The Foreman

He does write emails, though, and I’ve had an impressively punctilious one. And it’s fair to say I’m unlikely to be on his Christmas card list.

In an icy seven-point missive, he pointed out that “my name is Mr Geoffroy-Romain Renaud and not Geoffroy Reynaud”.

That cleared up, he adds: “We are not owned by Bouygues UK but by ETDE SA, a sister of Bouygues Construction (with ultimate shareholder Bouygues SA).”

And he took issue with my jokey suggestion that he might be too busy “counting coins” to answer the phone. Apparently, although he is indeed “busy”, all payments are wired at David Webster these days.

That’s me told.

Then again, after all that he also offered the possibility of setting up a conference call and even left his office and mobile phone numbers. Now all I have to do is pluck up the courage to pick up the phone again…