The dastardly Mr Deedes
Burberry’s mollycoddled, £4.2m-a-year ex-creative chief Christopher Bailey’s undisclosed leaving gift, costing a trifling £28,000, calls to mind Dame Marjorie Scardino’s departure from Pearson in 2012. The (then struggling) Financial Times publisher bought her a painting by the British artist Ivon hitchens worth £100,000, despite paying her over £6m in her final year. Why do the shareholders put up with such egregious profligacy? Surely a plain gold watch would suffice.
Sir Richard Branson’s updated autobiography carries a ringing cover endorsement from Chris Evans. The BBC disc jockey, 52, has reason to be grateful to old Beardie. The Virgin tycoon agreed to sell him Virgin Radio in 1997 for £85m, which Evans later sold on to Scottish Media for £225m. The ginger rascal was then dismissed following an 18-hour drinking spree culminating at one of Peter Stringfellow’s table dancing emporiums. A standard Tuesday around most brokerage houses, surely?
The annual Bilderberg Conference, a secretive – and to some, sinister – gathering of business bigwigs and politicians, kicks off in Turin today. Bank of england governor Mark Carney has decided to pop along. As have George Osborne and Amber Rudd, both out of the political swim nowadays of course, but no doubt keen to hear about new geopolitical ideas as much as possible job openings.
Shifty-looking Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander ‘ Bertie’ Nix’s indifferent appearance in front of the Commons Select Committee yesterday amuses Old Etonians of his vintage. Says one: ‘Bertie faced far worse going-overs at school. His housemaster was a strict disciplinarian called Mark Phillips, who’d scold boys just for having their shirt untucked. His initials were MTP, so was harshly known around school as the Mutant Totalitarian Pig.’
Depressing news from the geeky analysts at Commerzbank and UBS. After much data crunching, both conclude Germany will most likely win this summer’s World Cup. They have an 18pc probability of winning, apparently. england? No-hopers at 6.2pc, I’m afraid.