The Reporter

The Reporter

Class war: Here's one that will tug the heartstrings of many a Guardian reader: the average IT professional, architect and journalist can now no longer afford to educate their child privately. The 43% rise in private school fees since 2000 means they now swallow up more than a third of average gross earnings. As a result, there are now 19 occupations where the typical worker can no longer afford to send their child to private school unless they have other sources of income or nestegg cash they can dip into - up from nine in 2000. Other "excluded" professions include pharmacists and scientists, says Halifax Financial Services. Not many people will be surprised by its revelation that fewer than 10% of nurses can afford to send a child to a private school.

Let call: Former Wimbledon tennis champion Goran Ivanisevic was in London this week to promote Croatia as a "fly-to-let" investment. Ivanisevic, who won the men's singles title in 2001 and is arguably Croatia's most famous export, was guest of honour at a presentation evening held to plug a new development of 336 apartments located at a resort in the Adriatic town of Novi Vinodolski. UK estate agent Winkworth is targeting British overseas property investors and will doubtless be highlighting the fact that easyJet and Ryanair have started, or are about to start, flying to Croatia.

Camera shy? "We're the stars of CCTV, Can't you see the.....continued below

Advertisement starts

---

---

Advertisement ends

camera loves me?" sang Brit rockers Hard-Fi on the title track of their album Stars of CCTV. They're right about the first bit anyway: on average, an individual appears on around 300 different CCTV screens every day, according to home improvements firm Everest. It reckons as many as 500,000 people are considering installing security cameras at home to protect their property.

Roll over, Beethoven: An online insurance service designed specifically for classical music lovers was launched this week. The new service, called Macfarlane Affinity (go to macaffinity. co.uk), is offering home, health and travel insurance with features designed to appeal to music fans, including travel cover with up to £500 for concert and theatre tickets if a trip has to be cancelled. Two music charities, The Musicians Benevolent Fund and Music for Youth, will receive a donation every time a policy is sold.

Wonder walls: With his bushy eyebrows, he's the spit of Lady Penelope's butler Parker, so perhaps it's appropriate that Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher is reportedly considering splashing out on a futuristic £4m pad called Thunderbird. The house in the exclusive Sandbanks area of Dorset has been modelled on the TV puppets' Tracy Island HQ. It boasts a striking semi-circular roof, a high-tech cinema room and an outdoor swimming pool that's perfect for driving the Rolls-Royce into.

Who wants to be ... Ernie will make five people millionaires in December to celebrate 50 years of premium bonds. That month there will be three extra £1m jackpots on top of the usual two - and a second anniversary draw offering five chances to win £1m will be held in June 2007. But don't spend it just yet; National Savings & Investments says the odds of £1,000 worth of bonds winning one of the jackpot prizes during one of those two months will improve from 16m-to-one to ... 6.5m-to-one.