A GREAT fanfare for Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell's declaration that the unemployed will be required to undertake some work. Er, haven't we heard all this before?

In his first Budget in 1997, Gordon Brown declared the Government would detail “the four options” for young people on benefit. “A job with an employer. Work with a voluntary organisation. Work on the environmental task force. And, for those without basic qualifications, full-time education or training. With these new opportunities for young people come new responsibilities. There will be no fifth option — to stay at home on full benefit. So when they sign on for benefit, they will be signing up for work. Benefits will be cut if young people refuse to take up the opportunities.”

Eleven years on, and that fifth option is still very much available.

* AS the cull of City jobs continues, Greater London Tutors, the biggest supplier of private tutors within the M25, has received more than 200 CVs from out-of-work investment bankers. These people, who shunned the world of academia when they left Oxford or Cambridge a few years back, are now pleading to be paid to cram schoolchildren for their 11-plus, GCSEs, A levels and international baccalaureates. Trouble is, City Spy hears, the vast majority have been turned down on the grounds that they are just not personable enough to handle private tutoring...

Bill the $12bn crunch loser

IS this the most spectacular fall from grace yet to emerge? Bill Miller is an American fund manager who spent decades building a reputation as the man you could trust — no matter what, he beat the market. (Anthony Bolton of Fidelity might be our nearest equivalent.)

From 1991, his Legg Mason Value Trust was stellar. A year ago, the fund had soared to $16.5 billion in assets. Now it has just $4 billion.
What happened? Well, as the banking crisis began, Miller bet that it wouldn't be as bad as others were saying. A blip. He bought Citigroup, Washington Mutual, AIG, Bear Stearns and Freddie Mac, among other disasters.

“Every decision to buy anything has been wrong,” he says. “The thing I didn't do from day one was properly assess the severity of this liquidity crisis. I was naive,” he adds. Investors are fuming. “Why didn't I just throw my money out of the window and set it on fire?” one asks.
Why indeed.

Douglas in air protest muddle

FOLLOWING City Spy's item about Conservatives for International Travel or C-fit and speculation the pro-airport expansion lobbying group is funded by BAA, Barbara Normile, a director, has got in touch.

City Spy quoted Tory MP Douglas Carswell as being unhappy with C-fit. But she says, this is odd. “He actually supports the aims of C-fit. He clearly states in an article on Conservative Home: It would be great to see a grass-root Conservative organisation making the case for more air travel. I agree with the aims set out by C-fit.'”

Douglas, could it be you are riding two horses?

Branding before policyholders

SOMETHING to look forward to in the New Year: the blockbuster Aviva advertising campaign explaining why it is ditching the 300-year-old Norwich Union brand. It will feature stars such as Bruce Willis, Elle Macpherson, Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper, all celebs who have changed their names. Geddit? Gorgeous sometime Bond girl and star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Michelle Yeoh (born Yang Zi Chong) will also appear in the adverts, which saw Aviva closing down Singapore Airport for five hours to film. The total cost of the production is being put at up to £10 million, with as much as £500,000 a time being dropped to secure the stars' participation —an amount that Norwich Union policyholders still waiting for their £1000 payout from the firm's orphan assets may take issue with.

More tales of woe at brutal Barclays'

FURTHER reports are emerging of “brutal Barclays”, and how staff are treated when they are fired. The bank this week insisted the mole who complained to City Spy that “morale in this place is disgusting” was just “one disgruntled employee”. But there's more than one. “It's true,” City Spy is told. “I have a member of the family that it happened to, and they're losing their house because they can't afford the mortgage. They're told if they leave quietly they will get a good reference, and that's it.”

* “THIS is a large crisis,” says UK banking analyst Sandy Chen at Panmure Gordon. “In fact, if you've got a moment, it's a 12-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour porterage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying this is a large crisis'.”

* AFTER the shock of Honda's departure from Formula One, the finances of the sport's teams have received scrutiny like never before. But which figures are accurate? Papers report the McLaren budget for this year as £300 million. Then McLaren boss Ron Dennis says: “We predict that our turnover will drop from £280 million a year to as low as £175 million a year.” But a look at the 2007 accounts shows turnover of £127.4 million. They can't all be right...

* THERE won't be many corporate Christmas gifts sent out this year. But Jeremy Coller of Coller Capital has had clocks delivered to all his clients. For Coller, it's Christmas every day at the moment as he specialised in buying secondary private-equity positions. The number of distressed sellers has soared, and he could have a bumper year next year. So is it a case of no present like a timer or no time like the present?

* CHRISTMAS dinner at the Vandyks should be fun. Corporate financier Edward Vandyk is leading a bid by his Evolve Capital for stockbroker Blue Oar. And who works at the top of the corporate finance division there? Er, his son William. For once the takeover document guff promising that “all rights of existing employees will be maintained” can be believed.

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