The dastardly Mr Deedes

Chain- smoking public relations man Lord Bell, who’s advised Chilean dictator General Pinochet and Syrian First Lady asma al-assad, says of his time working as Lady Thatcher’s image consultant: ‘There were many conversations in which she shouted at me and told me I was an idiot.’ over time, one can be sure his Lordship’s been called a lot worse. The Institute of Directors’ stylish chairman Lady (Barbara) Judge, 71, reviews Mayfair’s newly opened JeanGeorges restaurant for lifestyle website Edition. Among the swanky canteen’s offerings she samples are tuna tartare (£24); warm shrimp salad (£29); pizza with black truffles (£31); roasted sea bass (£38) and roasted halibut (£28), all finished off with a green apple candy floss and elderflower mousse (£12). A footnote to her review notes pointedly: ‘Lady Judge pays all of her own expenses.’ Uber’s loathsome founder Travis Kalanick, 41, who departed last year with his £ 6bn fortune when his firm became embroiled in a string of sexual harassment scandals, is giving evidence at an intellectual property trial in San Francisco. In the witness stand on Tuesday, he gulped down four bottles of water in less than an hour. My Silicon valley source advises: ‘he’s known in these parts as Travis Colonic.’