A curse upon ye

Scotland 1-0 England

With just a few weeks to go until cup final day at the new Wembley stadium, I hear that some of the project’s Scottish builders, fed up with endless jokes from their English colleagues about their team’s less-than-glorious World Cup history, have exacted a cruel revenge. The auld scoundrels have reportedly buried tartan scarves and

Scottish football shirts under the goal lines, penalty spots, and centre circle of the hallowed turf. Rumours that Dan Bridgett, Multiplex’s PR guru who left the company under somewhat mysterious circumstances, has been buried there too are unfounded.

Scaffolders: a well-dressed breed

Vernon Kay could never have foreseen the outrage he would cause. On his Saturday morning show on Radio One last week he declared that scaffolders were the only men who still wore cut-off Wranglers that ended “a few millimetres below the buttocks”.

Cue an extraordinary number of emails

either defending or attacking his off-the-cuff remark. A fuming Scottish QS emailed in to say that the guys she met on site were always suitably attired. That may be the case when she visits the sites, but who knows what they have on when they don’t have guests?

Licence to drill

Well done to Willmott Dixon offshoot Inspace, whose staff recently raised nearly £5,000 for Cancer Research UK by producing a calendar in which they recreated famous film scenes and musical acts. Apparently each month highlights an important safety message, although I can’t help thinking the PPP being modelled by James Bond and Miss Moneypenny here (aka business development director Phil Green and buying secretary Tracie Tobin) leaves a little to be desired ...

Best not to judge it by its cover ...

The Housing Corporation annual report back in 1993/94 could have landed the organisation in spot of bother if its readers had been a little more eagle-eyed. It wasn’t what was in the report – more what was on the cover. The picture of a boy with a dog looked innocent enough, but apparently the boy in question was, by the time of the report, in prison for multiple robberies. And on closer inspection, the dog turned out to be not only a banned pit bull terrier, but a banned pit bull terrier in a state of some excitement, so the corporation was particularly eager that nobody take too close an interest. Fortunately, as it was an annual report, nobody did.

Waiting for Foster’s figures

The sale of Lord Foster’s practice may be completed in the next few weeks, but the firm is still doing everything it can to make negotiations as smooth as possible. I wonder if that includes holding back its annual figures from Companies House? These were due to be filed in February, but as yet there’s no sign of them.

The eye in the sky

Council inspectors appear to have been reading up on their George Orwell. Rather than going through the rigmarole of making inspections in person, council chiefs are apparently using satellite images from Google Earth to spot house extensions and alterations that may not have received permission. So the next time you think about replacing your patio, or building a barbecue from leftover bricks, don’t forget – Big Brother is watching you ...