The dastardly Mr Deedes

Serpentine ex-business secretary Lord Mandelson is named president of the German-British Forum, an elite networking organisation for pro-EU business types. His Lordship enjoys a string of these loftysounding posts. He’s president of the Great Britain China Centre, High Steward of Kingston-upon-Hull and Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University. That’s on top of his remunerated roles as adviser to Lazard and running his modestly-named consultancy firm, Global Counsel. Busy little fellow, isn’t he? After the collapse of the London Stock Exchange’s £21bn merger with Deutsche Boerse, what now for touchy LSE boss Xavier Rolet? He was due to retire from his £6.6m-a-year role after the deal. A political career back in France was mooted, but the surprise emergence of Emmanuel Macron as presidential favourite may complicate matters. While economics minister, Monsieur Macron was openly hostile towards Rolet’s LSE deal, reckoning it would thwart Paris’s ambitions as a financial centre. The opportunity for ‘lunch and advice’ with bijou TalkTalk boss Dido Harding fetches £120 in a fundraising auction for the Countryside Alliance. A rather modest sum. It’s possible Dido’s business counsel has depreciated in value somewhat since announcing plans to quit the troubled telecoms firm in May. Too much information, perhaps, from insurer Hiscox’s imposing, South African-born chief executive Bronek Masojada, who muses: ‘I lie in my bath at night and think that one day the London Market business will reprice.’ Odd chap, Bronek, 54. He once took his wife and five children on a family holiday to North Korea as a special treat. Sunday night’s Oscar fiasco is yet another feather in the cap for accountant PwC, which is held responsible for the cock-up. Previous black marks include its auditing of now defunct BHS and failed lender Northern Rock. It also failed to spot a multi-million pound black hole in Tesco’s accounts two years ago. The firm’s recent chairman, mild-mannered Ian Powell, 60, still managed to snatch a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours list.