The dastardly Mr. Deedes

Metro Bank’s Chairman Vernon Hill was spotted lunching this week in the Devonshire Club, the ultra-smart new City haunt funded by Lord Ashcroft. The cheerfully hammy Californian, 70, was accompanied by his beloved Yorkshire terrier, Sir Duffield, who sat obediently on a next door chair, nibbling quietly on Scottish-reared steak. Hill named the handsome pooch after a Yorkshire village – not combustible investment tycoon John Duffield, 77, a considerably more fearsome beast than Sir Duffy, with less regard for social niceties. Disgraced ex-Barclays boss Bob Diamond has been booked as a speaker at a dullsounding Africa investors summit in New York this autumn. Dear me, a far cry from those glamorous days handing over the Premiership trophy to Chelsea. Bumptious Bob now lives a more humble existence, taking the subway each day to a sparse office in Midtown Manhattan where he runs his fledgling investment company Atlas Mara. His head still sports an impressive thatch which, curiously for a man of 64, remains devoid of a single grey hair. Left-wing economist and academic David Blanchflower is an incessant doom monger. Strains of Beethoven’s Fifth strike up whenever the leather-elbowed comrade picks up his quill. Despite recent encouraging figures, he insists Britain is heading for reces- sion. Blanchflower, 64, is particularly critical of the Bank of England, where he worked for three years on the Monetary Policy Committee. When he left in 2009, I’m told Threadneedle Street staff were not exactly flinging themselves into the Thames in anguish. Mobile phone provider EE has joined forces with BT Sport to produce a sports app, which they plan to promote using more toe-curling ads featuring Hollywood heart throb Kevin Bacon. Why does the former Alister humiliate himself in this way? Perhaps because he lost most of his savings in con artist Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Bacon said the sum involved represented ‘many, many years of work’. Bespoke bookmaker Fitzdares is expanding, taking over fellow private turf accountant Sunderlands. Mayfair-based Fitzdares is not some spit-and-sawdust punting shop. Clients come on referral only. Wealthy backers include cheery fund manager Ben Goldsmith, 35, and ex-chancellor George osborne’s mischievous uncle James osborne, 70. Couldn’t the latter find a berth for his out-on-his-ear nephew?