Hansom

John Major, cunning fox

To the RICS Building Surveying Faculty dinner last week, where after-dinner speaker Giles Brandreth had the audience in hysterics. Brandreth not only described faculty chairman John Reyers as “a magnificent cross between Russell Crowe and Kermit the Frog” but he also came up with a rather good anecdote about John Major. Apparently, Brandreth was sitting sulking in the House of Commons dining lounge when the then-prime minister went up to him to ask what was wrong. No doubt Major expected Brandreth to name some matter of high policy, so was rather taken aback when Brandreth replied “raffles”. At every constituency get-together Brandreth had to fork out for a ticket but could never accept the prize if he won. It was, he said, making him skint. From his top pocket, Major suddenly produced six different coloured raffle tickets. Major said: “Whenever you go to any raffle, just produce one of these, and they’ll think you’ve already bought one.”

Lorraine Baldry, rock chick

Who’d have thought that the fearsome Lorraine Baldry, chair of the London Thames Gateway Corporation, began her career in the music business? It seems she started out at RCA Records, where drinking sessions and trips abroad with the likes of Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were not uncommon. Nowadays, of course, her career is more about committee sessions and trips to Barking. Be honest, now, Lorraine, which industry do you prefer working in?

Dirty job? Get Mowlem on it

You may think the worst place to have been last Saturday at Twickenham’s England vs New Zealand clash was facing fired-up England lock Danny Grewcock at a line-out. And you’d be wrong. Actually, the worst place to be was in the construction site that is the old west stand, currently occupied by Mowlem. Every time a penalty was taken, the ball sailed over the dividing fence and landed in one of the networks of trenches and foundations. These were manned by a hapless Mowlem employee who spent most his afternoon trying to give the boys their ball back. Not having much fun this year, Mowlem, are they? Anyway, thanks to building services firm Ian Williams for a fine day out.

Back in the business

It’s good to hear that former Constructing Excellence boss Dennis Lenard is keeping an eye on the industry despite being shuffled out of the Egan body in the summer. I hear he has just been appointed non-executive director of Birse.

The next VW badge

Buy it quick! On eBay you can buy a real disc from the iconic Selfridges at Birmingham Bullring. The starting price is £25, and at the time of writing, five days after it was put up, 0 bids have been received.

All entirely under control …

Building control officers emerge unscathed from daily encounters with dodgy scaffolding and unguarded rooftops – and now it seems they are equally at home with the troublesome element of the retail world. Trevor Hall, an inspector based in Leeds, was an hour late to take my colleague on a tour of the city’s troubled building projects last week. It seems he had been detained in a branch of the store chain Wilkinsons after a fight broke out between security guards and an alleged shoplifter. Mr Hall insists he was merely a witness, yet emerged clutching a £5 Christmas tree. It was a gift for his mother, he explained.

Luder’s bedroom history

Ex-RIBA president Owen Luder has just sold his swanky pad in Smith Street, central London – and his next bedroom will be somewhere that Ken Livingstone knows intimately. Before you start wondering, next May Luder will move to Romney House, the converted former Greater London Authority HQ, where he has taken a penthouse – and his new bedroom used to be the office of the London mayor. After all, as he observes, “Livingstone was bound to requisition the room with the best views”.