The FT reports that Microsoft are looking to set its new head office out of London to West or East. I will be travelling in to London on the Queen Elizabeth Line from Slough. I will pass through through suburbs to London that have been derided for decades since Betjeman called the German bombers in to drop their bombs and obliterate,
But like so much of the change in Britain, the change in towns, villages and parts of a great city are being transformed by technology. Slough is the greatest Data Centre in Europe and Microsoft needs data centres to develop here as it has in California.
What if Microsoft came to Slough, or Reading? Would that wake Britain up to the possibility that we might just be on the brink of a technology revolution that could make us the envy of our recently disassociated Europe?
Might our mighty pension schemes that now spurn Britain for California’s magnificent seven, recognise that Britain is the future for their technology on this side of the pond?
I don’t write with much finesse , Slough does not do finesse, not even the lower Slough that is Eton! But we have the water to cool the Data Centres. That water is from the Thames , the electricity that powers the centres is carried to the Thames Valley by our National Grid, people travel across this technological hatching ground using the new Queen Elizabeth Line.
I feel for Berkshire and Oxfordshire and greater London an excitement that I hope is being felt in and around Manchester and in the North East with Britain stretching beneath its bed clothes and awakening again after a sleep of some decades.
Yesterday out stock market hit a new high
When I am not in Eton, I am in the City , living beside Paternoster Square and our Stock Market.
We are on the edge of March; a month when spring begins, when Cheltenham happens, when we go to Edinburgh; this year I will go the Pensions UK investment conference with a determination to “GET REAL” (Torsten Bell).
The largest inhabited castle in the world stares out at me as the morning dawns. It is across the Thames, with its water. It still carries the King’s flag above it, nothing can stop our monarchy, older than Windsor Castle but housed beside Slough, served by the Queen Elizabeth Line and maybe soon a neighbour to Microsoft!
Spring is coming to this royal part of Britain – sort of!
As my small recent shareholding in Microsoft is “under water” at the moment, and as this is not a good time for certain Windsors, I’m afraid, Henry, I’m in grumpy fact-checking mood:
Windsor Castle’s “largest inhabited castle” may be disputed as there are several major castles that rival it as alternatives—either by size (Windsor is “only” 53,000 square metres), age, continuous use, or a mix of all three.
alternatives include
• Prague Castle (Czech Republic) – Often cited as the largest ancient castle complex in the world by area, dating back to the 9th century, and still used as the official office of the Czech president. Almost 70,000 square metres.
• Malbork Castle (Poland) – Frequently described as the largest castle in the world by land area (about 143,000 m²), built in the 13th century by the Teutonic Knights, now a major museum and UNESCO site. It is not, however, a royal residence today, so “occupied” is more institutional than residential.
• Dover Castle (England) – Sometimes called the “Key to England,” founded in the 11th century under William the Conqueror, and long used as a fortified residence and military site; today it is garrisoned and managed rather than inhabited by royalty. 129,500 square metres.
• Citadel of Aleppo (Syria) – One of the oldest castle sites in the world, with use of the hill dating back to at least the mid–3rd millennium BC, although most visible structures are medieval; it is monumental but no longer a lived‑in royal residence, and only about 40,000 square metres.
• Buda Castle (Hungary) – A very large 13th‑century royal complex in Budapest, now housing museums and public institutions rather than a monarch, so again not “occupied” in the Windsor sense, and again only about 45,000 square metres.
My claim for Windsor Castle is simply repeating the adverts around Slough railway station that make that boast for the castle.