The dastardly Mr. Deedes

British American Tobacco’s proposed £38bn mega-merger with US partner Reynolds prompts speculation that Britain’s Imperial Tobacco might seek a deal with Japan Tobacco International. I’d pay good money to see what famously male-centric Japanese bosses make of Imperial’s no-nonsense boss Alison Cooper. Salty, £1.9m-a-year Alison, 50, drives a Porsche Carrera, drinks pints of Guinness and enjoys chuffing on Cuban cigars. Standard Chartered’s American boss Bill Winters declared his bank’s performance ‘not yet acceptable’ after worse-thanexpected earnings yesterday. There’s been plenty of tough talk from growling, £6.3m-ayear Winters, 55, since arriving last year. He issued a rollocking in June to Standard’s 1,500 managers over their misconduct, including excessive expenses. Though some do struggle to find him menacing since he appeared in a fundraising video for the Young Vic Theatre, exposing his waxed chest and singing in quivering falsetto. Credit Suisse’s Ivorian boss Tidjane Thiam, 54, has slashed 5,000 jobs at the bank this year as he seeks cuts of £3.5bn by 2018. He now reveals he’s in talks with another bank about sharing backroom costs, remarking: ‘There is a lot more we can do. This is just the beginning.’ No sign yet of princely Tidjane’s frugality extending to his own rewards. He got by on £15.8m last year. Bulky, £900m hedge fund boss Crispin Odey, 57, has advised clients Britain is heading for a slump, blaming low interest rates. He says: ‘It now looks as though a rise in interest rates will be over [Governor] Mark Carney’s metaphorical dead body. We are now destined to have a recession in the UK as well as inflation.’ Plummy-voiced Odey’s experiencing his own slump. His main European fund is down 43pc this year. Apropos wry-looking Carney, 51, how close was the Bank of England Governor to George Osborne? He’s often portrayed as Osborne’s stooge after the exChancellor appointed him in 2012 on a vastly inflated £874,000 salary. Not so, says a source. Relations between the two were brusque and business-like. Carney’s staff used to titter in morning meetings at pictures of PR-conscious George’s choreographed morning runs.