The dastardly Mr Deedes

HSBC’s socially conscious ex-head of investment banking John Studzinski, 61, has been honoured by Clarence House (Prince of Wales Medal), Buckingham Palace (CBE) and even the Vatican (he’s a papal knight). But the ardent Catholic has been denied a much-coveted berth in the House of Lords due to quotas on independent peers. Poor Studs. He’d look a treat in ermine. ‘Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,’ the good book says. Or indeed the House of Lords, such are these banker-bashing times. Carillion’s collapse is an embarrassment for chairman Philip Green’s establishment connections. Green, 64, is both a Downing Street adviser and chairman of Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale. Don’t confused him with combustible Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green, whose good name does not deserve to be sullied by this undignified saga. Re Carillion, farcical tales of management behaviour are already surfacing. A reader writes: ‘Back in 2011, I went for a job at Carillion as head of communications. The interview lasted just over an hour, during which time the female Human Resources rep broke wind twice and another executive present fell asleep after 30 minutes. I didn’t get the job and I certainly didn’t want it.’ Canadian jeweller Birks claims its website traffic rose 400pc after Prince Harry’s fiancee Meghan Markle wore a pair of its £850 diamond earrings to her engagement photo call. Can we expect Meghan to create her own ‘Markle’s Sparkles’ range of knick-knacks soon? Unlikely. Courtiers are keen to avoid the mistakes of the Duchess of York, described by the Queen’s former Private Secretary Lord Charteris as ‘Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar!’ Hedge funder Ray Dalio sounds a hard task master. Staff at his $150bn fund Bridgewater are instructed to rank each others’ performances on company-issued iPads. Any criticisms are made public, as is the name of the person who makes them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the FT reports a quarter of employees leave within their first year. ‘It’s not for everyone,’ Dalio, 68, admits sheepishly.