What starts with a communication failure and some missing property can quickly descend into gunfire in Paris, a team driving unlikely vehicles and a high-speed chase across France. What a cliffhanger!
History鈥檚 longest typo
Anyone feeling mildly depressed at the thought of the wholesale reform of the 黑洞社区 Regulations that will take place if the Tories get in at the next election can relax. I gather that the bit of the party鈥檚 housing green paper that referred to reforming them was an oversight and, well, shouldn鈥檛 have been there. Guess they spent so long working on the paper they had no time to read it 鈥�
Say that again?
As politicians on all sides attempt to do their sums ready for next year鈥檚 schools budget, there was an intriguing statement put out this week by a Tory spokesperson. Defending the party against accusations that its desire to allow parents to open their own schools will lead to increased costs, he told the BBC: 鈥淭here will be a capital cost, funded from the 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future budget. This means the same amount of money will be spent on building schools.鈥� Aha! So they are committing themselves to the 拢55bn BSF spending in a quiet aside? It sounds unlikely, but you never can tell. Particularly as, having been bounced around a number of 鈥渟pokespeople鈥�, we are still awaiting an explanation from the party 鈥�
You can鈥檛 miss it
Vantis, the administrator of Lancsville Construction, is having trouble putting its hands on the contractor鈥檚 plant, it seems. The accountant wants to sell the equipment to help pay 990 creditors which are owed a total of 拢23m. The company plans to work out exactly what鈥檚 gone awol before tracking down the parties responsible. But rumours abound that aggrieved subbies have taken rather more direct action to recoup what they are owed. We鈥檙e not talking about a few kangos here 鈥� some full-size tower cranes are unaccounted for. The question perplexing me, though, is where on earth you stash a tower crane?
C鈥檈st n鈥檈st pas la guerre
Advice in troubled times can come from the most unlikely of quarters, as Willmott Dixon learned last week. Communications head Andrew Geldard was spotted in a Parisian restaurant employing his best O level French to engage a former member of the French Resistance in a conversation about wartime struggles, perhaps with a view to securing stirring anecdotes to pass on to colleagues back in recession-hit Blighty. From a distance, the chat looked mainly to involve M Geldard miming rifle fire to the accompaniment of vigorous nodding from the elderly maquis, but we鈥檙e sure that much of the exchange was lost in translation 鈥�
Winning the pink jersey
The bike racing season began in earnest this week with the Paris鈥揘ice race. But I鈥檒l be following the lesser-known Cycle 2 Cannes charity ride that takes place at the same time. The 1,500km ride鈥檚 peleton will sport some of construction鈥檚 finest, such as Roger Madelin, Christophe Egret, Jonathan Goring and Gensler鈥檚 Anna Robinson 鈥� and they certainly won鈥檛 go unnoticed, as most will be sporting bright pink jerseys. The reason? Sponsors Linklaters and Nottingham council have magenta logos. No doubt the champagne drunk on the final stage will also be pink. Visit: www.cycle2cannes.org and follow the riders at www.building.co.uk/mipim.
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