Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are! Chants Mrs. M. Funny! Have you noticed that the showy-off-y stars of the super-rich have gone into hiding? They are nowhere to be seen. Even their 150m yachts seem to have disappeared. Where are the helicopters, the nights on the tiles in Mayfair consuming £40,000 a night in Cristal champagne, the lavish charity events with hedgies out bidding each other? Even Yummy Mummies are thin on the ground. What a relief!
There has been a welcome hiatus in the press about these indulgent consumers. It's as though our fairy godmother has waved her wand and made these luxury addicts who drive Silver Phantom Rolls Royces, Bugattis and Lamborghinis disappear back into their anthills. £1,200 sushi take outs from Ubon in Canary Wharf are on the wane. Or at least we don't hear about them. The hedgies and ogli-s are out there, still spending and paying themselves huge bonuses, even though they said they wouldn't. They're just embarrassed for their conspicuous consumption to be seen or heard.
"... vulgarity, tactlessness and ruthlessness of people who are rich beyond all imagining" is how Rod Liddle describes the lifestyles of our beloved oligarchs in the Sunday Times Culture Magazine." He adds that since the dissolution of the Soviet Union they have nested down in London-grad to take advantage of the generous tax laws. They have ignored extradition proceedings, they have supported sushi restaurants. They are people "not to be messed with."
Can you believe that 300,000 Russians now live in London? 100 of these are the super-rich. After asset stripping Russia of its natural resources and utilities during privatization in the 1990s, they came here because it was a fashionable safe haven. They gave a whole new meaning to the concept of "cash buyer." A glut of fine art was bought by the metre, sometimes at four times the auction price. They bought four or five houses in Holland Park, knocking them all together into hideous drawing rooms the size of ice rinks. They bought £20m country properties from their helicopters without even looking inside. Why bother? They may not ever go there. And they paid cash...no matter how large the price tag. They are dream customers for marble dealers because they buy marble by the hectare. And there is nothing they love better than electronic gadgetry. It isn't enough that their yachts are stocked with helicopters. They must have submarines, missile detecting systems, and fleets of security guards. Ho, hum.
Some Londoners think they have turned London into an expensive, unpleasant hell hole to live in, full of rich, uncouth Russians. And it's a dangerous place for those who get involved with oligarchs.
