The bastardly Mr Deedes

Schroders’ stately chairman michael Dobson faces a revolt from shareholders, who remain disquieted by his elevation from his previous £8m-a-year chief executive post. not that Dobbo, 65, will be much perturbed. He possesses one of the City’s brassiest necks, even on the tennis court where his line calls often provoke arched eyebrows over the other side of the net. ‘my Point mike’ they call him on the nobby Cirencester tennis circuit. West Ham’s wizened chairman David Gold, 81, has endured a torrid season as his club battles relegation. His greying hairs have thinned, his jowls quiver like school-canteen blancmange. ‘Sack the board’ is the common refrain around the London Stadium. So I’m intrigued to hear billionaire Blackstone managing director Albert ‘Tripp’ Smith, 52, who bought a 10pc stake in the club last autumn, attended his first board meeting last week. Says my jellied eel-scoffing mole: ‘He asked some very pertinent questions.’ Tetchy Lloyds chief Antonio Hortaosorio left his finance director George Culmer, 54, to address the media after the bank’s decent quarterly results this week. Relations between £6.4m-a-year Antonio, 54, and the press sadly remain sub-Arctic since his extra-marital escalando two years ago. matters aren’t helped that his personable communications director Fiona Laffan is departing after just 18 months. Metro Bank’s brash chairman Vernon Hill, 72, is clearly unrattled at shareholder anger over £3m-a-year payments the lender has made to wife Shirley, 65, as well as their £120,000 travel allowance. Big Vern’s ‘people’ have insouciantly tweeted a picture of the couple’s pampered doggy, Sir Duffield, reclining contentedly among the soft furnishings at Annabel’s. not much gender balance at the Co-op, which is about to hold elections for its member-nominated directors: all four of them are women. one of them is flamehaired ex-Labour Cabinet minister Hazel Blears, to whom the Co-op pays £60,000 for a two-day month. Remember our ’Azel, 61, aka The Iron Chipmunk? Her career never seemed to recover after campaigning to be deputy Labour leader in a leather biker chick outfit.