The Don dropped in on his new friends at the DAB yesterday to explain why it's far better to spend HK$5 billion building a new government headquarters at Tamar rather than at daggy old Kai Tak. Rejecting arguements that it would increase traffic, clutter the harbourfront, that it is unnecessary and that putting it at Kai Tak could be both cheaper and a boon to that area, the Don explained that it is vital for the government's branches to all be within 5 minutes of each other. Why this is the case isn't made clear. I thought it was meant to be about the seperation of the three branches, not the proximity?

Meanwhile, it turns out the taxman had a good year in 2005. A single income taxpayer had a bill of HK$101 million, implying an income of HK$630 million or so. The top ten taxpayers ranged from HK$13 million up to this figure. Nice work if you can get it. Given the tycoons are the most likely to benefit from the juicy construction contracts for Tamar, why not earmark their income tax to pay for it?