Group hugs for Ken, Mandy and George?

cityspy@eveningstandard.co.uk
21.01.2009

At least new shadow Business Secretary Kenneth Clarke and his ministerial counterpart Lord Mandelson have one thing in common. The pair are involved in the secretive Bilderberg Group, the hush-hush network of international business and political leaders that meets for occasional conferences. Clarke records in the Commons' Register of Members' Interests that he went to the Bilderberg conference in Virginia last summer. Like freemasons, Bilderberg members traditionally look out for each other. But that's not always the case — just ask another British politician who was invited to that select gathering in Virginia. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, subsequently discovered what a mistake it was to cross Mandy on holiday in Corfu...
Ken Clarke's bank manager will be hoping he doesn't have to cut back too heavily on his after-dinner engagements. A recent speech to UBS netted him between £5000 and £10,000. Talks to Goldman and BGC International paid him up to £5000 a go.

A motto for Obama: it's the plumbing, stupid


Obama madness. Millionaire pipe-fixer Charlie Mullins, the Pimlico Plumber, received a call from CBS. Would he like to record a message for Barack Obama? The US producers presumably chose him as an English version of Joe the Plumber, who briefly dominated the election campaign. Mullins duly asked that the new man sort out the US and world economy as quickly as possible.


Which British companies might do well in Barack Obama's New America? Spotted among the 2000 special guests selected to attend the inauguration of the 44th US President was one Paul Lester, chief executive of the FTSE 250 military and civil outsourcing company VT Group.
Who says there's no money in financial PR these days? Business must be booming at FTI, the US parent of London's Financial Dynamics. It has agreed to sponsor golf champ Padraig Harrington by having its name printed on his cap. The small logo followed by three letters is reckoned to cost FTI a cool $2.5 million (£1.8 million) over three years. Harrington, who has won back-to-back Opens, is good with numbers — he is a qualified accountant. So he knows a gift horse when he sees one.


To Snakes and Ladders indoor children's playground at Syon Park, not a well-known City hangout, but increasingly popular with the banking fraternity. Normally, it is frequented by the 4x4-driving wives of rich City types and their offspring. On Monday, the waiting area was littered with alpha males staring at their BlackBerries and ruffling through the business sections of the papers. City Spy's man in the ball pool says: “All redundant. That one's from Merrill, that one's from Lehman and he's from Goldman . Their wives send them here with the kids.”