The Dadstardly Mr Deedes
UK Finance chief Stephen Jones, who’s caused a stink by claiming banks shouldn’t foot the bill for compensating fraud victims, is a contender for the chief executive’s office at TSB. his CV reads well – senior positions at Santander, Citigroup and Barclays. While at the latter, he caught the eye of Bob Diamond who encouraged him to dye his grizzled locks. Rascally Bob confided with one of his trademark wolfish grins: ‘Mine’s straight outta the bottle.’
Patisserie Valerie’s potentially fraudulent accounting scandal is embarrassing for chairman and majority shareholder, Luke Johnson, who claimed only last May the firm had a ‘strong balance sheet’. Doubly so, since the fingers-in-every-pie entrepreneur’s newspaper column last month confidently advised readers: ‘How to spot the next swindle.’ Johnson is said to be paid £100,000 for his highly readable musings.
Unilever chief Paul Polman will be hurt
by revelations he’s based in tax-friendly Switzerland. The self-styled humanitarian once said he was ashamed of his £10.3m remuneration and would do the job for free. his pal, U2 warbler and anti-poverty camn paigner Bono, felt similarly bruised when it was revealed he repatriated £500m to the Netherlands to avoid tax on royalties. Perhaps a heart-rending duet from these poor, misunderstood souls is in order?
Re. tax, carrot-topped pop hobbit Ed Sheeran handed over more money to the Exchequer last year (£5.29m) than Paypal (£4.13m). Extraordinary, no?
economist and ex-Monetary Policy Committee member David Blanchflower’s Twitter continues to foam with anger. he’s called Michael Gove a ‘clueless backstabber’, the Tories ‘evil’ and Melania Trump ‘a bloody idiot’. Yesterday, he said a speech on wages by the Bank of england’s polite chief economist Andy haldane was embarrassing, idiotic and clueless. Surely Twitter’s not good for his blood pressure?
Goldman Sachs partner Dina Powell is favourite to be Donald Trump’s next UN ambassador. Sharp-as-a-tack Powell, 45, was briefly a White House security adviser before returning to Goldman, and is one of the few members of Trump’s staff Democrats respect. The Donald would much rather appoint daughter Ivanka.