MURDOCH NO-SHOW AT GRANDEES GATHERING
THE SELECT Committee hearing into the News of the World phone hacking scandal took precedence over RLM Finsbury’s annual party for News Corp heir James Murdoch, a guest at the event in previous, happier, times.
But the day’s invigilator, John Whittingdale MP, did make it after the day’s ordeal to the Millbank venue, where a fleet of cars – Jaguars and Bentleys for some; Addison Lee for the more thrifty – dropped off chairman Roland Rudd’s FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 guests.
Former business secretary Peter Mandelson and former BP boss Tony Hayward caught up on the antics of their yacht-loving associates, while the City was represented by RBS CEO Stephen Hester, former Lloyds chairman Sir Victor Blank and Citi rainmaker David Wormsley, back at the bank after a sabbatical in South America to recover from his struggle over EMI with Terra Firma boss Guy Hands.
On the political front, development minister Alan Duncan mocked the moustache-growing efforts of James Landale of the BBC, who is sponsoring Duncan’s partner James Dunseath for Movember, while former culture secretary Ben Bradshaw crossed paths with his successor to the culture brief Jeremy Hunt.
Meanwhile, Myles Lee, the CEO of CRH, which has changed its primary listing from Ireland to London in anticipation of a move to the FTSE 100, had made the journey from Ireland. All being well, the building materials giant should enter the FTSE 100 “about halfway up” in mid-December, said Lee. “We tick all the right boxes,” Lee told The Capitalist.