landspeednyc

Prince Charles flies British Airways Club World- "Such is the end of Empire"

The Times of London reports on the Prince of Wales' diary re: flying BA to the HK handover ("Flying Club Class (!) the Great Chinese Takeaway):

... Of the outward journey, the Prince said that his British Airways 747 departed with a large party of official representatives from Britain and he found himself and his staff “on the top deck in what is normally club class”.

“It took me some time to realise that this was not first class(!) although it puzzled me as to why the seat seemed so uncomfortable.”

The Prince said he then discovered that other dignitaries, including Edward Heath, Douglas Hurd, “the new Foreign Secretary Robin Cook”, several former Governors of Hong Kong, Lord Wilson and Paddy Ashdown, then the leader of the Lib Dems, were all “ensconced in First Class immediately below us”.

“Such is the end of Empire, I sighed to myself.”

So, when did London become "Moscow on the Thames"?

While they're bulldozing constructivist housing in Moscow, Russians are buying up London real estate. The Washington Post recently wrote about "Moscow on the Thames:"

New Retreat for the Russian Rich: London
Wealthiest Flooding 'Moscow on the Thames' With Cash

LONDON -- Russian billionaires, and mere megamillionaires, are dropping tens of millions of dollars for the most opulent houses in town. Jewelry stores and outrageously expensive boutiques are hiring Russian-speaking staff. And purveyors of everything from Bentleys to Beluga caviar are happily riding this wave of Russian affluence in a city some are starting to call "Moscow on the Thames."

Many trace the phenomenon to the day in 2003 when Roman Abramovich, a Russian oil tycoon in his mid-thirties, bought the Chelsea soccer club for $225 million, then paid out hundreds of millions more to assemble a star-studded juggernaut that won the English championship for the first time in 50 years. The British were agog at the cascade of Russian cash that turned humble Chelsea into mighty Chelski.

Looking back, from the Guardian:

Russians top property ladder in Moscow on Thames
Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow and Rebecca Allison
Friday    March     19, 2004

   In certain circles it is no longer cool to call London by its real name. An influx of Russian billionaires with a penchant for the capital's most exclusive postcodes has earned the city a new label - Moscow on Thames.

One in 15 properties sold at the top end of the London property market last year was bought by a Russian, according to estate agents Knight Frank.

The company also says that one in 15 properties costing more than £500,000 was bought by Russians in 2003, and they were behind a third of purchases in London by foreign citizens....

The trend was begun by Boris Berezovsky, who moved to London in 2001 when he fell out with President Vladimir Putin. Mr Berezovsky has a £10m house in Chelsea, a flat in Belgravia, a house on the Wentworth estate in Surrey and recently bought Hascombe Court estate for £10m from the DJ Chris Evans.

And the Telegraph did its bit:

Moscow on the Thames
(Filed: 28/02/2004)

As their homeland descends into political turmoil, rich Russians are heading for Britain and proving a force at the top of the property market, reports Graham Norwood

In non-millionnaire Russian/London news:

Russian art's young rebels free to shock
Russian art is most often associated with the Socialist Realist propaganda images of heroic workers brandishing sickles. In fact, the former Soviet Union is home to a flourishing contemporary art scene, which is more rebellious than anything dreamt up by the Young British Artists.

Now a whole series of exhibitions is set to bring British audiences up to date. 'Moscow Breakthrough: New Russian Internationalism' is an exhibition of 20 of Russia's leading contemporary artists and opens on Tuesday at the Oxo Tower on London's South Bank.

Drink and deplete arctic ice at the same time

Ice hotels have been a topic over the past few years (in places you'd expect, like Quebec and Sweden), but now, thanks to Absolut, "ice bars" are popping up:

Bar made from arctic ice opens in London (ap/bos globe)

LONDON --A chilly bit of Scandinavia is coming to the heart of London's West End Saturday with the opening of Absolut Icebar, a bar made entirely out of ice right down to the art on the walls and the glasses for the drinks.

Situated next to the accompanying but room temperature Below Zero restaurant, the bar is kept at minus 23 fahrenheit year round. For a cover charge of 12 pounds ($22.20), patrons are given a thermal cape, thick gloves and a glass made out of ice before entering the second of two airtight doors designed to keep heat out.

"It's an experience rather than a traditional bar. We feel we're really offering something different," said Anette Eliasson, manager of market communications for V&S Absolut Spirits vodka company, which is opening the bar with partner company Icehotel.

"...This is where trends come from, so that's why London was important to us," Agnetha Lund, director of Icebar International, said.

Mark your calendar- John Peel day is October 13th

Not new news, but worth noting. From the BBC:

The very first John Peel Day will take place on Thursday October 13th.

The day will be a celebration of John's life and massive contribution to music and broadcasting with as many venues as possible staging gigs across the UK under the banner of Peel Day.

Punk PM- Tony Blair introduced by Sham 69 (song)

Sure beats "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow." The PM, speaking in Brighton, took the podium to the sounds of Sham 69's "If the kids are united." The Times reports:

Sadly, Tony Blair did not pogo to the podium. In fact no one in the hall pogoed. Labour is no longer a pogo party. It is not young and angry but as grown-up and sensible as a Marks & Spencer cardigan. But, spookily, if you listen to the “If the kids are united” lyrics they do sort of sum up Mr Blair...
...
Jimmy Pursey was genuinely shocked yesterday to have joined Tony Blair’s rock star friends. Pursey said: “Usually you see him with Geldof and Bono, the jetset political messiahs. I see my band more as an SAS unit . . . We’re outlaws. I hope he’s not using that song as a sort of backing innuendo to say Gordon and Tony are united. That song was written as a spiritual thing, as an anthem for the people of this country.

“I hope Tony Blair wants to adopt those lyrics and live up to them.”

The Guardian weighs in, as well, where John Harris writes:

...In terms of the Sham 69/New Labour interface, however, there is a much more important issue to raise. Brighton is awash with talk of the "respect agenda" and the war declared on anti-social behaviour - and in that sense, the choice of band is very ill-advised indeed. Sham, as aficionados call them, were the pioneers of yob-punk, loudly celebrating the very lifestyles at which New Labour is taking aim. Take, for example, the second verse of Sunday Morning Nightmare, the song they wrote as a social realist riposte to the popularity of Saturday Night Fever: "I've been drinking too many pints of lager/ I've been getting into to many bleedin' fights/ I came home with sick all down me trousers/ I've got lovebites all around me neck." A song called What Have We Got, meanwhile, comes close to the dread crime of glorifying terrorism: "I'd like to buy a shotgun/ Shooting MPs, conservatives, communists/ They're all the bleeding same."

The Independent spoke to Pursey:

...Pursey, who admitted to being surprised at the reprise of the 27-year-old hit, is a Blairite through and through. "I was bowled over. When the man from the BBC commented that he was taken aback by it, it was like the moment when Thatcher resigned and everyone said they couldn't believe it."

Pursey said the message behind the song was critical for the country at the moment. "We have got to unite Brown and Blair together. He could be one of the best prime ministers this country has ever produced," said the singer who once appeared on Top of the Pops holding a plastic water pistol to his head.

But there were still aspects of Britain that rankled. Sylvia Hardy, he said, should not have been jailed for not paying a portion of her council tax. And the country had become "too much of a grammar school, Middle England thing". "'If the Kids are United' has the right message. This isn't the best place in the world, but it isn't the worst place either. The only way to change things is through education."

DDB london planning director- "...blogging, they thought I meant dogging"

Ah, the old in-house trend study. A recent one (via Yahoo News/Reuters) brings us:

Did you say dogging or blogging? Brits confused

LONDON (Reuters) - Proponents of the latest Web trends were warned on Tuesday that the rest of the world may not have a clue what they are talking about.

A survey of British taxi drivers, pub landlords and hairdressers -- often seen as barometers of popular trends -- found that nearly 90 percent had no idea what a podcast is and more than 70 percent had never heard of blogging.

"When I asked the panel whether people were talking about blogging, they thought I meant dogging," said Sarah Carter, the planning director at ad firm DDB London.

Dogging is the phenomenon of watching couples have sex in semi-secluded places such as out-of-town car parks. News of such events are often spread on Web sites or by using mobile phone text messages.
...
"We spend too much time talking to ourselves in this industry, rather than getting out there and finding out what's really going on in the world," DDB's chief strategy officer David Hackworthy said.

See the BBC's take on it, with a handy vacab chart, here.