Fake 198

Fake 198 is a pocket on a tweed jacket. The sales assistant did not think to remove the tacking that shut all the pockets and when BH got around to untacking yesterday, she found that this pocket was not a pocket at all. A fake, very much in the way of a lot of architectural trim which echoes building practise of some bygone era.

The jacket came from a shop which was more or less opposite the Grand Temple of the Masons in Great Queen Street, although, as far as I know, Masons, when on the square, always wear black suits or black jackets with striped trousers. The name of the shop is presumably a deliberate - if curious - echo of the once famous asset stripper, Slater Walker, of reference 1. Web site of the shop at reference 2.

A jacket which, rather than from anywhere near the River Tweed (in the far north), actually came from Portugal.

A shop which rather aped a gentlemen's outfitter of old, say the Lester Bowden late of Epsom or the shops which were cut from the same cloth and which were once to be found in Trinity Street and King's Parade in Cambridge. Don't know if they are still there, but they were past their prime by the time I got to know them in the 1980s. Sadly, the aping did not run to the little books with carbon paper in which the sales assistants - mostly knowledgeable, older men - recorded their sales. Or to the older men come to that.

While just this morning, I read something about an expat who lives in Bangkok, who has made a lot of money out of trading in aviation fuel and crypto money, which last some people might call fake money. Money which is driven in some large part by the desire of criminals and others with hot money to be able to hold and move money about without it being visible to the authorities, not least the policemen and the taxmen. An expat who has given money to various causes, but a great deal to Reform UK - with Farage having been, as I believe, another commodity trader. See reference 3.

I learn also that the expat is related in some way to the R. C. Sherriff who provided the entertainment noticed at reference 4.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slater_Walker. I had forgotten that it went bust in the mid 1970s, a going bust which led to criminal charges.

Reference 2: https://www.walkerslater.com/.

Reference 3: Farage's mystery money man: Who is Christopher Harborne, the crypto billionaire bankrolling Reform UK - Tom Burgis, the Guardian - 25th April 2026.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-hopkins-manuscript.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/04/fake-197.html.

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