Well that very much depends upon to whom you are referring. Let us start with the movers and shakers of the property world, namely Purplebricks. Ah yes, the Bruce brothers, who the majority of those involved in the business of trying to make money from selling houses, loathe, because, er, they have made an awful lot of money from (sort of) selling houses. For the record, I doff my cap (I am sporting a Peaky Blinders number at the moment) to the gentlemen. Well played sirs. Headlines during the week screamed that Pb’s share price had “plunged”, at one stage falling to 262p. Remember that one man’s plunge is another man’s slight trip. The shares finished at 280p, 10% down from the previous day’s opening price of 311p. The fall came as Pb made clear its intention to continue its roll-out in the USA, France and Germany accompanied by an announcement to the London Stock Exchange of a £125m investment by German-based international publishing house Axel Springer. This would be the same publishing house that owns several leading European property portals, such as Se Loge, Immowelt and Immoweb. I wonder what Rightmove and Zoopla think of that move? One thing of which I can be certain is that neither the Bruce brothers (a respectable 62nd on the UK Rich List) nor the founding investors in Rightmove or Zoopla will be going for the Aldi egg as opposed to the Waitrose number. Why? Because they were in at the start when the shares were £1 for a bucket full. Once again proving that timing is everything. As possibly the mysterious estate agent travelling alongside Jeremy Vine in a first class carriage the other day may rue. Jezzer was suitably astonished and outraged by the fact that the lady in question was loudly broadcasting to a carriage of strangers various private information-names, addresses and fiscal amounts-about a property that she had just sold. Concern has been raised that she may have breached data protection rules. Fair point, although Jeremy’s recording and subsequent reporting on a national radio show probably wasn’t too clever either on the privacy number. What did raise a titter here in the backwaters of Cwmbran was the agent marking some point of her transaction with a ‘Hip hip hooray’. In these parts, that would be supplemented with a “Thank “£$& for that”. I did wonder how Mr Vine (or any other vendor) would feel if when phoning their agent on the latter’s mobile (note the clue is in the title), they were then told, “Sorry, Mr X, I know that it is really important to you and your family, but I am on the train, so goodbye”. Speaking of goodbyes what a week of exposure it has been for the Australian psyche; not just that their phenomenally naturally talented cricket team are cheats, but they are also a bunch of crying sheilas (calm down all you Germaine Greers). The only one who has earmed some respect is the patsy Bancroft. To put sandpaper down your trousers takes some er, balls. Even Russell Crowe in full Maximus mode might have winced at that (ok, I know he wore a skirt for most of the film…). At least Steve Smith-acknowledged as possibly the best batsman since Don Bradman-can now have a career in amateur dramatics. FFS. Two queries that I have after watching his cringe worthy press conference performance: Isn’t a “mistake” something that happens inadvertently, not a deliberate action with the aim of eliciting a specific result? and was it the intense heat from the gathered press and their equipment that made his tears evaporate before they even appeared to the naked eye? As for Warner and his wife, I am genuinely sorry that they couldn’t find a babysitter yesterday so had to lug their daughters through a heaving airport at a time when he acknowledged that they should already be in bed, whilst the collected press surrounded them. It worked-to a point-as the media were sufficiently solicitous so as not to upset the ‘human shield’ of two small children. FFS x 2. Has their Easter break been spoiled? I would wager 1-11 on, that it has. And Christmas.
