On Tuesday, Tony Blair will deliver the keynote speech at the the London launch of Promoting Prosperity: A Business Agenda for Britain, the conclusion of a two-year review by the left-leaning think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research. The event will condemn the Tories’ record on education, investment and shifts in policy.
The IPPR’s Business Commission will also accept the need for a national minimum wage to control welfare costs and favour opting in to the Social Chapter but remain cautious on European Monetary Union.That the IPPR should challenge much of Tory policy is no surprise. The 17-strong Commission, however, also includes senior business leaders not noted for supporting Labour.Mr Heseltine’s office had no comment to make this weekend but an IPPR board member said: “He basically invited himself to the party We couldn’t really refuse him. He is going to attack those aspects of the report that are unfriendly to the Tories.”. City speculation is growing that founder David Potter may relinquish his executive responsibilities at Psion, the world’s leading maker of hand-held computers and one of Britain’s most spectacular corporate successes of the last decade.

Mr Potter, 53, is currently recuperating at his London home after an emergency heart bypass operation in mid-December.
This weekend a Psion spokesman said no date had yet been put on his return and declined to deny that Mr Potter, currently chairman and chief executive, may take a non-executive role.”That’s very premature and isn’t at all relevant to the running of Psion,” the spokesman said.”David Potter is seen very much as the front man, but all decisions are taken by consensus by the board of seven.”Nonetheless, a back-seat role would concern investors as the firm develops its next phase of palmtop computer and communications products.Mr Potter, a feisty South African, is synonymous with Psion’s phenomenal rise in an industry dominated by overseas giants. Armed with a physics doctorate, he founded Psion in 1980 and launched the world’s first hand- held computer four years later.The huge success of Psion’s Organiser II, an icon for executives, paved the way for the firm’s 1988 flotation. The shares have jumped more than tenfold since to value the group at pounds 320m and Mr Potter’s own stake at pounds 85m.Psion might now have been worth double that had bid talks with Alan Sugar’s Amstrad not fallen through last July.In September, Mr Potter also dispensed with long-time finance director Mike Langley, a move seen as part of the stresses of transformation to a much larger company.His illness came as a surprise, after he was detained for an emergency operation following a routine medical check.”The trouble is that it was all so sudden,” one source close to the company said. “It’s too early to say whether they should get a new chief executive. But once he has recuperated, he might be told to take it easy or decide to do it himself.”In his absence, day-to-day operations are being run by Nicholas Myers, Psion’s technical director, who led development of the Organiser II and successful System 3a palmtops..

A building severely damaged by last February’s IRA bombing in Docklands could become home to the first legally operated casino in east London. Since 1968, when the Krays and other criminal gangs were still active and the Gaming Act became law, the “permitted area” for casinos in the capital has been confined mainly to the West End.
The building, opposite Canary Wharf and formerly called South Quay Tower, was mothballed during the worst of the recession and, at the time of the bombing, in which two people were killed, was still an incomplete shell. The damage to it is now being repaired and, as part of a 350,000- square foot commercial/residential complex with a projected value on completion of more than pounds 50m, it has been renamed Canary View.The developer of the site – Jemstock, an associate company of Capital & Provident Management – was granted planning consent for a casino by the local authority, the London Docklands Development Corporation, shortly after Christmas.The results of the Home Office’s secondary stage of consultation are due to be published at the end of this month. Providing there is time for the process to complete its parliamentary schedule, and there is all- party agreement before the general election, the way should then be open for the operator of the casino to apply to the Gaming Board and seek a licence from a local magistrate.According to Savill’s, the appointed international selling agent, the casino could be open by the end of the year. The firm emphasises, however, that the gaming aspect is “just one element” of a package consisting mainly of a four-to-five star, 265-bedroom hotel. If sold on lease as a shell, the asking price would be pounds 13m plus.”For this reason,” Savill’s says, “we’ve been aiming at the hotel and not the gaming industry, and have approached all the major operators.

There’s been a lot of interest but it’s too soon yet for negotiations to be advanced with anyone.”. Financial Dynamics

In an article on 5 January we referred to a DTI investigation into leaks involving US oil firm Arco, a client of City PR firm. FD has asked to us to point out that its chairman, Tony Knox, has not personally been interviewed by the DTI in relation to Arco’s bid for Irish oil company Aran. We understand that no FD staff are under investigation in the inquiry.. Paintballs, go karts, climbing mountains … Bah! If you really want to build your senior executive team, get yourself a cello (or a triangle). Michael Spencer, who is a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra, has two missions.