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I’m happy to say I’m following him.”Meanwhile, Blake’s next exhibition, “Marcel Duchamp’s World Tour”, has been postponed to October. And now her lawyers (the formidable New York firm of Shukat Arrow Hafer and Weber) are on the case.”We’ve represented Ms Minnelli for close on 10 years, and have never given permission for something like this,” her attorney, Allen H Arrow, told me yesterday. But that doesn’t make sense: experienced people are at a premium during an election.”"As far as Mr Blunkett’s concerned, I guess I needed to brush up on my nannying skills or something.”The Home Office wouldn’t comment on the case last night. But a Conservative spokesman said: “Mr Drake was indeed turned down for a visa We’re sorry to lose him. He’s a good man.”* LIZA MINNELLI’S elegant claws are about to sink into her most unlikely adversary yet: a Scottish potato grower.Yesterday, Cygnet Potato Breeders from Perthshire produced a press release touting its latest product: a new breed of spud called Cabaret, which is designed for fish and chip shops.”A cheeky ad campaign, using an image of Liza Minnelli from the film Cabaret , with chips in place of legs, is being launched to raise the profile of the potato worth making a song and dance about,” it reads.Sadly, Cygnet never actually got the permission of Ms Minnelli to use her image on their advert. “The Home Office turned me down because they said a British person could do the job. An appeal was immediately lodged, but took so long to process that Drake has now turned down the job.”There’s only so long you can have your life up in the air, so I’m staying here,” he says, from Australia.

CSFB believes the stock will underperform in the short term and set a 240p price target.Bears of Evolution Group got their paws burned as shares in the stockbroker rose 3.75p to 157p on talk it may soon unveil a share buy-back programme. The Swiss broker believes EMI was up against intense competition from rivals over Christmas and warned its clients that the surprise margin improvement the group enjoyed in the first half of its year may be reversed in the second half due to higher artists’ royalty and marketing costs. Morgan Stanley urged investors to take profits from the stock which stands close to a three-year high.Elsewhere, EMI dropped 6.5p to 263.5p as Credit Suisse First Boston suggested the music group may struggle to deliver on the 3 per cent sales growth currently expected by the bulk of the City. Barclays closed 1.5p higher at 589.5p.Emap soared 25p to 835p as Morgan Stanley was heard making very positive comments about the media group after a meeting with the company earlier in the week.

Rexam dropped 6.25p to 459.25p ­ this time the US broker is believed to have had a negative influence. St Gobain, a French rival, was also mentioned by some as a possible suitor for Pilkington.Market professionals reckon the excitement surrounding Pilkington was merely caused by investors looking for the next takeover target in the building materials sector. Call options allow investors to make a large amount of money from a sharp rise in a share price with a relatively small outlay of cash. Dealers reported heavy buying of Barclays call options amid vague whispers that a predator might be lurking for the UK banking giant. Aggregate Industries, Novar and RMC have all received bids in the past six months.Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 dropped 5.6 points to 4,818.3, while the FTSE 250 rose 31.8 to 7,088.8. At 150p a share, Pilkington would be valued at a little less than £2bn but even then it remains a relatively small player when one looks at the global glassmaking industry. Takeover speculation circledPilkington yesterday, sending shares in the glass maker surging, before falling back.

Traders piled into the stock as talk of a 150p-a-share offer for the company from Nippon Sheet Glass, its biggest shareholder, circled the Square Mile. At one point during the session Pilkington shares traded at 138.75p but they dropped back to close at 125.5p, up 7.75p, after a spokesman for the company denied the speculation.
“We are not in any discussions regarding a potential takeover” said a spokesman for the St Helen’s-based group. Wetherspoon, in common with other operators, is battling with the rising minimum wage, insurance and utility costs and has made only tentative steps to increase prices in some areas.Extended “happy hours” have incurred the wrath of the Government, which professes to be fed up with cleaning up after binge drinkers. But food is at present only 20 per cent of sales, so there is much to do to offset a drop in trade from smokers.The shares are at 16 times 2005 earnings, which is unjustified when its house broker cut 2005 forecasts by 5 per cent yesterday It is kicking out time on Wetherspoon shares Sell.. But political momentum is also gathering for a levy on the pubs industry to fund policing costs – obviously negative for the shares.Further out, Wetherspoon is likely to ban smoking in 2009 in favour of keeping its food menus. Local authorities and police are under pressure to weed out irresponsible operators and stop the discounting – a potential positive for Wetherspoon. There should have been some relief, then, that Wetherspoon’s sales were up nearly 1 per cent, like-for-like, between November and mid-January.But although people were drinking more, landlords practically have to give drink away these days and the group’s profits margins showed continued downward pressure.

If there is much further delay to the UK launch, GW’s £18m cash pile might start to look like not being enough.Avoid.Christmas slump weighs on JD WetherspoonThe christmas festivities usually make for bumper times for the high street boozer, but the way the days fell this year meant two Saturdays where venues were either quiet or closed.This meant comparisons with last year were tough for JD Wetherspoon and others, who have been struggling because of the bitter price war. Canada permits MS sufferers to use cannabis, so GW’s product will have to tempt users away from the smoked stuff. And the US is going to be tough going, with a regulator even more demanding than that in the UK.Analysts find it very hard to imagine enough sales for Sativex to justify GW’s current market valuation of £134m, let alone the price the shares are sure to jump to if approvals are forthcoming. Hold.Cannabis drug company beset by approval delaysGW Pharmaceuticals is the fascinating little company which spotted a wonderful opportunity: to develop a prescription drug from cannabis, which is widely believed to ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis It is so nearly there. Its under-the-tongue spray, Sativex, is being considered by UK regulators; Canada will allow it on the market, pending trials which prove it is effective; and even the US, which had looked a no-go zone for such a controversial product, might now be worth exploring as a market.But, but, but.The UK knocked backed the drug last year, saying more scientific work was needed. For the full year, the decline will now be slightly better than the 110 basis points previously feared.