The dastardly Mr Deedes
Speaking on the anniversary of the banking crisis to the BBC, former Chancellor Alistair Darling – now a Morgan Stanley board member – praised Gordon Brown’s leadership during the 2007 meltdown. How gracious. Darling fell out with Brown in 2008, claiming Downing Street ‘unleashed the forces of hell’ on him after he issued a stern warning about the recession. The soft-spoken ex-Trot’s redoubtable wife Maggie complained to friends: ‘The f***ing c***s are trying to stitch up Alistair! The c***s! I can’t believe they’re such c***s!’ Re the banking crisis, Sky News yesterday grabbed an interview at the Edinburgh Festival with former British Bankers’ Association chairman Angela Knight, who always insisted errant bankers shouldn’t be prosecuted. Fittingly, bossy Angela, 66, was clutching a pair of tickets to The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, a play about Judas finally being put on trial 2,000 years after his crime. Private equity firm Kildare Partners is touting for recruits to the Carnegie Club, which gives members the run of Skibo Castle’s beautiful 3,000-acre estate. Members, which includes ‘CEOs, oil tycoons, and aristocrats’, currently pay £8,000 a year on top of £25,000 to join the exclusive club. Skibo, near Dornoch in northern Scotland, was once home to industrialist Andrew Carnegie, though bohemian types will be more impressed that Madonna chose it for her ill-fated 2000 wedding to Guy Ritchie. The interruption of poor, blameless Sophie Raworth’s recent News at Ten broadcast by a pair of naked breasts appearing on a background screen, recalls a similar incident involving Aussie banker David Kiely seven years ago. Kiely, who worked for Aussie bank Macquarie, was caught during a Channel 7 bulletin ogling images of brassiere model Miranda Kerr. The libidinous rascal looked destined for the sack until saucy Miranda signed a petition on his behalf. Former Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore denies claims in the Italian media that his marriage to gorgeous Italian presenter Elisabetta Gregoraci, 37, is in trouble. Rakish Flavio, 67, whose previous conquests include turbo-charged supermodels Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum, puts scurrilous reports linking him to an attractive blonde assistant down to ‘the crazy heat of the summer’. Naturalmente!