黑洞社区

Communication failure

Protesting is making a comeback - and it鈥檚 not just the Che Guevara-lookalike students and moonlighting anti-capitalists joining in. As 黑洞社区 readers will know, electricians have been demonstrating against proposed changes to their pay and conditions for three months now, but last week they held the biggest demonstration yet, with about 1,000 angry sparks marching on the Shard and Blackfriars station in London. What did workers on the Shard make of all this? A couple of bewildered Mace employees told my hack they had 鈥渘o idea鈥� what was going on. Hardly the impact the protesters were aiming for 鈥�

The people鈥檚 Olympics

Journalists calling the Olympic Delivery Authority鈥檚 out-of-office press number last week were rather surprised to be answered by a woman who had no connection with London 2012 whatsoever. 鈥淵ou are the ninth journalist who has called me this morning asking about something to do with a game,鈥� she said, bemused. 鈥淲ho are you calling for?鈥� When my reporter explained that her phone number was being broadcast out to anyone with queries regarding one of the most famous projects in the world, her confusion evaporated, quickly replaced with over-excitement. 鈥淥h My God! The Olympics? Really? That鈥檚 so exciting.鈥� Clearly an effective way to stir up interest and get the Great British public in the mood and firmly behind team GB 鈥�

DSK has another bad day

I was shocked to see the building industry linked this week with the prostitution scandal engulfing the man once seen as France鈥檚 next president. Former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn - against whom rape claims were made and then dropped in August - is once again dominating newspapers鈥� front pages in his homeland after being linked with a police investigation into an alleged prostitution ring. The Hotel Carlton affair - named after the luxury lodging in Lille - centres on allegations of pimping at top hotels in the city and involves figures such as a senior police officer and businessmen including the head of a Lille-based construction firm. Sacr茅 bleu!

What are the odds?

After a barren six years John Doyle chief executive Stef Stefanou鈥檚 stable has finally come good after his horse Decoy won at Cheltenham last Friday. Decoy, a 14/1 shot in the morning, was backed all the way down to around 6/1 before winning the 23-runner Cheltenham Collection Hurdle. Stefanou - who has lately taken to calling his horses 鈥渄onkeys鈥� during the poor run - said he 鈥渘early had a heart attack鈥� as his horse was almost pipped in the final furlong.

Buried treasure

As parents will know, children are like magpies when it comes to the latest gadgets. So Hansom was amused to note the contents of a time capsule buried on the site of the 拢200m mixed-use Armadale station scheme in West Lothian, Scotland. The capsule - put together by schoolchildren and unveiled by Scottish infrastructure minister Alex Neil on Monday - contains school memorabilia 鈥� and a smartphone. Is it wise that the children know where this capsule is buried?