The dastardly Mr Deedes
Should Fred Goodwin’s battle with Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders over his £12bn rights issue ever get to court, there’s another outstanding commitment he’s expected to honour. According to Ian Fraser’s lively book Shredded, Fred once promised representatives believed to be working for reclusive millionaire Trevor hemmings, an RBS investor, that if the rights issue failed he’d drink a bottle of Tabasco hot sauce. I’m told shareholders have a jumbo-sized bottle of the peppery stuff that they plan to present to Goodwin.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s remarks in an email about one of his late predecessors Sir Eddie George consuming three Martinis before lunchtime, while made inadvertently to a prankster, were in poor taste. Like Lord (Mervyn) King before him, Carney, 52, only serves water at official lunches. But wouldn’t you take three-Martinis Eddie over no-Martinis Carney?
Apropos Sir eddie’s fondness, ed Balls recalled a lunch when he accompanied Gordon Brown to Threadneedle Street. After the governor kicked off with a Martini, several bottles of excellent Bordeaux were produced which Balls and his fellow Treas- ury wonks could not resist. According to Balls: ‘Gordon, rather more puritan about life and lunchtimes, would gaze at us as we quaffed the claret with a face that said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”’
The City is well represented in this year’s Magnolia Cup, a ladies-only charity race held at Glorious Goodwood in August. Harvey Nichols’ plucky marketing director Shadi Halliwell has agreed to ride, as has ex-Talk Talk Thumbelina, Dido Harding, 49. Also in the starting gate will be former Bank of England chief operating officer Charlotte Hogg, 46, who’ll hope to stay in the saddle longer than her recent short-lived stint as deputy governor.
Sage City commentator William Keegan is to release a memoir on his 50 years covering the economy. Keegan, 78, has certainly supped with the great and the good. An ex-editor sighs: ‘I often had to get a junior reporter to physically extract Bill from The Garrick Club to write his column.’