The dastardly Mr Deedes

hSBC’s rotund head of global banking Matthew Westerman, 52, is leaving, a memo revealed yesterday. his surprise departure is much discussed among staff. Some suggest he’s in a huff over failing to land the chief executive role ahead of hSBC lifer John Flint. Others say Westerman’s less than collegiate management style has ‘ruffled feathers’ since arriving 18 months ago. he’s a bruiser, in other words. Hewlett Packard boss Meg Whitman, who took home £27m last year, surprised analysts by saying she’s off in February. There’s loose talk the combustible executive, 61, is considering a run at the White House – unwise, considering her 2010 bid to be California governor. Despite spending £108m of her own cash on the campaign, more than four times her Democratic opponent, she was still soundly beaten. Qatar holdings says its proposed £200m redevelopment of harrods is to make the store more attractive to the Chinese. Perhaps they might remove the Diana and Dodi memorial erected by previous owner, Mohammed al-Fayed, 88, at the bottom of the escalators. Sample reviews on the Tripadvisor website by recent visitors read: ‘Cringeworthy’, ‘tacky’ and ‘appalling taste’. Donald Trump’s bullish economic adviser Gary Cohn faked a bad connection to get Donald Trump off the phone. The claim is made by Democratic senator Tom Carper, whose meeting with Cohn this month was interrupted when the president phoned. Still rambling 15 minutes later, Harper claims Cohn ended Trump’s talk by pretending the line was cracking. The White House’s predictable response: ‘Fake news!’ Philip hammond was erroneously referred to by the Daily Star yesterday as ‘Chancellor of the exchequer Philip Green.’ a terrifying thought. Though, come to think of it, Sir Philip, 65, produced a sensible report on Government waste in 2011, foolishly ignored by mandarins, which hammond could do worse than take a peek at.