Leftie hacks Polly Toynbee and David Walker schmoozed assorted City bankers to research their new book Unjust Rewards: Exposing the Greed and Inequality in Britain Today.

"We attended a breakfast for highnet-worth individuals organised by the Charities Aid Foundation and hosted by the Lord Mayor of London. The main speaker was Stanley Fink, chief executive of Man Group Plc, the hedge-fund managers. Charity, he made plain, is now a way to fame," they write.

"I want to talk about what charity can do for us," said Fink. "What do you do now you've got all the toys? You've already got all the houses, yachts, cars and jets you can use, so what comes next is charity."

Fink adds: "I get invited to places I'd never have seen otherwise." Toynbee and Walker sneer: "Charity is the passport to the in-crowd: he listed the eye-popping names and places his philanthropy had taken him, from No 10 upwards. Give and ye shall meet celebs."

Yes, but it still doesn't get round the point that those from the City who give to charity don't actually need to do it. Would Toynbee and Walker rather they didn't donate at all?

* Willie Walsh's incessant lobbying for a third runway has so far been based on Heathrow's preeminent position connecting the rest of Britain to global flight - a powerful argument from the British Airways chief. Isn't it a little strange then, that he's cut the mid-morning flight from Manchester to Heathrow, which is possibly the single most important flight for the North-Western business community chasing their international connections.

Chinese wall at McDonald's

McDonald's is a global sponsor of the Olympics but, according to a report by Marketing, the fast-food giant is displaying an untypical low-key approach to telling the British public about this.

Its only promotion here is a competition to win a trip to Beijing - by contrast with the United States (where its packaging is adorned with athletes running), Australia (where it has a "Flavour of the Games" event) and other countries (where special Chinese food lines have been added to McDonald's menus).

In 2004, during the last Olympics, McDonald's ran a high-profile TV and radio campaign in Britain pushing healthy eating and exercise. So why the reticence here this time? Is McDonald's running scared of British concern over China's human rights record and Tibet?

* City workers alighting at Blackfriars are to bear the brunt of the long-overdue overhaul of the Tube. From next March, their station is to be shut for approaching three years - something of a record for even the tardiest of London Underground maintenance companies.

* Is all well in Terry Smith's house of Collins Stewart? Its number of stockbroking clients on the AIM market, where it has previously been pre-eminent, has shrunk by an eighth in the last three months and it has lost its place at the top of the tree to its rivals Peel Hunt and Seymour Pierce.

* Prince Andrew, the UK's special representative for trade and investment (even writing it makes City Spy laugh), acts as an ambassador for some of Britain's leading companies. Presumably, it's in that regard that he was recently pictured with a bevy of scantily-clad beauties in St Tropez. Society mag Tatler is scathing, saying in its September issue that "there's a whiff of toxic bachelordom about him". It rates him as 9/10 on its royal naff-o-meter.

No money worries for Alex

She "looks confused". Curran then replies: "I think it's in the bank." Mrs Gerrard evidently doesn't worry a great deal about money. When she comes to London, from Merseyside, she always stays at the Baglioni Hotel in Kensington and eats at Nobu. Well at least someone is going to keep the luxury market afloat in the credit crunch.

* Top fashion tip from Curran: Her £2,000 lizardskin Zagliani handbags are "injected with Botox to make them soft".

Stringy vests his faith in the Tories

* Stringfellow is notorious for wearing G-strings and leopard skin - the skimpier the better. Yet "Stringy", despite his many young blonde friends and companions, is a family man at heart. The accounts also show he paid son-in-law Paul £17,800 for "computer network support services". David Cameron, so keen on the importance of the family, would surely approve.

* Just how much does Stringy make out of his Heavenly Money - the vouchers his customers buy to give to the club's lapdancers? The accounts say plenty is never cashed in. Presumably some punters keep it as a memento - or find it next day in a trouser pocket.

"To comply with Financial Reporting Standard 5" unclaimed vouchers are periodically credited to the profit-and-loss account, but "the directors consider (on advice) that such vouchers can be redeemed at any time". It seems that as well as a "liability for unclaimed vouchers included in other creditors" the company has "a contingent liability of approximately £926,000". Which would buy a lot of dances, but instead goes to make Stringy and his co-directors even wealthier.

* Stringy's generosity to the Tories makes shadow minister Michael Gove's attack on lads' mags culture look especially misguided. Gove had a go at magazines such as Nuts and Zoo - full of the sort of ladies welcome in Stringfellows. But it seems Gove's constituency office received a reported £2000 in donations from Nuts TV's production firm...

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