MOLE
themortgagemole
30
DIGGING THE DIRT IN THE MORTGAGE WORLD...
● CHEERS AND FEARS The economic
climate didn’t hinder the mortgage
industry’s ability to celebrate St
Patrick’s Day last week. Mole hears that
the great and the good of the mortgage
industry, Irish or not, gathered in
Mulligan’s of Mayfair to celebrate with a
few pints of Guinness.
Mole suspects the visit to the bar
could have been more to do with
rumblings in the press that the Turner
Report due out the following day was set
to limit LTVs and ban 100% mortgages.
Luckily it hasn’t happened, but if it ever
does, it would surely make every day a
lovely day for a pint or three of
Guinness.
● LIGHT BREAKFAST Meanwhile on the
other side of town at the Butchers Hook
and Cleaver in Farringdon, Mortgage
Strategy hackette Natalie Holt was
enjoying her own pint of Guinness at
11am at the Key Retirement Solutions
breakfast briefing. A rather lightweight
Natalie tippled back into the office at
around midday wearing her Guinness
hat and boasting about the benefits of
equity release.
● STOCKING UP The news last week
that Harvey Nichols’ profits have
plummeted left Mole wondering where
Ab Fab’s Edina and Patsy will buy their
champagne from now on. In their 1990s
television reign the characters loved to
shop at Harvey Nicks.
But the champagne industry doesn’t
need to worry as figures out last week
showed the UK downed some 36 million
bottles of champagne last year.
Winston Churchill once said of
champagne: “In victory we deserve it, in
defeat we need it,” which led Mole to
wonder how many bottles Gordon Brown
has sitting in his office.
Materia redundo est solus via
proficiscor. Temperantia est quispiam
quorum nos teneo nusquam.
● SHADES OF RED Mole knows those
folk at Pink Home Loans take their job
very seriously, but it was surprised to
hear that they are so committed they go
to work wearing pink attire every day.
Mole takes its hat off to the network
for raising £175 for Comic Relief by
having a dressing down day, where Pink
says many of its staff traded their usual
pink clothing for something red.
● TALL ORDER Pink isn’t the only one
that has been raising money for a good
cause. Wriglesworth and his merry crew
of PR gurus have teamed up to complete
Vertical Rush in aid of Shelter and have
raised £1,000 so far.
The event involves running up to the
top of Tower 42 – the tallest building in
the City of London. Mole wonders if
Vertical Rush could become the latest fad
in the City, as more office space is left
deserted.
● JET BLAST While the rest of us are
cutting down and swapping our triple
quilted toilet tissue for the supermarket’s
budget range, it was good to see Royal
Bank of Scotland trimming some of its
spending.
Newspaper reports last week claimed
RBS had ordered a corporate jet from
French executive jet-maker Dassault
Aviation several years ago, but cancelled
the order last autumn as the financial
crisis escalated.
The plane, a Falcon 7X business jet,
was reported as being a state-of-the-art
luxury model which costs up to £35m and
can fly almost 6,000 nautical miles
without having to refuel.
Mole wonders if Sir Fred Goodwin,
the former chief executive of RBS, will
be sending his pension back along with
the corporate jet.
Fingers crossed.
www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk
✱ CAN YOU HAVE
A POP TO WIN THIS
BOTTLE OF BOMBAY
SAPPHIRE?
“Staff at Pink Home Loans dispense with
their pink threads and dress up to support
the latest Red Nose Day.”
Can you put the boot in to your nearest and dearest to
win this bottle of top gin? Submit a witty caption to the
photo above and you will be automatically entered into
our prize draw. Remember, the funnier it is, the more
likely you are to win. What are you waiting for? Email
only printable captions to mortgage.strategy@centaur.co.uk
SPONSORED BY
�LAST WEEK’S WINNER
DANNY LOVEY
THE MORTGAGE PRACTITIONER
“Just taking my harem up to bed chaps”
FIND THE GREEN TREE TO WIN AN EXCITING IPOD SHUFFLE
Mortgage Strategy has teamed up with The Charlbury Group to offer you
the chance to win an iPod shuffle. All you have to do is find the green tree
hidden in this week’s issue and email mortgage.strategy@centaur.co.uk.
Winners will be chosen at random.
� LAST WEEK’S GREEN TREE WINNER
JANE PRICE
NASHELM MORTGAGE SOLUTIONS
(page 31)
MORTGAGE STRATEGY March 23, 2009
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