The dastardly Mr Deedes
Pleased-with-himself ex-Financial Services Authority chairman lord (Adair) Turner, 62, was due to give a seminar at Civitas next Tuesday, but the thinktank’s director David Green angrily informs attendees: ‘Adair Turner has asked his secretary to email us cancelling the seminar. She gave as his reason that he needs to advance the work of a report they are preparing at the Energy Transitions Commission. Anyone with a shred of personal integrity would have felt an obligation to keep his word, but I am sorry to say that lord Turner does not appear to think that way. I sincerely apologise for wasting your time.’ There the matter rests.
KPMG’s 4,000 UK auditors have been instructed to attend a compulsory three-day yoga course to help cope with their high pressure roles. Do we detect a whiff of public relations behind this harebrained wheeze? The firm is currently facing an investigation over its work for Carillion, whose numerous financial contortions are still being unravelled.
Glacial vulture fund boss Paul Singer granted a rare interview with us pundit Jim Cramer yesterday in which he tried to downplay his firm’s aggressive reputation, but admitted sometimes things can get ‘nasty’ between him and his competitors. Nasty? To paraphrase PG Wodehouse, some think the best that can be said of bearded Singer, 73, is that, so far as we know, he hasn’t actually burnt down an orphanage.
Priapic table dancing tycoon Peter Stringfellow, who has died aged 77, once charmed Prince Harry while addressing Eton’s Cosmopolitan society. ‘Is your sex life as good as they say it is?’ Harry asked cheekily. Replied Stringy: ‘It’s certainly a heck of a lot better than all of yours.’ The bottle- blond boulevardier had been invited to speak about ‘Glamour, Glitz and G-Strings’ on the proviso he didn’t wear one his trademark leopardskin shirts.
Finally, a heartwarming tale of capitalism in action: As the london Stock Market cranked to a halt for an hour yesterday following an outage, I’m told an enterprising group of brokers filled their time taking bets on how many minutes would pass before the markets resumed trading.