WORKAHOLIC MYNERS IS FORCED TO CALL TIME ON HIS GREAT LOVE
MIXING one’s other half with one’s work has always been a risky affair, largely because loved ones have a tendency to be prone to letting things slip – and The Capitalist imagines that City minister Lord Myners won’t be hugely enamoured to read his wife Alison’s upcoming interview with Tatler magazine, which hits newsstands on Thursday.
Myners, you see, has always taken pride in his ability to juggle inhuman amounts of work, having previously held numerous chairmanships (including at the likes of Marks & Spencer, Land Securities and Guardian Media Group) and third sector posts before giving up the lot for his Treasury role last year.
But it seems the poor chap has also had to call time on his beloved hobby of art collecting, due to Gordon Brown keeping his nose firmly to the grindstone.
“He’s working so hard,” says a wistful Alison, herself chair of the Contemporary Art Society, of her powerful hubby. “Before he took this new role we used to do everything together, as art is our great love. It’s a little bit sad that he’s not able to do that at the moment as he doesn’t have the time and he works every evening…”
Now there must be a man looking forward to the economic upturn with glee.
BATMAN FOREVER
An email arrives from an enterprising reader keen to propose one way for bankers to spend their hard-earned cash, before the G20 attempts to put paid to the bonus hey-day for good.
His suggestion for a last-ditch spending spree is to buy a “Batcycle”, assembled using the original moulds and blueprints of the Batcycle from the 1966 Greenway Productions version of Batman.
“We understand that the Batcycle will reach speeds of 80-90mph,” reads the blurb on the seller’s website, www.southendpier.com/batcycle. “You can also use the sidecar, provided you can persuade someone to actually sit in it, let alone wear Robin’s yellow tights…”
Mind you, the privilege will certainly cost you – they’re hoping for it to sell near to USA auction prices, which a cursory surf of the internet reveals is nigh on $30,000.
SAFE AS HOUSES
Ever fancied making a few bucks out of the property market? Brett Alegre-Wood, the founder of property investment group Your Property Club, has just launched a new book which claims to be an insider’s guide to building a successful property portfolio.
“Property is the new pension,” proclaims the tagline boldly, having promptly forgotten all the caution the property crash of the past few years is supposed to have taught us.
Apparently, the best strategy is to buy three buy-to-let properties and hold these for at least two years “to become used to the variables that can arise with managing a portfolio of properties”.
No word on whether Alegre-Wood, who talks happily of “tried and tested strategies” and of the property market doubling in value every 7.3 years, will pick up the tab if this proves to be rather less fail-safe than he predicts, though.