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Charlotte Parsons

The rumour mill was in full swing yesterday - What Lai See  wants to know is, who set it in motion?

The scene was the Island Shangri-La Hotel. Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was there delivering a speech, so the press gang was out in force.

The speech drew to a close . . . and the grapevine began to swing.

Word had it the hotel's Summer Palace restaurant contained a pair of famous diners - None other than Li Ka-shing and his son Richard.

Questions buzzed through the hack pack. What were the Lis doing there? Were they meeting with the Lee-of-a-different-spelling?

Not likely, says the director of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce.

The deputy PM went back to his room right after the speech. Of course, the two Lis could always have slipped upstairs to meet him there . . .

But if the Singaporean notable wasn't a factor - why choose the Shangri-La?

They must have known that the hotel would be crawling with reporters.

Were the Lis out to sow the seeds of speculation?

They were certainly cordial to the press. While his father discussed housing policy, the same Richard who had eluded reporters at his own EGM fielded questions about the Cable & Wireless placement.

But for many, the real question was this: Would the father support the son's share price?

It looks like the market may have been wondering the same thing, because long-sliding PCCW shares yesterday staged a sudden rebound.

The traders may not have been there, but we bet that lunch gave them food for thought.

Hair-raising hue: Yesterday, Lai See  brought you news of the police commissioner's infamous hair memo. No more dye jobs, was the gist of it. The thin blue line has been ordered to retain its natural colour.

We wondered if that edict was being carried out at the highest levels, and called up Assistant Commissioner Peter Halliday  to find out.

His dark brown hair colour is reputed to be fraudulent. Would he be dyeing it back to natural?

'No, I'm not going to do that,' he told Lai See.

'When this edict came down I checked it carefully [to see if I had to].'

And anyway, the assistant commissioner's hair has been slandered and misunderstood.

True, it's been dyed. But the chosen shade represents Mr Halliday's original colour, before time and the rigours of police work turned it white.

But for some unknown reason, the police rumour mill has transformed him into a former blonde.

The assistant commissioner says he really doesn't know how that happened, seeing as all the hair on his body is dark brown.

Which was just a liiiiittle more information than Lai See  needed.

But people like Mr Halliday aren't the real targets here.

An insider tells us that the memo is aimed at young officers with lurid carrot tops.

Let's hope undercover officers are exempt or triads will figure out that the cops are the ones without the strange orangey hairdos.

Lane of confusion: Discovery Bay resident Richard Winter just sent us a management memo he describes as 'further evidence that Discovery Bay was indeed the stage set for The Prisoner:

'The road in front of No 21 Seahorse Lane will be closed from the 18th to 21st January. During that period, drivers are required to use No 12-16 Seahorse Lane, via No 27-41 Seabird Lane to enter No 23-27 Seahorse Lane.'

Let's hope golf buggie drivers can work out what they meant, or they could collide and end up in SeeStars Lane.

Graphic: whee19gbz



Seeds of speculation sown on Lis