Blackberry whitewash at the White House
Most people reading this will have owned a Blackberry at some stage. Once the darling of the business community, these formerly ubiquitous masters of mobile e-mail have seen their market share dwindle as Apple and Android turned phones into app-packed mobile computers. But the US government was more than a decade ahead of the Curve (pun intended). Diary has discovered this week that Blackberries were deemed so limited in Washington that they were banned from the White House altogether. In our interview with George Bush’s former economic adviser Pippa Malmgren, she revealed that the devices were not high tech enough for DC. “Blackberries were prohibited in the end because their memory was so poor,” she said. “Every e-mail anyone on the presidential staff sends from their work phone becomes a presidential document. The record keeping on Blackberries is so limited we couldn’t use them.”
Miss Clever bests coal board
It was clear that Louise Brooke-Smith was always going to be a powerful woman. Recounting a story from her youth at a recent Women in Planning event, the first female president of the RICS revealed she didn’t always want to be a surveyor – she wanted to be a mining engineer. Cleverly, she sent two application letters to the Coal Board: one from Miss Brooke-Smith, another from Mr Brooke-Smith. Guess which got a scholarship interview? Rather than adopt a false beard and baritone, Brooke-Smith took her evidence to the Equal Opportunities Commission and got an apology from the Coal Board. Thankfully, she gave up on mining and instead moved towards surveying, bringing her championing of equal opportunities with her, all the way to the top of the RICS.
West End Plans put on ice
Planning applications often throw up surprises at the eleventh hour. PCW Property Holding is the latest developer to stumble across an unusual hurdle, having to cool off on a major West End project after discovering an ancient ice house under a car park. PCW received consent for a £250m Paul Davis + Partners-designed residential redevelopment of 16-26 Park Crescent, next to Regent’s Park, in December. But the project – which includes the demolition of 77-81 Portland Place – has had to be revised in light of the discovery of the 18th century cool room. The chamber was discovered below the parking area to the rear of Park Crescent West. In light of the discovery, plans have been submitted to Westminster city council to preserve the ice house in situ.
The vote of love
Single? Want a date? Free on 7 May? The Electoral Commission has discovered that 60% of singles are not registered to vote and so has announced it will be working in partnership with the online dating site mysinglefriend.com in the run-up to this year’s general election. Online daters using TV presenter Sarah Beeny’s site will be given an opportunity to register in time for polling day. At least it is a date they will be able to count on. Diary imagines that no amount of “working late” or “hair washing” from any of the party leaders will warrant a cancellation. Sorry Ed…
Buyers Sold on Boris bikes
Property’s obsession with cycling continues. This week estate agent Marsh & Parsons claimed that having a Boris Bike station close to your home makes it more attractive to potential buyers. It used to be that proximity to a Tube station was one of the key selling points for homes in London but now – and certainly nothing to do with persistent strikes – it is all about the bike. There are 700 docking stations across London, housing 11,500 bikes, with plans to increase this to 1,000 by next year. As Santander takes over the sponsorship of the Boris bikes from Barclays, could we soon see Foxtons forgo its Minis and be the next in line for a Boris branding?
Earth control to major Cluttons marketing coup
How better to market a property than get a world-renowned astronaut to put a photo of it – and himself – into internet orbit? We suspect the marketeers at Cluttons have put their feet up now that Chris Hadfield, the Canadian cosmonaut who captured the world’s imagination with his rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity from the International Space Station, has done the job for them. When a life-size cardboard cut-out of the moustachioed spaceman was put in the window of the unit in question – a Waterstones on Coney Street, York – to promote his new book An Astronaut’s Guide to Life, Hadfield posted a photo of the shopfront to his 707,000-plus Facebook followers. That should get enquiries skyrocketing…
