黑洞社区

Cordoned off

Consultant Ridge has its main office in the grounds of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire at a place called Woodstock. Not the venue made famous by hundreds of thousands of hippies in the late 1960s but the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. It was graced by a visit from the US president last month 鈥� to imbibe a little of the war leader鈥檚 essence rather than to tune in, turn on and drop out 鈥� and a number of the neighbours including Ridge, where 220 of its staff work, were a little inconvenienced. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 allowed to leave via the park,鈥� the firm鈥檚 senior partner Adrian O鈥橦ickey says of the day Donald Trump came. 鈥淎nd there were a lot of policemen.鈥� It got me wondering. Has President Trump taken a swipe at the British bobby yet?

Housing woes answered?

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg tore himself away from championing Brexit last week to throw his weight behind an essay-writing competition designed to find a 鈥渞adical free-market solution鈥� to the housing crisis. Entrepreneur Richard Koch has stumped up 拢50,000 for the best submission sent into the Institute for Economic Affairs鈥� Breakthrough Prize, and in a riveting testimonial to camera Rees-Mogg applauded the competition鈥檚 ambition, suggesting the required 2,000 to 3,000 words was 鈥渟omething that most students polish off between midnight and two in the morning鈥�. Maybe you did as a student Rees-Mogg, but some students have better things to do at that time of night.

Welcome change

I鈥檓 sure most of us breathed a sigh of relief when the sweltering weather abated over the weekend and we basked in the rather more familiar English summer: a cool breeze and patches of drizzle punctuated by spells of sunshine. I, for one, was overcome with joy. The heat down in London has been relentless. Alinea partner Iain Parker tells me he鈥檚 off on hols this week to Orlando in Florida, where at this time of year the thunderstorms can be fearsome and dish out a good dousing to those caught in them. 鈥淲ell, we鈥檝e had so little rain recently I thought I better go somewhere to see what it looks like again,鈥� he quipped.

Email honesty

Speaking of holidays, it鈥檚 the time of year when the out-of-office email is switched on as everyone heads off to recuperate, recharge and not reply to emails. One of my hacks was rather amused to get this recently from someone at a law firm. He鈥檚 not holding out much hope of getting a reply. Telling senders he was on leave, the person, who shall remain anonymous, added: 鈥淸The email] won鈥檛 be seen until after I鈥檓 back and have caught up with everything. Which will take ages.鈥� I suppose it鈥檚 like getting the out-of-office equivalent of  鈥渢he cheque鈥檚 in the post鈥�.

鈥橲now fun

A final weather-related missive. As temperatures climb again after a few days off over the weekend, remember the Beast from the East, when everyone seemed to be permanently wrapped up in half the contents of their wardrobe? Ground engineer Keller does. The firm published its interim results earlier this week and the poor weather in North America and Europe was blamed for hitting numbers in the first quarter. 鈥淚t was a pretty harsh winter,鈥� says chief executive Alain Michaelis. But as the UK gears up for more heat, he admits: 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to remember now.鈥漊nwelcome nickname