The dastardly Mr Deedes
Former employees of Lehman Brothers’ London offices have arranged a reunion next month to mark the tenth anniversary of the bank’s collapse. Shadow chancellor John Mcdonnell predictably describes the event to Financial News as ‘sickening’. In a timely reminder of when Labour’s front bench featured some grown-ups, ex-chancellor Alistair Darling sighs: ‘honestly, of all the problems we face today, frankly a bunch of people having a glass of wine is the least of them.’
Aldi’s recently anointed UK boss, old Harrovian Giles Hurley, isn’t one to veer off-message. Asked by The Caterer what his greatest career regret was, he says: ‘That I didn’t join the business sooner.’ His business idol? ‘My greatest admiration tends to be for the people in our organisation.’ Death Row meal? ‘It’s got to be Aldi Specially Selected ribeye steak with our Specially Selected chips.’ No wonder Aldi’s fuhrers have taken to him.
It never rains but it pours for erratic Tesla pioneer elon musk. Following his car crash interview with the New york Times last week, there’s speculation that his relationship with Bride-of-Frankenstein girlfriend, Canadian rapper Grimes, 30, is off. Any evidence? Well, elon’s just ‘unfol- lowed’ his bohemian inamorata on Instagram. In our social media- obsessed age that basically equates to splitsville.
Superdry founder Julian Dunkerton’s £1m donation to help fight for a second referendum is odd. Even Remainer William Hague admits holding a second ballot would be logistically impossible before the March deadline on EU membership. Dunkerton, 53, has dipped his toe in politics before, standing unsuccessfully as a Labour councillor in Cheltenham at 21. He decided to concentrate on selling clothes which he’s proved rather better at.
A torrid few days last week for still state-owned RBS, which came bottom in a banking quality survey. humdrum boss Ross mcewan then clumsily threatened to move tens of billions worth of business out of the uK because of Brexit. All hands to the pump in the bank’s press office, then? Not really. Calls to RBS’s edinburgh hQ at the end of last week were informed they clock off at 4pm on a Friday.