PUBLICATION of the report into MG Rover was accompanied, predictably, by an attack on the Government by Jon Moulton.

The Alchemy boss was an alternative bidder to the Phoenix Four for the beleaguered car maker. Moulton is no stranger to opposing Gordon Brown, so much so that the private equity chief has literally turned his criticism into a
money-spinner.
He has his own vineyard in Kent, which he planted five years ago, and where he produces a red wine. Called Recession Red, the bottle has the Prime Minister's face on the label and retails for £13.50 a time. It's made from Rondo, Regent and Pinot Noir grapes.
Moulton's blend is no joke: it won gold in a blind tasting competition for English and Welsh red wine of the year held by the UK Vineyards Association, and was awarded the Bernard Theobald Trophy for outstanding red wine as well as a bronze in the South East Wine of the Year Competition 2009. Recession Red has also proved popular with drinkers — more than 100 cases were offered for sale, and there are fewer than 10 remaining.
Moulton is also making a white — Shoreham Seyval, which costs £7 a bottle and features a picture of Alistair Darling. According to the blurb, it offers “much greater substance and consistency than government policy” and is “best bought early before tax rises”.

* NUMBER-watching with City sage David Buik of BGC Partners, who notices: “The Dow closed Friday at 9,605.41. On September 11, 2001, the Dow closed at guess what? 9,605.51.”

* OH to have been a fly on the wall at Standard Chartered when its decision to sponsor Liverpool was disclosed. The bank's chief economist and head of research, Gerard Lyons, is an ardent Fulham supporter. His bank is splashing out £20 million a year for four years putting its name on the shirts of Steven Gerrard et al. Fulham, by contrast, receives £3 million a year over two years from Korean electronics giant LG.

* HOW bad have things become at Gala Coral, the bingo and bookies group creaking under £2.7 billion of debt saddled on it by private-equity owners Candover, Permira and Cinven? We only ask because City Spy's chap with the form book pitched up at one of Coral's swisher establishments, the betting shop catering for the better-heeled punters of Knightsbridge, wanting to put £50 each-way on a 12-1 chance. Though a by no means extraordinary transaction for a High Street bookie, the Coral shop manager was straight on the phone to head office in Barking. He returned, saying he would only be allowed to do £20 each-way maximum. The flabbergasted punter was already out of the door, taking his custom to nearby William Hill...

MoD staff fear Cameron's cuts

DEFENCE contractors are hoping they will not lose out as much as feared under David Cameron's pledge to slash spending if he takes over in Downing Street next year.
If Liam Fox remains at defence after the general election, it is believed his first review will be of the Ministry of Defence itself. The MoD employs 89,000 people. That is an awful lot of civil servants, especially
when you consider the nation's total fighting force amounts to just 200,000.

Better stick to the day job, Tara

WHEN Tara Palmer-Tomkinson — all tanned legs and pink bouclé — cuddled Tadworth Hound and Huggy Bear at the BGC charity day, she was embracing representatives of the Children's Trust that helps brain-damaged children.
Another guest on the trading floor, where all profits were going to charity in memory of their Cantor Fitzgerald colleagues who died in 9/11 eight years ago, was a young lad called Alfie who was nurtured back to mobility after a bike accident left him unable to walk, talk or feed himself.
Intensive therapy at the Children's Trust restored most of his motor skills so he now lives at home and could enjoy the fun at the charity day.
Tara may have looked great but she's not much of a trader. Grasping the phone she yelled “70 bid” then, appealing for help, cried: “Now what?” Ross Kemp had at least brought a script.

Row over manhandled trainspotter

TRAINSPOTTERS beware. Rail magazine has stirred up a hornets' nest after berating South West Trains following a report from a reader that he had been manhandled by SWT staff at Wimbledon station when attempting to take photographs of passing trains.
Rail has taken up the cause of the assaulted “rail enthusiast” — the politically correct term for trainspotters in the 21st century — which poses the question of whether trainspotting is legal without the permission of whichever privatised rail company is running the service.
Rail readers are tut-tutting that it wasn't like this in British Rail's day when spotters would be routinely invited onto footplates and into signal boxes. Worse news for spotters: word is that SWT's owner Stagecoach is set to take control of the Essex and East Anglia train companies that are currently run by National Express.

* HOW is Warren Buffett's NetJets corporate jet timeshare getting on in these tough times? Eight of the fleet's jets are currently laid up at City Airport with their engine covers on, suggesting they ain't moving anywhere any time soon.

* THE ninety nicker knicker allowance is back. Business is so brisk at the Canary Wharf offices of Clifford Chance that the allowance which permits the firm's 2400 lawyers a black cab or chauffeured car home after 8pm is routinely being claimed. In fact, the firm is so busy claims are also pouring in for the £90 allowance Clifford Chance's lady lawyers get to buy clean undergarments and blouses if they work after 11pm. In addition, the firm has installed a floor replete with sleeping pods...