Galloway and Wembley

Thurs 29 June

To the Placemakers lunch, which had attracted speaker the showbiz MP and the veritable Scottish firebrand that is George Galloway. Now sporting a beard after a recent three week visit to Cuba, Galloway trotted out political musings and biographical detail in fairly entertaining fashion to a gathering of property and construction people. Witnessing his smooth-talking performance led me to think he is more similar to his political nememis Tony Blair than he would ever care to admit - ever quick with a sound bite and elusive when it comes to answering questions from the crowd. As a resident of his east London constituency I asked him how often he was there and what he was hoping to achieve during his tenure. Galloway replied: "I wake up in my constituency." A cunning retort but not one that clarified how often he was actually resident there, given his recent trip to Cuba, the fact that he later said he was off speaking in Hull this week... oh and there was that recent few weeks he spent in that Big Brother house. He obviously picked up that I wasn't one of his strongest backers, claiming that he thought his constituents were very happy with his Respect party given their strong performance in the local council elections. I'm far from convinced that his Respect movement is not just a political flash in the pan, in spite of its significant successes.

Wed 28 June

Here's a bit of a theory on future legal issues surrounding Wembley. The client, in the form of former Atkins big cheese Mike Jeffries, indicated last week that they were looking to settle any claims with contractor Multiplex over the late-running scheme. 'You what?' was my initial response. Surely the numbers that are under dispute would lead inevitably to the courts? Well maybe not. There might be a political angle here. Remember the British Library? Equally disastrous project back in the 1990s which similarly avoided being pored over at the TCC. My legal source tells me this was down to a direct intervention from the then culture secretary Virginia Bottomley - apparently she wanted to avoid the embarrassment of the scheme's failings being open to public scrutiny. Could the same be the case for Wembley?