Good afternoon.
How we laughed when BA and BAA asked hundreds of actors to pretend to be travellers and pretend to be going to Hong Kong or Honolulu. We chortled when we saw thousands of suitcases being tagged and dispatched when we knew there were no trunks, no clean pants and no spare shoes in any of them. But the smiles were wiped off our faces when BA and BAA bleated that it has all been a terribly successful exercise, that we should grow-up and acknowledge what sensible planners they were. OK. Fair point.
So what went wrong when T5 opened, then, hey??? We can let you into a really dreadful secret at 6. You will be amazed, angered and may find it even more difficult to trust some people in the future, even if trust in them had become as elusive as tens of thousands of suitcases now languishing in Milan, Heathrow and Never Never Land rather than in their owners' homes.
d4. d5. Nf3 c5. c4 e6. e3 Nf6. Bd3 Nc6. O-O Bd6. b3 O-O. Bb2 b6. Nbd2 Bb7. Rc1 Qe7 cxd5.... then you thump him.
Complex, I concede but this sequence sums up what the Big Boss has just described to me as his favourite story of the month. Put it this way, if you think Boris Spaski meets Barry McGuigan or Cassius Clay floors Sonny Liston, after some cerebral exertion, eitherr way you'll be on the right track. Honest, it is worth making the effort to check it out at six with grandmaster Phil.
Grandmasters all of the battle to be Mayor are the three leading candidates. Having "a good face for radio" is one of the cruelest things that can be said of people who aspire to be on television and I would not say it of any of them but they all went on the radio this morning to debate "who is the fairest of them all" in a political and leadership sort of way. I'll be hosting a similar TV exercise in a couple of weeks but they were really rather interesting this morning when no-one was watching (except us on your behalf) and several hundred thousand of you were listening. Watch what you missed seeing at 6 with Harris, a grand-master of all he touches.
Sian Berry the Green candidate wasn't on the radio this morning and is much better looking than all of them and, if I may say, talks as much if not even more good sense on some issues than any of them. She joins us in the studio.
Grand-master of all British tourist attractions is Big Ben; but it isn't really. The Tower, and the Palace the Tower tops off so beautifully at the north end, are the attractions. Big Ben is the bell. And it is a very old bell. 150 years old today and we go back to the maternity unit for all Great Bells in Whitechapel to say happy Birthday Ben. Damien has the bubbly. (Ironically, and allegedly, it might not have made 150 if the 7/7 bombers had had their complete way. It's been suggested that their targets included not only this top attraction but a list of runners up. Chilling thought. Only allegations in court but we can report it and you'll want us to so we will.)
Kate Hudson will be sipping the bubbly too as she celebrates her latest premiere tonight. Lucy will be looking for George Clooney in the crowd and talking to Kate, who may well know George.
I think the George thing is wearing thin but Lucy says she may never wash her hands again. Or scrub her cheeks - he does that french greeting rather elegantly I am told. My daughter is the same having met Jenson Button last weekend.
It is becoming unhygenic.
Papers and weather to take your minds off that troubling thought and the Peoples Millions to help you all fulfill your dreams.
See you at six.
Alastair and Katie.
