Sindy Column...

For this week's effort, click here.

Counter surveillance...

A mounted rozzer, jumping off his nag, and giving a ticket to a bemused London cabby. "What's the fine?" cried one onlooker. "Two bales of hay?". Oh, very droll.

Sindy Column...

For this week's effort, click here.

Another (breathtaking) Kleinman inclusive...

"Exclusive: Barclay Brothers Swoop On Claridge's... The owners of The Daily Telegraph are poised to swoop on the company which owns Claridge's and two other top London hotels, I have learned". Mark Kleinman, Sky News, January 21, 2011 3:30 PM.

"The Barclay brothers are understood to be seeking to persuade the Irish owners of Claridge’s to sell. The twins, who own the Ritz as well as the Telegraph Group, are believed to have held talks with Derek Quinlan about a deal". The Times, January 21 2011 12:50 AM.

Balls up

Congratulations to my old friend, Ed Balls, the new shadow chancellor. Apart from his attachment to maintaining the deficit (one can become sentimental about one's own babies of course) I'm also expecting his tenure to signal some innovative revenue raising ideas.
After all, as I never tire of pointing out, when Balls and fellow minister Yvette Cooper hosted their wedding reception at the Cavendish Hotel, Eastbourne, in 1998, they secretly arranged with the venue for an extra £9 to be put on guests' overnight hotel bills to save the happy couple £2,520 on the cost of the reception.
Gordon Brown and then girlfriend Sarah Macauley were star guests at the bash which also included several senior ministers such as Chief Whip Nick Brown, multi -millionaire Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson, Treasury minister Dawn Primarolo and more than a dozen Labour MPs. A touching moment.

No FT, no bonus comment

I hear that Financial Times hacks have been warned to tone down their coverage of the bonus season by the paper's editor, Lionel Barber. Another bonus for bankers, then.

Dear Reggie...

This email is making its way around the City:

"At the height of World War II on April 6th, 1943, British Ambassador to Moscow, Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, wrote the following letter to Foreign Office minister Lord Reginald Pembroke in an effort to brighten up his day".

Slack is back...

No need to send out a search party. I merely got too fat over Christmas to extract myself from my armchair. Still, save a few bedsores, no harm done. For this week's Sindy column, click here.