12 JULY 1997, page 25

City And Suburban

Let us raise our glasses to the ten-franc kir while we still have the chance CHRISTOPHER FILDES T his is a proud moment for me. The ten-franc kir has come. All last week the......

Let's Not Meet Again

THE prime beneficiary of the strong well, stronger — pound is Gordon Brown. He can scarcely touch the runway at Heathrow without taking off again. He came back on Monday evening......

Bridgework By Brown

THE budget, when it came, turned out to be a bridge over troubled deficits, to a design made familiar by Kenneth Clarke. The abutment on this side is built out of taxes and......

Flight Of Fancy

ROBERT Ayling, British Airways' embat- tled chief executive, has lost two City cus- tomers. At Garsington, they were dis- cussing Jonathan Aitken's libel suit and the fatal......

Dome Of Discovery . . .

A COUPLE of digits fell off the wire last week and reduced the cost of the Green- wich Gasworks Dome to £7 million. If only. It was last guessed at £750 million and ris- ing.......

. . . Palace Of Variety

THE natural solution — no, don't thank me, Peter — presents itself. Down the road from the gasworks is a site with grass, trees, river and a building ready built. The prime......