Skunk:
I almost bought a Body Shop t-shirt today, but then
cog:
Oh whoah.
Skunk:
I thought I’d better spend sixteen pounds somewhere else.
cog:
I don’t know what your fascination with the Body Shop is.
Skunk:
I like it, I just think it’s really
cog:
What is your fascination wi-
Skunk:
It’s really, you know, it’s a good thing. I mean, not the charity
cog:
It’s a sad place.
cog:
I find Anita Roddick irritating, and I find that... I find the Body Shop’s too
expensive.
Skunk:
I don’t I don’t care about I like Ian McGlinn, that’s what I like.
cog:
Who?
Skunk:
Ian McGlinn.
cog:
Oh that bloke, yeah.
Skunk:
I think he should have more of my money.
Laughter.
Skunk:
I think he should have all my money.
cog:
Do you know this bloke eh he’s talking about? Explain eh this
Skunk:
Ian McGlinn was eh, I think it was 1978 when, she already had a Body Shop
probably in Little- oh no in Brighton that’s where it was and she was about to
open her second one in... eh Chichester and she needed four grand, and one of
the people that worked for her said that her boyfriend was a garage mechanic
who had four grand to spare.
cog:
Oh. I’ve read this.
Skunk:
In the Sunday Times?
cog:
Was it the Sunday Times I read this?
cog:
A couple of weeks ago they had the, yeah.
Skunk:
Yeah. The list of the three hundred richest people in Britain.
cog:
No, I’ll tell you where I read this. I read this last night on the train. Some
old woman who lives in Glasgow in this tenement is... this guy’s aunt
Skunk:
You’re kidding.
cog:
and she’s really, she lives in this tiny little room.
Skunk:
Where did you read this in?
cog:
I’m trying to think...
Skunk:
Because I’m fascinated by this guy.
cog:
It’s either in the, I’ve got it at home wherever it is.
Skunk:
Oh great... Tell me more about his eh his aunt.
cog:
Well it was just a very brief thing about, she lives in
cog:
So she’s basically living in a scummy flat and he’s worth four hundred and
eighty million pounds.
cog:
She hasn’t seen him since he was seven. She remembers him as a lovely boy
Skunk
(laughing): Like Ian Brady’s mother does.
cog:
and he was very, you know, a very poor family, and then they moved down south
and
Skunk:
Uh-huh.
cog:
she never heard from him again.
cog:
It is an amazing story though, sure.
cog:
But now he’s now he’s ehm... extremely wealthy.
cog:
Well he he’s worth four
Skunk:
Four hundred and eighty million. He’s worth more than Anita Roddick and
her husband are.
cog:
Why’s that?
Skunk:
Because he has a larger share in the Body Shop than they do.
cog:
Well he he got fifty per cent of the Body Shop shares, whereas Anita Roddick
has probably got, what, twenty per cent or something?
Skunk:
No I I think it’s something like fo-
cog:
What forty?
Skunk:
It’s something like that, forty seven per cent or something.
cog:
He has?
Skunk:
They have.
cog:
They have. Right.
cog:
Hmmm.
Skunk:
Whatever.
cog:
But I just think it was like... yeah I mean
Skunk:
Just sheer
cog:
Just signing this contract.
Skunk:
serendipity or felicity or whatever.
cog:
Well, I mean, it could have all gone horribly wrong as well.
cog:
Exactly yeah.
Skunk:
But it’s just that I was fascinated reading
cog:
I think that kind of wealth is disgusting because it’s
Skunk:
One of one of the
cog:
Especially when it’s just like
cog:
There’s no there’s no reason for, and, he hasn’t earned it.
cog:
Especially when it’s just like, it’s just lending money to somebody and then
suddenly it becomes worth
cog:
Yeah.
cog:
half a billion pounds.
cog:
He he shouldn’t have the, that amount of money.
Skunk:
Oh come on you, I mean, what would you do if you had it? Would you turn
it over to
cog:
I’d give it away. I wouldn’t need four hundred and eighty million how much
would how- You wouldn’t need that. I would only need I would need a million and
I could live for the rest of my life on a million, and I’d give the rest...
I’d, I don’t know what I’d do but I’d have to sit down, it’d be a lifetime, I’d
have to set up a company to give away the money because it’s so difficult.
cog:
This man doesn’t nee- If he’s got four hundred and eighty million he doesn’t
touch that, he just lives off the interest.
Skunk:
I know he does, yeah.
cog:
Well we we were working out what the interest was, it’s well over a million a
year
cog:
Yeah.
cog:
which is ridiculous.
cog:
So, what’s the rest of the money doing?
cog:
Just sitting.
Skunk:
I don’t know.
cog:
It’s just sitting there gathering dust when
cog:
Well no but he can do what he wants, I mean
cog:
I know.
cog:
if he wants to buy a country...
Laughter.
Skunk:
Australia.
cog:
Lichtenstein.
cog:
It is strange though I must say.
cog:
It is obscene.
Skunk:
One of the one of the... newspapers ran a competition for people who had
spotted him, because he’s so reclusive, he doesn’t
cog:
Is he?
Skunk:
and he doesn’t do interviews, he’s never been photographed or whatever, you
know
cog:
Not surprising, I mean
Skunk:
and his ex-wife
cog:
I thought he jets around all over the world.
Skunk:
who used to be on the Body Shop committee, she got in touch with him to find
out who should, because there was a prize of a bottle of champagne. There I
think there were three replies to the competition.
cog:
Hold on if if he’s got shares in the Body Shop and that’s all he’s got shares
in, what happens if the Body Shop collapses? He goes bankrupt.
cog:
Yes well I mean it was always a it was always a risk.
cog:
But what if it happens now? Does he lose all his money?
cog:
No because he’ll sell his shares. I mean, the Body Shop won’t collapse just
like that. The Body Shop may start making a loss, and then he’ll gradually
start
cog:
You never know, something might happen.
