The dastardly Mr Deedes

Bank of England governor Mark Carney emerged from a light sauteing by the Treasury Select Committee yesterday with barely a hair from his immaculately coiffed head out of place. A Bank of England source says Carney finds these occasions far less taxing since the committee’s former chairman, Andrew Tyrie, stood down, and feels confident enough to appear with minimal preparation. Tyrie’s replacement, former City lawyer Nicky Morgan, likes to play to the gallery but lacks the deft touch of her more economically adroit predecessor.

Sainsbury’s audacious £14.1bn bid for rival grocer Asda was much discussed at Monday’s well-attended Chelsea Flower Show preview. Lurking among the petunias, one charismatic former supermarket chief muttered conspiratorially: ‘Of course, there’s not a cat in hell’s chance of the deal ever happening.’

Medallion-wearing property tycoon Robbie Tchenguiz surely needs his head examined for allowing the BBC into his Kensington mansion to film documentary, The Rise And Fall Of the Playboy Billionaire, which predictably focused on his complicated domesticated arrangements (he lives with his estranged wife and his 27year-old girlfriend) rather than his problems with the Serious Fraud Office. Nor, perhaps, was it wise for cash-strapped Robbie, 57, to be filmed in his Mayfair offices constantly puffing on a cigarette, which thanks to modern health and safety laws can result in a £2,500 fine.

The Church of England’s call for Royal Dutch Shell to set tougher carbon targets at the oil giant’s AGM yesterday is interesting. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, 62, should be well-versed in oil industry chicanery. He was once a high-flying junior executive at Elf Aquitaine, the French state-owned oil company which later became synonymous with corruption and scandal.