The dastardly Mr Deedes

Bank of England governor mark Carney is curiously yet to feature on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Considering the nonentities on each week, it’s inconceivable Carney hasn’t been asked. one can only assume Bank of England wallahs have advised the governor against it for now, which I doubt he’ll have liked. The vain booby’s probably itching to let us know which voguish tracks he’s listening to on his iPod.

Lofty RBS chairman Sir Howard Davies, 71, informs readers of the Financial Times that while working in the Foreign Office he once chaperoned David Bowie and fellow rocker Iggy Pop across the East German border. ‘I escorted them through Checkpoint Charlie, drank rather a lot of indifferent wine, and escorted them back safely to the West as dusk fell. No one we encountered had the slightest idea who they were.’ How many boardrooms do you reckon Sir Howard’s bored with this humdinger?

Credit suisse director Philip Bunce is not your run o’ the mill faceless banker. Primarily known around the bank’s Canary Wharf offices as Phil, on some days he puts on a skirt and high heels, arrives as his alter ego ‘Pippa’ Bunce, who’s married to a woman and has two grown up children, says his colleagues are ‘entirely supportive’ of this dual identity. The IT bods have even made him a special security pass showing Phil/Pippa in both guises.

Lloyds’ new ad, which shows the bank’s famous black horse galloping across the British Isles, features a cover version of the song Praise You by DJ Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook. Presumably Cook, 54, once a member of the staunchly socialist band The Housemartins, gave his permission. He tried to stop Tony Blair from playing the tune at Labour conference, but then mere ‘performance royalties’ are considerably smaller than adverts.

We’re barely in october and Boots has irritated traditionalists by releasing their Christmas sandwich range. They include ‘Turkey Bacon, stuffing & Cranberry’ or ‘Parsnip fritter and butternut squash.’ Utterly unacceptable flavours at any time of year if you ask me.