THE City has an unusual new tenant. The Church of Scientology is, I hear, paying £10 million for the old BP building on Queen Victoria Street. This is the cult that counts Tom Cruise and John Travolta as adherents, the one with the building in Tottenham Court Road where they try to drag you in for “personality testing”.

The creation of L. Ron Hubbard, a fraudulent former science fiction writer, the Church was once branded by a High Court judge as “corrupt, sinister and dangerous”.

By an odd coincidence, the Scientologists’ new home is just along the street from the former headquarters of The Salvation Army, acquired by William Booth, the movement’s founder, in 1881. The building, has just re-opened after refurbishment.

What will they have to talk about, the two churches, in the local Starbucks? The Army is engagingly broad-minded about its new neighbour.

“Interesting,” says a spokeswoman. “It takes all sorts.”

SIGN of the times: a City contact tried to book a table for six at a big-name City restaurant for 12.30 yesterday. I think I had better not mention which one, but he was told to be out by 2pm, “because we want a second sitting”. It must be Christmas approaching. Only in the season of goodwill do overpriced and arrogant restaurants feel they can treat paying customers that badly. We went elsewhere.

Martha’s TV plan

MARTHA STEWART, still banged up for a five-month spell in a West Virginia jail for obstructing an insider trading investigation, is well advanced in her plans for a comeback once the prison gates open. Reports from the US suggest that she is planning a new prime-time TV show, probably featuring an elimination-style competition along the lines of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice.

There are also said to be plans to revive her old daily show. In our shameless celebrity culture, her disgrace is more likely to enhance viewing figures than reduce them. And words like “embarrassment”, “penitence” or “atonement” still seem to be missing from the Stewart lexicon.

THE word is that Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney-general, is planning a new assault on the financial world. The man who has already taken on Wall Street and the big insurers, and who has made clear that he will target any near-monopoly that does not have to strive too hard to make a living, is thought to be turning his thoughts to the big credit agencies, of which there are only three of any significance: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch.

Mandy’s missive

THE EU Trade Commissioner has always sent out a weekly personal diary of his or her doings to interested parties. The departing message from Pascal Lamy was particularly affecting, as he sat down with a cup of coffee and thought back on the events of his five-year term of office.

The first from Peter Mandelson has just arrived. “I hope you will accompany us as a faithful reader in our effort towards free and fair trade serving global prosperity and social justice for all, especially the poorest,” he writes. Why do I suspect these words did not emanate from the pen of the great communicator himself?

city.diary@thetimes.co.uk

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