Dubai Notebook | 7 February 2013

François Hollande rolled into town for the World Future Energy Summit here recently, but hardly anyone noticed. There is little enthusiasm for his thoughts on clean energy deployment. In any case, in Dubai we prefer D-list celebs to A-list politicians. Just over a year ago, Kim Kardashian brought Dubai to a virtual standstill for two days when she opened a shop called Millions of Milkshakes, and bagged £125,000 for her troubles. But that doesn’t mean politicians can’t make money here. Local media reports that Gordon Brown earned £75,000 for a speech in the UAE last year, disclosed in the Register of MPs’ Interests. Not as good as Kim’s rate, but not bad. I get a call from Sheeraz Hassan, the owner of Millions of Milkshakes. ‘You seen that story? Is that Gordon Brown bloke still famous? I’m thinking of bringing him out to Dubai, what do you think?’ he asks. ‘He would probably come,’ I reply, adding: ‘I think he’s still promoting his book Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation.’