The dastardly Mr Deedes

Private Equity tycoon Damon Buffini’s knighthood, conferred in the Queen’s honours, marks a commendable image turnaround for the ex-Permira boss. Shaven-headed Buffini, 53, once dubbed Britain’s most powerful black male, was famously hauled in front of mPs in 2007 to answer queries over his industry’s opaque deals and low tax payments. Following a bust-up over his ownership of motoring firm AA, union officials interrupted his attendance at his local South London church by arriving with a camel, suggesting it would be easier for it to pass through the eye of a needle than for him to get to heaven. he has since served on the Prince of Wales’s estimable charity, The Prince’s Trust. Or ‘Project Ermine,’ as it’s jokily known among public relations types over the baubles often bestowed on its benefactors. City grandee Lord Rothschild’s unassuming daughter Hannah, chairman of the National Gallery, is tipped to one day take over the family’s £2.45bn investment trust, RIT Capital. What’s Hannah, 54, like? A divorced mother of three, she hates yachts, drives a Mini, goes to work on the Tube and ‘always turns right on aeroplanes,’ i.e joins the peasantry in cattle class. Worlds apart from her flamboyant, Gulfstream-owning brother, hedge fund boss Nat, 44, in other words. city Lawyers Kirkland & Ellis announce they will now pay newly qualified lawyers – most of them barely out of short trousers – starting salaries of £125,000 a year. Well deserved, i’m sure. The company certainly aren’t short of work. They are advising German car manufacturer Volkswagen over its mounting emissions scandal. it previously represented BP during the 2010 Gulf of mexico oil spill. BP’s lawyers’ fees were over £650m. Publicity-prone Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson will partake in a charity swim from the southern tip of Italy over to Sicily in September. To promote this latest stunt, Beardie, 65, poses bare-chested, squeezed into a turquoise ‘come hither’ mermaid outfit. Decency prevents me from sharing it. Spotted last Friday reclining among the rococo furnishings at 10 castle Street, an exclusive Dorset private members club: posturing BhS braggadocio, Dominic chappell, 49. Still recuperating from the duffingup he received from mPs two days earlier?