Prezza press coverage....

The press has unsurprisingly had a complete field day with Mr Prescott - headlines like "Two Shags" & quotes like "he performed like a tiger and was incredibly enthusiastic in bed despite his age and bulk" have all added to the wonderful coverage in the Sunday tabloids.

Leading the pack in my opinion was the News of the World - not very often I read this, I might have a quick glance at it on the news-stand, but today I just had to buy it. My first impression is that Max Clifford must be counting his cash today as most of the stories covered probably involve the publicity machine that he heads.

As long as it's to the detrement of Mr Prescott & his like - good luck to him.

Time for him to go again, and again, and again.......

John Prescott (and the entire Cabinet for that matter) must have the political lives of a f**king cat!

The only reason that Prescott might survive this one is that the Home Secretary Charles Clarke has fucked up in a much bigger way than he has at the same time, although Clarke has implied blame on previous incumbents & inter-Departmental inability to communicate - real leadership Mr Clarke!!

I only hope that Mrs Prescott gives him a complete lambasting & takes him for everything he has - maybe even go to the papers with the story & earn some money from her now sadly dented 40+ year marriage. She is clearly a very thick skinned woman who has put up with a great deal over the years - judging from his public persona Mr Prescott is an aggressive, rude, self-opinionated trade union militant-turned-MP, I doubt that his public face is any different from his private one.

Mr Prescott has admitted the affair and now calls for privacy - sorry John, you're in a very high profile Public position with life changing descisions in your hands for millions of people - a life that YOU alone have chosen - privacy is something you do not get whilst in Public Office, so resign & have your privacy or stay there & get treated with the contempt & rudeness you dish out yourself & deserve in return.

In 2002 the BBC reported on it's News website that speaking about his role as Deputy PM Prescott had said "It is a position I hold with honour." I say - bollocks Mr Prescott, you're a liar.

What's in a name.....

Over the years I have met thousands of people, mostly with normal boring Anglo Saxon names, with a few foreign ones thrown in for good measure.

Whilst reading the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 suplement over the last couple of days I read with amazement & great hilarity that at number 26 with an estimated value of £1,704m is a guy by the name of Anurag Dikshit....

.... it just goes to show that for all of the money, fame & trappings of wealth there are still those who are less fortunate than most...... I don't include myself in that clearly as I have had my name taken in vein regularly for having the name Rice - you can imagine the brain cells that were burned by my classmates & colleagues in coming up with names like Rice Pudding, Rice Crispie, Riceicle, Pilau, Twicers (Twice as nice as Rice!?) et al, clearly I have gotten over it as I now regularly answer to Ricey, and anyway, I'd rather be called Arnold Shitefucker Pisshead McTwat & have £1bn in the bank!!!!

It reminded me of the all time classic name (although Anurag Dikshit does come close!) of a guy I met in Boston whilst working for Lotus Development named.... Randy Parrot (honest - it's true!)

Sunday Times Rich List 2006 is out.....

....and yet again, I'm not on it!!

There are the usual suspects like Mittal, Abramovich, and Westminster etc...

Next in the list is Hans Rausing & family - I've wondered why the last couple of years the list hasn't combined the Hans Rausing [£4,950m] & Kirsten\Jorg Rausing parts together. Kirsten & Jorg are the niece & nephew of Hans & inherited a significant sum upon the death of their father - Gad, to which they have added & now are worth an estimated £2,490m.

This totals £7,440m - which would make them 3rd in the list, leapfrogging The Duke of Westminster [£6,600m] currently ahead of Hans Rausing in 4th with the above mentioned £4,950m. All of the wealth stems from an original idea from Gad & Hans father who invented the milk carton we all use today

From my own personal interest viewpoint, which is helicopters - the list gives me an insight to the world of the super rich who own fabulous corporate helicopters based in the UK.

Moving through the top 5 of the list, #1 Mittal has an EC.155 & is rumoured to be getting a couple of AS.365's soon, #2 Abramovich gets shuttled around in his own fleet of EC.155 LX-HEC, EC.145 P4-LGB & EC.135 P4-XTC, at #3 the Duke of Westminster used to have his own AS.355, G-TALI & G-TALY, but I think nowadays charters something in if necessary. At #4 the Hans part of the Rausing family I don't think have ever had any aviation involvement. Philip Green at #5 is photographed with wife Tina stepping out of another EC.155 3A-MAG at Monaco heliport which he probably charters when hopping from Nice in his Gulfstream jet.

There are numerous more down the list including those who self-fly such as John Caudwell with his own Robinson R44 G-BZOP, given his wealth (estimated at £1,600m) and his liking for fast cars (he was featured on TV last year looking at different supercars including a Pagani Zonda), this R44 must surely be up for replacement soon with a more corporate ship like an Agusta A109 Grand or Eurocopter As355N or something?

There are names that I would suspect should be on the list that are not, maybe they have requested not to be featured (unlikely that the editor of the Rich List - Philip Beresford would consent to omit them by choice?) or they have been very clever in keeping their wealth under wraps, which is the more likely scenario.

Some examples - the ex owner of this MD520 Notar G-SIVN is rumoured to be one of the many Goldman Sachs staff that made millions from the 1999 float of the business, he has had a sucession of expensive aircraft with the G-SIV being a recurrent theme, all of these would indicate serious wealth. There is a separate panel on page 53 on the "Goldman Sachs millionaires" listing 15 of them all worth more than £80m, so he may slip in under £60m threshold for this years list?

Where is Wafic Said? He is not on the list, but has a huge classic estate Tusmore Park in Oxfordshire is worth £30m alone!? He also has a very nice Bell 430 VP-BKQ and has been linked by all sorts of publications to the multi billion dollar Al Yamamah arms deal. In 1996 he donated £20 million to establish the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

Dr Jonathan Palmer has a very tidy AS.355N G-JPAL and has an Agusta A109 Grand on order apparently, his business - PalmerSport at Bedford Autodrome must be worth a pretty tidy sum by now? As he started the business, he probably owns the majority of it, he should surely be on the list?

Paul Beck has recently bought 3 Agusta A109's, G-OBEK, G-PBEK & G-HBEK, he retains 2 of them. The company he is Chief Executive of - LBM, provides data & data marketing - junk mail to you and me. Once again, if he has a significant holding in the company he co-founded, he should be close to the list in some way?

I'm back, and with a top scoop....

Jack Straw & Condoleezza Rice make a trip to his home town (Blackburn) & he shows her the sights of the city (including a mosque [sensitive or what!?] & football stadium that by chance has an American goalie), takes her to the smoke of Liverpool (bet he didn't take his own car there!) to show her a good time at a classical concert, then they fly on a suprise trip to - Baghdad!!!!!

His biog from the 10 Downing Street website reckons he is married already, but I think it's a smokescreen to the truth - I think he took her on honeymoon to Baghdad after a secret wedding in Blackburn, only a hunch!