It’s amazing what you learn on a day to day basis here at Boriswatch HQ. Today, for example, I was reminded that Boris’s ex-wife is called Allegra Mostyn-Owen. In the same way that the Beckham’s named their child Brooklyn after where he was conceived, presumably Mostyn-Owen’s parents had it off in the back of an old Austin nine months before the arrival of their daughter.
And, today, I also learned that the London Development Authority has offices in Mumbai and Delhi. Well, I say “has offices” – more accurately it “had offices” as they have recently been closed.
They were set up by Ken Livingstone with a view to promoting Indian development in London (the Indians are the second biggest investors in London after the Yanks) and, in principle, it seems like a bright enough idea.
Of course the problem with closing the offices isn’t the damage that decision directly makes (the offices might be a spectacular waste of money, for all we know) but it is the message that shutting them down sends out that has become the issue.
Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “It is essential that we maintain offices in Delhi and Mumbai so that we can continue to market London in one of the fastest growing economies in the world. If we are not out there selling London as the best place in the world to do business, our international rivals will be more than happy to fill the vacuum.”
Apparently, in a particularly Fagin-esque way, Bozza’s office is now ‘reviewing the situation’. Can a villain be a villain all his life? All the trials, and trib…[Snip! – Boriswatch Ed]
Boris is great at marketing London and the UK. Maybe he has some other ways of doing that in mind.