Bunhill: Fight at end of the tunnel

THERE was a time when no City editor's postbag was complete without a missive from Sir Alastair Morton, the not-so-mild-mannered chairman of Eurotunnel. He had gone off the boil recently, but just when Bunhill thought it was safe to open the mail, Sir Alastair has again raised his quill in anger.

After years of feuding with TML, the consortium building the Channel tunnel, he would now have us believe that they are the best of friends. Hence his response to our tale last week about TML's British officials being an hour late for the celebrations marking the handover of the tunnel to Eurotunnel. The TML party could have got a through train to the French end of the tunnel, but Eurotunnel didn't want them to be the first in (allegedly).

Our short item elicited a response five times as long, complete with words in capital letters or underlined - the hallmarks of a REALLY angry letter writer.

Apparently everyone arrived at the party at the same time, and Sir Alastair was not part of the discussions on transport. Our 'swipe' at him 'breached all codes of conduct'. Despite all the 'whingeing commentaries', the project is a success and newspapers 'have retreated in disorder' from their attempts at 'unverified sensationalism' after having 'mined to exhaustion the British vein of concocted disaster'. Nice to see he hasn't lost his touch.

(Photograph omitted)