened times, think again. Friday night, and four guests rocked up at the Lanesborough hotel’s Apsleys restaurant for Dom Perignon champagne, exquisite Scavino Barolo Annunziata Reserva wine, lobster spaghetti, veal and Dover sole. But it was after dinner, when they retired [...]
Chelsea represents the peculiarly British love affair with horticulture May 17, 2009 ONLY in Britain could Alan Titchmarsh become a sex symbol. There is something in the psyche of the people on this small, rainy island that means that a short man in dungarees wielding a trowel sends ladies of a certain age all a-flutter. In some way, a gardener’s earthiness equates to sexual allure. Maybe it’s [...]
Chelsea represents the peculiarly British love affair with horticulture May 17, 2009 CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW WHAT TO SEEShow Gardens: Created by internationally renowned landscape architects and garden designers to inform and inspire. Highlight: The Quilted Velvet Garden. Based on a dream, the idea here is an arduous journey through the everyday world of work that arrives at a place of comfort and luxury. The foreground invites the [...]
CITY CURRY LOVERS EMPTY THEIR POCKETS FOR UK WAR VETERANS May 14, 2009 NOSHING down on a good curry is one of the best ways to relieve City stress (just ask chancellor Alistair Darling, who famously thrashed out the details of his mammoth £500bn bank bailout plan over an Indian takeaway back in October). So it should come as no surprise that Lord Mayor Ian Luder decided to [...]
MPS: CITY STILL DOESN’T GET IT May 14, 2009 THE CITY launched a counter-offensive against MPs yesterday, after the Treasury select committee criticised Lord Adair Turner’s review of regulatory reform and cast doubt on Sir David Walker’s suitability to lead a review of corporate governance in the banking sector. The influential group of MPs concluded in its report on the role of remuneration in the [...]
Barclays in talks to sell its BGI unit May 14, 2009 BARCLAYS has entered preliminary talks with US money manager BlackRock as well as other potential buyers for its prized asset management arm Barclays Global Investors (BGI). Any sell-off could generate at least $10bn (£6.6bn) for the bank but the ongoing talks could easily lead to nothing. The Barclays board is understood only to want to [...]
A Barclays sell-off would be a mistake May 14, 2009 IF Barclays does end up selling its Barclays Global Investors division to a rival such as BlackRock, it will be faced with two major problems. The first would be one of credibility: how can Barclays continue to operate as a universal bank if it lacks an asset manager? Selling iShares makes some sense; the business was [...]
Amec board’s pay too much May 14, 2009 THE furore over City pay hit another company last night, as over half of investors at engineering group Amec refused to back the company’s remuneration report. Around 40 per cent of its shareholders opposed the report on directors salaries and bonus plans, while 13 per cent abstained. Amec wanted to give its chief executive Samir Brikho [...]
MP expenses hit a high May 14, 2009 JUSTICE minister Shahid Malik ran up the highest expenses claim among his MP peers, it emerged yesterday. He has claimed the maximum amount allowed for a second home – £66,827, over three years. During 2008, he claimed £443 a week for a London town house, or £23,083 over the whole year. Meanwhile, on his constituency [...]