“There can be no excuse for staying at home on benefit and not taking jobs on offer,” he will say at the launch of the scheme in Brixton, south London, where one in 10 claim benefit.The scheme will allow job seekers to browse the Internet through terminals in Job Centres, on personal computers in their home, local library and community centre or via a “jobs channel” on digital television.”Since May 1997 over 400,000 jobs have been created and unemployment is now the lowest for 20 years,” the Chancellor will say “But the jobs market must work better. An almost uniformly negative view of the Alternative Investment Market, introduced three years ago as a junior market for smaller companies, made the managers sceptical about the success of another new market.Among fund managers who did favour a new London market for growth companies, 50 per cent said the exchange should be a version of Nasdaq, rather than a new LSE market. The US exchange was rated by fund managers and IT chief executives as providing the best support for growth companies. Sixty three per cent of IT bosses are behind the LSE’s Techmark initiative.. FORGET THE bicycle, Britain’s unemployed will be told by the Government today to “Get on the Web and look for work.”

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, will launch a high-tech, pounds 18m scheme to link workers without jobs to employers with vacancies over the Internet.
In an echo of Norman Tebbit’s command to the jobless in 1981 to get on their bike and look for work, the Chancellor will issue a toughly-worded warning to the jobless. He will not blow his own trumpet; let us only hope he will blow his own whistle should the need arise..

CITY FUND managers are at odds with IT firms over the London Stock Exchange’s proposals to create a separate market for hi-tech companies. The majority of UK-based IT groups favour a dedicated growth market, but almost three-quarters of smaller company fund managers think the LSE’s plans for a new technology stock market called Techmark, to be unveiled later this month, is unnecessary.
The findings, which emerged from a survey by Granville, the investment banking boutique, come as a surprise given the huge support among investment banks, which have long complained that Britain is missing out on the Internet listings boom because of the lack of a suitable market here.While fund managers acknowledge the difficulties facing growth companies, many of the 72.5 per cent who did not back the Stock Exchange proposals thought changes needed to be made within the LSE itself. I try to tempt more details with the offer of a GM sloe comfortable at the Fount but Dr Millar remains coy. Georges is on the prowl and the question is whether his appointment is linked to the bid speculation which surrounds Church & Co, our luxury shoemaker.uONE MAN who will soon be able to afford an Imelda-style wardrobe of Church’s shoes is Dr Andrew Millar, the man who blew the whistle on British Biotech and almost called time on the entire industry He has been appointed head of a new biotech venture. Having tried cannons, fireworks and shotguns to keep gulls and other birds away, the airport has employed a falconry service to see off the birds.

If the Chotes are worried about the birds they could resort to the train but Amtrak is having problems of Jubilee Line proportions. The rail company’s new high-speed rail service in the US Northeast, scheduled to begin this year, will be delayed until next year.uI WAS round at Lilly’s yesterday for her ping-pong and plonk party. She is just back from Los Angeles where she hears that Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul, has switched from taking stakes in football clubs to investing in churches. His family foundation has apparently donated $10m towards the construction of a $163m Roman Catholic cathedral in downtown LA. It was a great party but after too many glasses of plonk I began seeing camels crawling though the eyes of needles.uMORE CLASSY booze altogether comes from LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton where the appointment of Marianne Tesler, from Nike, as chief executive of its Givenchy fashion division frees Georges Spitzer, to become development director of LV Capital, LVMH’s internal investment fund.

If they ever have to pass through New York’s JFK airport the chances of their aircraft being impeded or indeed brought down by the local birds will be much reduced. When the dinner conversation turns to acronyms (Yuppies et al) just say you are a WIFE You know: Washing, Ironing, Fondling, Etcetera. It makes DC’s PC fanatics squirm with embarrassment.uI HAVE good news for the Chotes as they fly to the US. I have only one piece of advice for Sharon, Robert’s wife, who is giving up her job advising Tony Blair on Welfare matters to join her husband. Now he is a grown up and will be a welcome addition to the tiresome Georgetown dinner circuit. My information is that the new economics editor has been identified but sworn to secrecy.Robert is a dear thing, I remember him when he was this high and was affectionately known as Stick.