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We continue looking into our pints. Finally the answer comes: Hull City. Disproving the theory is simply too difficult for anyone to bother.

Hull is also the team of Julian Daniel, his boss and director of Bovis Lend Lease South. And it鈥檚 Europe鈥檚 largest city never to have seen top flight football, Simon adds. Lucky Julian鈥檚 not around tonight then.

On the eve of Fabio Capello鈥檚 first game in charge against Switzerland, we鈥檙e quickly onto the subject of football. The consensus around the table is that he was right to drop Beckham on his 99th cap.

Then Simon has another one up his sleeve. Why have teams with an 鈥渪鈥� in their name all done terribly in recent years 鈥� for example Oxford, Halifax and Wrexham? Warren pipes up: 鈥淲hat about Ajax?鈥� And that鈥檚 the end of that conversation.

It鈥檚 also super Tuesday in the American primaries and we鈥檙e onto the topic of the next US president, although not for long. The consensus here is that it鈥檚 a Hollywood-style beauty parade and the media coverage has been woefully light on policy. Warren says he鈥檇 enjoy seeing Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger giving the top job a crack.

British politics raises more hackles. Yvette says MPs remind her of squabbling five year olds. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pathetic. They wouldn鈥檛 survive a day acting like that in the real world.鈥�

And so to the business of construction, and the mood is pretty upbeat for a dreary February evening in the middle of a global financial meltdown. John says: 鈥淭here鈥檚 no doom and gloom around our office and we鈥檝e not noticed work dropping off.鈥�

Would an interest rate cut help? Not according to Yvette, who says the Bank of England should hold its nerve and not press the panic button. A show of hands on whether there would be a cut on Thursday found three in the yes camp and three in the no camp. David Beckham is clearly a less divisive a subject.

And what鈥檚 it like being a small cog in the Bovis machine? Well, it鈥檚 not that small as it turns out. The London Project division, a mainly lump-sum contractor with an average project size of 拢39m, turns over 拢200m and employs 165 staff.

Andy says the variety of the work and morale makes it a good place to work. 鈥淚 should know,鈥� he says, 鈥淚 left the company and came back because of the better variety of work here.鈥�

鈥淎nd we鈥檙e so nice we took him back,鈥� chirps up John.