B&B, GB and YSL*
Updated on 02 June 2008
Inside the morning news meeting ... (*that's Bradford & Bingley, Gordon Brown and Yves Saint Laurent)
It's day for economics and politics. And a fashion icon thrown in for good measure.
On the financial front, it's the turn of another well known high street name to make the news. Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley announced £8m pre-tax loss this morning, sending shares tumbling.
Simultaneously it revealed that a private equity firm, Texas Pacific Group (TPG) is buying a 23 per cent stake to the tune of £179m - and that it is looking to raise a further £258m via a rights issues.
So far, so financial.
'If we can't humanise it, we are left with quite a dry business story.'
"Not sure how you humanise this story," says a senior editor. "How does it affect mortgage borrowers? If we can't humanise it, we are left with quite a dry business story."
"Some people are saying it marks the bottom of the market," offers one reporter, alluding to the possibility that an investor willing to put its money in the UK banking sector is proof that the worse affects of the credit crunch are over.
Others are more sceptical about that reading of the current economic woes.
Over in Westminster, home secretary Jacqui Smith is preparing to meet the Parliamentary Labour Party in the Houses of Parliament tonight.
The subject up for discussion? 42-day detention. The official line is that the government is standing firm. Behind the scenes, however, concessions appear to be in the offing.
Gary Gibbon, our political editor, says these PLP meetings that kick-off at 6pm are normally over in an hour. He will, therefore, be live in the Lobby post post-7pm monitoring the mood of would-be rebel backbenchers.
There's some speculation that prime minister Gordon Brown will be by the home secretary's side tonight.
If not, his only public outing today will be a photo-op with the Japanese PM at 11.15 this morning followed by a "brief presser" at 12.15pm.
Finally, the programme editor innocently asks "How do we make the Yves Saint Laurent package interesting?" He's referring, of course to a piece designed to mark the passing of the fashion designer at the age of 71.
The prog ed is shouted down. Of course it's interesting...
"He was a revolutionary," says one voice
"He democratised fashion for women," offers another.
"And besides, his life story is interesting enough without even talking about his cultural influence," says a third.
"The trouser suit," an editor coyly interjects, clearly exhausting his knowledge of YSL in those three words.
