The dastardly Mr Deedes

British airways’ bearded el capitano alex Cruz is ridiculed by Jack Straw over his disappearing act during the airline’s bank holiday meltdown. Writing to the Times, the former foreign secretary says that, during a ministerial crisis, ‘rule one is to face the music’. Might plucky Jack be touting for a spot of corporate advisory work? due to an unfortunate ‘cash for access’ scandal in 2011, his postpolitical career path has hardly been paved with corporate gold a la Blair, Mandelson and Campbell. Beard alert: Disgraced ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond was spotted at the AGM of his London-listed investment vehicle, Atlas Mara, fashioning greying, goatee-style chin fluff. He looks absurd, but when did oily Bob, 65, ever do dignity? re Ba’s woeful response to the IT crisis, the forthright verdict of brooding ulsterman david Burnside, 65, head of the airline’s public relations during Lord King’s 1980s heyday: ‘an unmitigated disaster. during any crisis, senior management need to be on the ground, rallying staff. The chief executive wasn’t visible for three days. Wrong, wrong, wrong…’ Ed Balls’s revelation that Gordon Brown was flummoxed by the fancy cuisine during his fateful meeting with Tony Blair at Granita restaurant (‘What’s polenta?’) reminds a City acquaintance of a dinner he arranged for Brown during the International Monetary Fund conference, unwisely held in a trendy Washington restaurant. He recalls: ‘Gordon refused to eat anything on the menu. The chef had to knock him up steak and chips.’ Everything’s a ‘Jenga tower’ nowadays, isn’t it? dusty Lloyds chairman Lord Blackwell insists there’ll be no ‘Jenga tower’ collapse of the City after Brexit. Blackwell’s HSBC counterpart douglas Flint used the same analogy to describe job losses back in January. The popular game Jenga was launched in 1983 by former marketing consultant, now multi-millionaire, Leslie Scott, with the help of a £30,000 loan. Secured from Lloyds, as it goes.