The dastardly Mr Deedes
■ Cerebral ex-Bank of England deputy governor Sir Paul Tucker, 59, who lost out to Mark Carney, 52, for the top job in 2012, is releasing a book, Unelected Power: The Quest For Legitimacy In Central Banking And The Regulatory State. One for the purists possibly, though the book carries a ringing endorsement from Carney’s predecessor, Lord King, 69, who describes it as a ‘must a read’. My Threadneedle Street source sighs: ‘If only Merv had shown similar enthusiasm for Paul’s candidacy for Governor.’
■ Thomas Cook’s £1.2m a-year boss Peter Fankhauser put in a reassuring performance on Radio 4 yesterday as he explained why he’s resuming holidays to Tunisia following the 2015 massacre. Appearing alongside Allen Pembroke, 61, who was on the beach that fateful day, the heavily-accented Swissman, 57, was a model of delicate sensitivity. It helps that he’s less haughty than predecessor Harriet Green, 56, whose handling of the death of two British children in Corfu in 2006 is considered a low watermark in the firm’s public relations.
■ Gruff Amstrad mogul Lord Sugar, 70, dined this week at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s garish Palm Beach resort. He reports: ‘It was excellent. I had the Trump wedge salad.’ Perhaps when Trump visits Britain he’ll visit Sheesh, the Turkish kebab restaurant his Lordship owns in leafy Chigwell.
■ The Department of Work & Pensions enraged social media yesterday after tweeting a warning to benefits cheats: ‘Don’t ruin Valentine’s Day by failing to declare your true circumstances.’ No doubt DWP minister Esther McVey, 50, will rebuke whoever’s responsible for distributing such a crassly opportunistic missive. Unmarried Esther’s cubby hole, one suspects, is overflowing this morning with flattering billets-doux.
■ A visitor to the Financial Conduct Authority’s Canary Wharf offices yesterday says hanging in the lobby are framed lyrics to the Bob Dylan song Positively 4th Street. Considering the kicking the FCA’s getting over its farcical report on RBS’s Global Restructuring Group, wouldn’t the words to the curmudgeonly crooner’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall be more appropriate?
Have you any gossip for our City diary? Email: mrdeedes@dailymail.co.uk