Redacted! taking the Peace
We’ll blame the Christmas post for the delay, but better late than never. This week details of Liz Peace’s last day as chief executive of the British Property Federation reaches Diary.
It’s a tradition in media circles – and beyond, it seems – to produce for a departing a colleague a spoof front page sporting mickey-taking, made-up stories that should have a degree of plausibility. Peace, we now learn, got the full treatment with publication of the first (and presumably only) edition of Peace in our Times. And while we can’t tell you everything – as the swathes of blanked out text to the left makes pretty obvious – here are the highlights.
Taken at face value, it seems Peace has a book coming out, What to wear and when to wear it. The classifieds section offers for sale a speech on the residential green deal – “one careful owner, delivered three times”. And there’s generous praise for how she “worked her magic on generations of publicly schooled men who were not quite good enough to get into Cambridge and ended up running a shopping centre”.
Diary is assured one of the above is true, but we’re not sure which.
Ingall gets his priorities right
Allied London’s ambitious St John’s Quarter development on the site of the former Granada TV studios in Manchester this week played host to some distinguished guests – but one high-profile face was awkwardly absent. Prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne were denied an audience with Allied London’s esteemed leader, Michael Ingall, who was apparently off on holiday. As a result, poor Dave was left to take the obligatory site selfie with three of Allied’s directors. Local sources told Diary Ingall was trekking in India at the time. Quite right, we say, personal time is personal time.
Hero beams in for BPF
Bill McDonough has been many things: an architect, an author and, according to Time magazine, a “hero for the planet”. On 4 June that list will grow when he turns up at the British Property Federation’s annual conference as a hologram. The sustainability expert will be projected all the way from the US to give a live 3D presentation on technology’s impact on real estate and urbanisation. Diary believes this could be the most cutting-edge thing to have happened at an industry conference since… well, ever. Beam me up, property!
Who slipped the mayor a mickey?
Real estate’s finest networker and queen of the property Twittersphere was the victim of a little light-hearted ribbing this week. Mishcon de Reya’s Susan Freeman (@propertyshe) proudly posted a picture of herself with London mayor Boris Johnson on Twitter only to be chastised by some of property’s other greatest Twits. “Looks like you’ve spiked his drink,” tweeted one. “Is this better?” tweets back Freeman, with another pic of a marginally inebriated-looking Bozza. “Blimey, you really did spike his drink,” comes another reply. Did Boris imbibe? Or was it just a bad-face day for the mayor? Follow Freeman to see the evidence.
Fast and furious on the Propski piste
Despite near zero visibility and sore heads after EG’s speed networking event the night before, the slopes were full for the first day of Propski this week. Luckily the skies cleared in time for the first après ski session at mountain hot spot Bar 360. Although walking in ski boots can be a challenge, it turns out they are fine for dancing on tables and breakdancing. After dancing until dusk, it was time to descend from the mountain. With new found confidence, some Propski-ites bolted down the slopes in the dark – so fast and furious that they ignored instructions, missed the turning and had to endure a two-hour walk, ski suited and booted all the way back to the hotel.
