THERE are plans for a new royal yacht to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the proposal has the backing of Prime Minister David Cameron.

The old Royal Yacht Britannia was scrapped in 1997. The new £80-million yacht would be funded by private donations from businessmen and individuals and at 650-feet long it would be one of the biggest yachts in the world.

The four-mast vessel would have an exhibition hall and would be used for trade and business events and by young people for educational purposes.

Britain’s crusading Daily Mail newspaper has been campaigning for some time for the new yacht and a charitable trust has been working on the project for a number of years.

 

THE Royal Family may be getting a yacht, but Foreign Secretary William Hague has lost his official car. He is among a number of senior ministers who have lost a full time car and driver and will have to rely on a car pool for transport.

The move follows a pledge by Prime Minister David Cameron to clamp down on ministerial car costs and the number of cars with a dedicated driver has been cut from 78 to 13.

 

IT ALWAYS seems a great shame when an established British firm that has employed a large number of people over the years hits the buffers and the latest big name threatened is fashion retailer Peacocks.

With around 13,000 jobs at risk it is feared it could be the biggest high street collapse since the demise of Woolworths. The firm has more than 700 shops in the United Kingdom.

Peacocks made a £77-million trading profit in its last financial year but has a mountain of debt, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of its lenders, has refused to swap debt for a stake in the company. Hopefully a way forward will be found.

 

IT IS not all bad news. British house builder Bovis Homes has indicated a significant increase in profits.

In the South of England there has been a 4.5% increase in the average selling price of family homes and Bovis says orders for new houses are up 35%. It has continued to add new sites to its land bank.

 

THERE is a great deal of controversy over plans to build a new high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. More than half the track to Birmingham will run underground to preserve the countryside.

Construction is due to start in 2016 on the first phase to Birmingham and this would take ten years. The economics are difficult to analyse because of the time scale and the potential for figures to change or be influenced by the economic climate and even developments in other forms of transport.

A figure of £32.7 billion has been put on the project with the line reaching Leeds in 2033. With the Channel Tunnel rail link running south, much will depend on the competitiveness of air travel in twenty years.

 

BUDGET hotels in London are growing fast and in the latest development of a Victorian building in Piccadilly Circus 600 identical rooms are to be created, each ten square metres including a bathroom, but there will be no windows.

Budget hotels had an occupation rate of 84% in 2010 and Britain has fewer low cost hotels than many other countries. The idea of ‘capsule’ hotels was pioneered in Japan in the 1980s. The Piccadilly room are expected to be available in 2014.

 

I SEE Meryl Streep has at the tender age of 62 won best film actress for her portrait of Margaret Thatcher in the film The Iron Lady and that she thanked the people of England for allowing her to “trample all over their history.”

She turned a few heads when she went along to the Houses of Parliament as part of her research for the part. She shouldn’t worry too much about trampling over English history as some of the antics in the House of Commons are best forgotten. Margaret Thatcher was always on her best behaviour, of course.

 

BOXER Muhammad Ali was so popular in Britain that he was voted Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC in 1999 and his encounter with British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper is a great piece of sporting history.

Cooper floored Ali with a left hook and he was lucky to recover, being saved by the bell and a loose glove. Ali went on to win the bout and was much admired by British boxing fans for his fine physical condition, fast hands and showmanship.

But like all men he is mortal. Muhammad Ali’s health has deteriorated and he has turned 70, but many still regard him as ‘the greatest.’ Although no stranger to controversy and not popular with everyone, with a twinkle in his eye and a steely determination in the ring, he made his mark. He said after beating Sonny Liston: determination in the ring, he made his mark. He said after beating Sonny Liston: determination in the ring, he made his mark. He said after beating Sonny Liston: “I shook up the world."

 

Victor Gardner's London Letter