The dastardly MR Deedes
Co-Op’s ghoulish boss Richard Pennycook bemoans British business culture. Successful US entrepreneurs, he says, prefer to give something back. ‘Whereas here in Blighty we have Philip Green on his yacht, sending out all the wrong signals.’ Pennycook, 62, stunned peers this year by requesting a 60pc cut to his £1.25m salary. It’s possible he and ‘Sir’ Shifty occupy rather different orbits, ethics-wise.
Have relations soured between Chancellor Philip Hammond and Theresa May? Downing Street insists not. But BlackRock’s £150,000-a-year strategist Rupert Harrison, former chief of staff to out-of-favour George Osborne, says it’s significant ‘that questions are being asked’. Significant too, perhaps, that clever-clogs Harrison, 38, feels the need to comment on Government matters. Some say Osborne and his cronies are the de facto opposition these days.
Former Institute of Directors chief Simon Walker is tipped for a role in Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade. Last month, chameleon-like Walker mocked Fox’s barbs about ‘lazy’ business leaders, telling guests at the IoD’s annual conference: ‘I am delighted to see so many of you when you could have been out on the golf course with Liam Fox.’ Presumably Whitehall Sir Humphreys were yet to approach him about the job.
EU bore Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader, argues against hard Brexit, writing: ‘The UK is home to a number of large food and drink multinationals, including Diageo, Cadbury, Associated British Foods, Tate & Lyle, Booker, and Unilever. Access to the single market has been a key motivation for these companies when deciding to base their headquarters in the UK.’ Those firms have been based here, of course, long before the single market was even invented. With a wafer-thin 2,000 majority, will Cleggy’s Sheffield constituents tire of his constant backseat whingeing?
Congratulations to the October Club, the City charity group, which raised £610,000 for The Cure Parkinson’s Trust at its annual Savoy dinner. The club was set up in 1987 by multi-millionaire Cenkos founder Andy Stewart, 65, who recalls: ‘The stock market had just crashed 33 per cent. Peter Seabrook was running Flemings, and said, “Stop moaning, there are many less fortunate than us. Let’s organise a dinner.”’ Who says bankers don’t occasionally have their uses?
Have you any gossip for our City diary? Email: mrdeedes@dailymail.co.uk