KHOODEELAAR! Told you so

0440 Hrs GMT London Sunday 8 March 2009:

The City of London-touting Crossrail-peddling London Times city trader Martin Waller WAS having a laugh with the piece we reproduce below. The ‘main’ Crossrail peddling is back on the Murdoch-ed Times news organisation's web sites......Just as the construction conglomerates and assorted associated agencies of Big Business have been repeating the latest crass-role lies cooked up at the Greater London Assembly itself via the overly compromised ‘consultancy ’ outfit it called BUCHANAN..And if the sole ‘comment’ from an alleged reader of the Martin Waller promotional mocking of Crass-role-plyer Boris Johnson is anything to go by, there is no room for any criticism of Boris the CRASS RAIL role player if Martin Waller has any say on the editorial practices of the Times - print and online...CRASS role indeed!


[To be continued]


Boris Johnson: 'Buddy, can you spare me a couple of million?'
Martin Waller: City Diary
Boris Johnson is on the scrounge again. The Mayor of London, desperate to find the £16 billion needed to build Crossrail, the east-west rail link, has been approaching property firms for a contribution in return for planning clearance, even if their developments are nowhere near the planned route. He wants £20 million from Land Securities for a site in Victoria, another £1.5 million from Land Secs for the “Walkie-Talkie” tower in the City that isn’t going to be built, and £1.6 million from Great Portland Estates for a site near Fetter Lane.

“The Mayor is keen to establish from the outset the principle that developments which will add to demands on the rail network should help support the rail link scheme,” his office confirms. “He is equally aware that such an approach should be reasonably pragmatic at this stage.” Indeed; an earlier approach elsewhere for funds was fobbed off with a mere £120,000.

It seems a little undignified, the Mayor going around like a Big Issue seller taking whatever is going. “All right, guv, no magazine, but can you spare a few bob for a cup of tea?” I wonder if he has a dog on a string?



Even the tax havens are starting to feel the pinch

I wonder if anyone can see a connection between these two facts. On Monday the TUC came out with research that claimed that tax avoidance by wealthy UK residents using tax havens cost the UK at least £4 billion a year, naming Jersey, the Isle of Man and Guernsey, among others. Yesterday Unite, the banking union, attacked the decision by Royal Bank of Scotland to cut jobs at, er, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, among others. A fair number of those jobs will have been helping wealthy UK residents using tax havens, etc, etc. The islands, says Unite, “are heavily dependent on the financial services sector”. And on wealthy UK residents using tax havens, etc, etc . . .



Re-emerging largely unnoticed at BGC Partners, the bond broker, is Len Harvey, who works for the Asian operation. Harvey used to be chief executive of bitter rival Tullett Prebon in Asia and was involved in a hostile lawsuit against BGC several years ago, concerning the inevitable poaching raid. These are typical in the bond-broking community, and clearly there are no hard feelings. But I am reminded that, as I wrote at the time, Harvey was the subject of an extraordinary courtroom putdown by Tullett’s own counsel, who interrupted him to say: “Your Honour, I think the witness should be given a chance to explain because this witness is not the brightest . . .” He then realised what he was saying and came to a halt.



It might seem unfair to single out Sir Fred Goodwin for particular opprobrium. But, hell, everyone else is doing it . . . The website worldsworstbanker.com contains links to allow you to vote on two petitions. One asks the Government to reduce his pension by whatever means possible and when complete will be delivered to Gordon Brown and to Sir Fred himself, via Royal Mail or by hand if necessary. The other, on the No 10 website, wants him stripped of his knighthood.



The International Capital Market Association is taking bookings for its annual skiing weekend in Switzerland at the end of the month. Almost £300 a night. Don’t any of you have any work to do? Oh, no, so you don’t.



Method in the madness
In the blue corner: Alasdair Murdoch

Alasdair Murdoch, the outgoing chief executive of Pizza Hut UK, seemed to have lost his marbles in October when he announced plans to convert some of the restaurants to Pasta Hut. In reality, it was a cheeky marketing wheeze designed to make consumers aware that the chain does not sell only pizzas. The stunt seems to have worked; sales of pasta are up fivefold, and Pizza Hut has now almost finished converting all 15 outlets back again.

Murdoch is leaving despite being offered an international promotion within Yum Brands, the US owner. He says that after having problems at school with his three children while running Pizza Hut in France, he was determined not to uproot them again, adding: “My children are more important to me than my short-term career.”

— Got a diary story? city.diary@thetimes.co.uk

HAVE YOUR SAY
At least Johnson realises that there is no money left in the pot, and that spending has to be funded somehow!

Whats wrong with him having a whip-round? Surely thats better than slapping another £16bn on the national debt!
Zak Larue-Buckley, Leicester,

Twitter, to End POVERTY

follow me on Twitter