The bloke who is really Apple's design genius has had a gutsful of the Apple way of life and is pining for Blighty.

Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, is rumoured to be packing his bag and heading back to the land of driving rain, warm beer and where the trains don't run on time. The reason is that he really likes the UK and really does not like Apple's hallowed ground in Cappuccino.

Ive received an option grant in 2008 that’s now worth $US30 million, and if he sold that stock, his combined net worth would be $US128 million. So really he does not need much more cash.

He has a glowing CV too. After all it was him that came up with the iPod, iPhone, the iPad and the upcoming iPad 2 and more of the recent MacBooks and the iMacs. You would think that someone that valuable to Apple would get a bit of slack, but apparently Apple has read him the riot act.

The board has been very rude about the amount of time he spends in the UK. When it comes to churning out gadgets for fanboys and being with his two kids it seems that the board thinks that he should sacrifice them on a handy altar of Marduk for the sake of the shiny gadgets. If only there was a way that he could work from the UK and telecommute. We guess the Apple network is not up to it.

According to the Times the Board has told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them”. An Apple spokesperson told the Times that any claims of Ive wanting to move to England are “speculation” but it seems that the yarn has legs.