The software tycoon swapping super-yachts for submarines
Tom Perkins, the American venture capitalist, has finally sold his strange-looking super-yacht, the Maltese Falcon. The 289ft boat fetched £60m, although he was originally asking £90m – which is roughly what it cost him to build in Turkey four years ago.
Perkins based his boat on an "aborted 1960s concept" to relaunch clippers like the 19th-century Cutty Sark, says The Sunday Times. But to me the Maltese Falcon lacks the elegance of the Cutty Sark and since the sails are computer-controlled – Perkins wrote some of the software himself – she can't even be that much fun to sail.
Still, she's fast: she can cross the Atlantic in ten days and has what David Pelly of Boat International Magazine calls a "fabulous art deco interior". Perkins may even have broken even on it, since he regularly let it out for more than £300,000 a week.
So why is he selling? The owner of an Elizabethan house in Sussex, he is one of the men who helped found Silicon Valley and, like a lot of techno-wizards, he's restless. According to Pelly, his interest has now switched to a personal submarine that has wings and, says The Sunday Times, "resembles Stingray from the children's puppet series".
But while he lost money on his sale, the overall state of the super-yacht market remains healthy enough, with the current number of 3,500 expected to rise by the end of this year to 4,162.
Clothes maketh the man
The Victoria & Albert Museum is reprinting Hardy Amies' ABC of Men's Fashion, the influential style guide for men buying clothes.
"Always wear a collar and tie in a town," advises the legendary designer, "even if it's by the sea, after six o'clock. Never, ever wear shorts except actually on the beach or on a walking tour. All short-sleeve shirts look ghastly. Sandals are hell, except on the beach where you want to take them off, or on a boat. And worn with socks are super hell."
Written in 1964, this all remains true except possibly the first sentence. For years, Amies wrote a column for Esquire magazine while carrying out his duties dressing the Queen. The current style editor of Esquire, Mansel Fletcher, concurs with the advice. Socks with sandals are a "bit German bible camp", he says. As for short-sleeved shirts: they're only acceptable if "you're flying a plane".
The Beeb loves its perks
As yet another story about BBC extravagance comes to light – apparently executives have been renting a luxurious villa above Cannes for £20,000 a week – Auntie should learn a lesson from its former deputy chairman, Lord Cocks.
His widow, Lady Cocks, told The Times that when the one-time Labour Chief Whip joined the Beeb "someone phoned up and said: 'Come and choose your new furniture for your new office.' I said, 'Marvellous.' He said: 'The office is fine as it is. I'm only there two days a week.' They said: 'Every deputy chairman has a car and a chauffeur.' I said: 'Great'. He said: 'We live in Westminster. There is a bus stop outside our house.'"
Tabloid money... Soldiers' wives starve while union bosses feed at the trough
• Army families have been reduced to charity handouts "while Our Boys are away at war", says The Sun. "Forces pay is so pitifully low that service wives cannot make ends meet when their husbands are sent to fight in Afghanistan." Hunger charity Foodbank, based in Salisbury, "has had to help 245 struggling military spouses and children in three years". In most cases, the men were in Afghanistan or Iraq. And the number of urgent handouts could be in the thousands nationwide, campaigners believe. "It is shameful that men risking life and limb 3,500 miles away have the added worry of whether their families are being properly fed back home".
• Nearly £3m in damages was paid last year to children hurt in scrapes at school, says the Daily Mirror. "The massive handouts by education chiefs work out at more than £7,500 a day and are up £1m on the previous year." One pupil received £35,000 after being injured in a games lesson collision in Derbyshire, while another got £6,000 for tripping over a playground pothole in Bexley, south-east London. Suffolk council paid £9,000 to a child who was hit by a calculator and broke his teeth. Susie Squire of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "While no doubt some of these claims are legitimate, it's bonkers that many kids are getting cash just for falling over in the playground."
• "Lefty union chiefs sneer at bankers' bonuses but are not backwards in coming forwards when the trough is in front of their noses," says Fergus Shanahan in The Sun. "Union leaders accepted rises of up to 20% while their members lose jobs or have wages cut. Bob Crow, leader of the RMT rail union, had an 8% rise in 2008 to £91,646, while asking members to sacrifice wages and risk their jobs in a futile strike. For the size of his salary, Bob doesn't seem to be giving his guys good advice."