HALLELUJAH! The auction houses are pretty much open again (many doing viewings by appointment); evermore live auctions are happening and the buying/selling machine is grinding back into action after months of furloughing and lockdown. And, it transpires, my witty aside in the July column that bored buyers are sitting at home burnishing their Buy buttons, avoiding their significant others whilst enhancing their collections, turned out to be bang on the money. With little else to waste their money on that, it seems, is exactly what folk were doing, much to the auctioneers’ delight, although not in all categories. I suspect that, like many businesses, auctioneer bosses have used the lockdown to take a long, hard look at the way they do business, and who does exactly what, and may have come to some unexpected conclusions.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
Fodder
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