Boris Johnson's speech to the massed black polonecks of London's architectural community turned out to be a roaring success. The mayor, who was there to open the London Festival of Architecture, was received with cheers and shouts, not to mention a half-strangled chorus of Happy Birthday (he was in the process of turning 44). But would the cheers have been so great if people had known Johnson's architectural views were actually those of Peter Bishop, the Design for London chief? One insider said the speech had been thrust into BoJo's hands just minutes before the event, and that Bishop was the chief scribe. Presumably, the references to Marcus Agrippa and Corinthian columns were added to give that authentic Johnsonian colour. That joke isn't funny anymore Speaking of public speaking, I hear that Sebastian O'Kelly, the Mail on Sunday's property editor, got the British Homes Awards off to an awkward start. "Due to the credit crunch, next year's ceremony will be held in a cardboard box outside Marble Arch," he wisecracked. Lead balloons looked positively buoyant compared with that remark.
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