The departure of Tim Parker from City Hall can be seen as a salutary lesson for any business heavyweight fancying their chances at the top of local government.

But before Sir Alan Sugar (he really did consider going for London mayor) and others commit to never giving up the day job, there were aspects of Parker's case that made him, shall we say, unique.

He came to the Greater London Authority with a reputation for one thing only, namely costcutting.

In interviews, he made no secret of why he thought he'd been hired. "I think we could get more with less," he said. On Day One, he called all the City Hall staff together and said: "Call me Tim."

Er, hello Tim, that's pretty dim. When do they call you Tim, when you give them their P45s? The knives came out at the start - and stayed out.

* Parker didn't seem to realise that around 50% of the population and a large portion of his workforce, even after he'd finished paring it down, are women.

Asked why the GLA had its Prince of Darkness - a nickname he appeared to do little to dispel in his public utterances - and not a princess, he replied: "As the skills requirements for a post get more demanding, the narrower the field of expertise and the less people there are to choose from." No, Tim.

* The former boss of Kenwood, Kwik-Fit, Clarks shoes and the AA said he would do the first deputy mayor job for only £1. While that was magnanimous, it was the wrong call.

Not only did it cause consternation within City Hall, with colleagues wondering if the organisation was in breach of the minimum wage rules (seriously, this is the successor to the GLC after all) but it meant that his boss, Boris Johnson, was seen to have no pull over him.

There was the mayor, working for a salary and there was his deputy, worth £80 million at least, with houses in Chelsea and Hampshire and a Porsche and a Golf in the drive. It was all wrong, and not surprisingly it quickly unravelled.

Chandler lands odds on private bookmaker Blacks

Blacks, the bespoke private bookmakers co-founded by Frankie Dettori's former manager Peter Burrell exactly a year ago to a fanfare in the betting world, has quietly been absorbed by bookie firm Victor Chandler.

Blacks was set up last summer with backing from the likes of property tycoon Martin Myers, Ben Sangster, son of racing legend Robert, and footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones.

With celebrity endorsements from Marco-Pierre White and Formula One motor-racing boss Eddie Jordan, and aimed at high-rolling City types, the new firm appeared destined for success.

But Blacks seem to have rebuffed the old adage "you never see a losing bookie". Six months in and Victor Chandler bought a stake.

Now its offices in Hatton Garden are shut, co-founder Wally Pyrah has left and what remains of the business has been folded into Victor Chandler, based in Gibraltar. Including Burrell himself - he too now works for Victor Chandler.

* Another bookie, Paddy Power, does know how to make money, bombarding punters with email shots. "Paddy's price is right," crows the latest missive as the firm claims its soccer odds are better value than those of rivals. "Paddy Power is your Jessica Alba to Ladbrokes' Jade Goody, your Ferrari to Boylesports' clapped out Lada or your Beatles to William Hills' Boney M." Thanks Paddy.

Lavatory humour in the City

So far, there has been a stony silence from Guildhall as to whether the City Corporation will follow other councils and launch a Community Toilet Scheme.

So while Boris and his fellow mayors thinks it's a good idea that premises across London allow the public to use their lavatories (because public loos are so few and far between these days), there is no word from the burghers of the Square Mile. City Spy bags first place in the queue to use Mervyn King's personal facilities...

Now it's Hot, Flat and Crowded

Thomas Friedman is at it again. After the success of his tome on globalisation, The World is Flat, the New York Times columnist has turned his attention to the crisis of the environment, with Hot, Flat and Crowded, out in the US next month.

Among the interesting facts he unearths: US pet-food companies spent more on research and development than American utiltities.

And a conclusion? "It is much more important to change your leaders than your lightbulbs." But a lot harder.

Obama in bookstore tug of war

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama may be promising a fundamental change in the way politics is done but bookseller Barnes & Noble is resisting fundamental change to the way publishing works.

It has refused to stock a new book, Robert Kuttner's Obama's Challenge, which tiny Vermont publisher Chelsea Green plans to hand out at next week's Democratic convention.

What has angered Barnes is that the publisher will also distribute coupons that can be redeemed exclusively through Amazon.com's BookSurge, the online retailer's "print-on-demand" service.

B&N promptly cancelled thousands of books it had ordered and is threatening a wider boycott. Chelsea Green president Margo Baldwin says it is not about favouring Amazon, but "to get one of a very few pro-Obama books out into the market place in the shortest amount of time".

* Awwwwh. The chief executive of law firm Eversheds, David Gray, is quitting because "I want time to spend with my best friend - my wife".

* You remember the dot-com disaster. But what about the sweetcorn crash? The drop in agricultural shares mirrors the internet collapse, says Bloomberg.

As usual, investors have got ahead of themselves and the slide has been vicious...

* And forget the DAX - Germany's doner kebab industry is the index to watch. "In the past 20 years, downturns in the global economy have always been predicted by price rises in doner kebabs in Germany," said economist Dietmar Schubert in Frankfurt. "The doners are going up and sales are going down. Time to get out of the kitchen."