Both sides of this split financial personality came to the fore in last week’s Budget

Both sides of this split financial personality came to the fore in last week’s Budget, in which Mr Brown made changes to capital gains tax (CGT) intended to reward long-term investment by cutting CGT on disposals held for two years or more.
But he also ended the practice of “bed and breakfasting”, the sale and next day re-purchase of shares to make full use of annual CGT exemptions.The Chancellor’s announcement means the basic annual exemption of pounds 6,500 stays in place, increased to pounds 6,800 for tax year 1998-1999. What is it with Gordon Brown? One moment the Chancellor of the Exchequer appears to be encouraging investors’ willingness to set money aside for the long-term, the next minute he takes away their benefits. Often people think just because they can type they can run a whole office. What they can’t prepare for is the unpredictability of a day.There’s no quiet couple of hours to get your thoughts straight about the day to come – every day you hit the ground running.”.

“You’re expected to be better than a classic secretary but you’re often still looked down on Attitudes could be better.”Hoben agrees. “A lot of people don’t understand what goes into the job – and that goes for new recruits as well. A top-class ExecuSec can expect to command anything from between pounds 10 and pounds 13 an hour and is assured of work once she has proved her abilities.”It may be recognised financially, but it is not always the case in the office “It can be a bit of a no-man’s land,” says Blois-Brooke. “I have to think about what my boss needs to see, what I have to do and what I can delegate. I also have to think on my feet – if a press release goes out, our office is inundated with calls.

I field all the calls I can and make sure my boss only talks to those people that he needs to.”Hoben believes that the ability to understand the role of an executive secretary only comes with time and experience. “I did a full-blown secretarial course and have spent years understanding how offices work, the general dynamic and how to work most effectively.”"ExecuSecs are in high demand,” says Jo Tomazou of Gordon Yates, a recruitment firm specialising in PAs and ExecuSecs “The rates of pay reflect that. The single – until the arrival of John’s twin brother James – is Buzz, the love child of Judy Garland and Liberace, played by Stewart Permutt, whose extravagant verve successfully transplants the character’s Woody Allen-ish brain into Private Doberman.The shadows in this fleeting Arcadia are Aids, lust, infidelity, and the sulphurous smoulder of disappointment and resentment All are hurt, and inflict damage via these afflictions. She can’t, and gives him 50 rupees instead.In Love! Valour! Compassion!, here receiving its European premiere in Roger Haines’s committed production, Buzz asks to see the Aids lesion on James’s body, then stoops to kiss it Soon afterwards they become lovers.Like Ganesh, Love! …

is about, well, love, but emphatically not – despite the explicit sexuality and the blizzard of wisecracks which take their cue from the schmaltz of musical romance – lurve.The play’s three acts cover three holiday weekends, spring to fall, enjoyed by a group of long-standing New York gay friends at the upstate summer home of Gregory, a dancer-choreographer (Nicholas Chagrin) and his blind partner Bobby. The other couples are Perry and Arthur, 14 years together, and the cynical English expat, John, and his hot date, Ramon. He used to scream out things like ‘meat balls’ and ’stewed beef’ and things.”It is the end of the evening, and Ann Marie’s Personal Appearance seems to have gone down well in swinging Walberswick. She has attracted a lot of attention from retired colonels, and won over a lot of tea-drinking sceptics. But when an inebriated 18-year-old massages her back and asks what a Scandanavian weather girl like her is doing in a little village pub like this she frowns “I’m a spy for the Norwegian government, of course. Don’t tell anyone but I’m sending out secret signals back home.”.

Theatre: Love! Valour! Compassion!

The Library Theatre, Manchester
In another of Terrence McNally’s plays, A Perfect Ganesh, one of the characters is faced with the opportunity to fulfil her childhood’s religious dream and kiss the face of an Indian leper. and football.”Ah yes, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Tore Andre Flo and that commentator who famously addressed a list of English icons after his team thrashed us in the early 80s “Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Lady Diana, Henry Cooper.. your boys took one hell of a beating.” Ann Marie giggles “He was amazing. So, for a Norwegian to go abroad and and do well – that’s great news. My country has loads to offer, you know: skiing, Olympics 94… “Its helping people who have hang-ups, who are ashamed of their bodies. It is helping people to bemore free.” What do they think of her back in her home town of Ollerhalla? “At first they couldn’t understand what I was doing.