The dastardly Mr Deedes
Bookmaker Betway has suspended betting on the next governor of the Bank of England after a weight of money was placed on Financial Conduct Authority boss Andrew Bailey. The application process hasn’t even begun so what’s piqued punters’ interest? The decision rests with Chancellor Philip Hammond, and it’s hard to imagine him blabbing to anyone outside the Treasury. Nor his Chief Secretary, Liz Truss, though she was once described as an ‘inveterate giggler and gossiper’. Following his horse Tiger Roll’s Grand National victory on Saturday, skinflint Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary uncharacteristically treated fellow passengers aboard the Dublin-bound flight from Liverpool to one free drink each. The bar tab was estimated at £1,000. Prize money accrued by O’Leary’s Gigginstown racing operation last week was nearly £700,000. Tesla founder Elon Musk is irked by a report in The Economist claiming the as yet unprofitable tech firm’s future is ‘close to perilous’. He tweets: ‘The Economist used to be boring, but smart with a wicked dry wit. Now it’s just boring (sigh).’ Odd cove Musk, 46, is a brilliant engineer. But I’m sensing a little fragility. Opinionated Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin, 62, has scrapped the pub chain’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. He claims it’s due to the recent data protection scandal, but in truth his firm never got much of a grip on social media. When it once replied to a customer tweet complaining of slow service in one of its pubs, she responded: ‘I wrote that five years ago.’ Labour peer Lord Adonis is becoming increasingly erratic over Brexit. His slender gills foam with righteous indignation, his Twitter feed a churning blast furnace of moral outrage. One week, he tweeted 72 times to accuse the BBC of proBrexit bias. He admits all his huffing and puffing has taken its toll, confiding to Financial News: ‘I am all over the place at the moment.’ Perhaps it’s time his Lordship, 55, adjourned to a darkened room with some soothing whale sounds before he does himself any lasting damage.