This sounds like a good Christmas stocking filler: Vanity Fair writer Michael Wolff's semi-authorised book on Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal takeover is coming out in December, two months earlier than planned.

The author says Murdoch was willing to talk because he is “pleased as punch with himself” following the purchase. Wolff sounds pleased with himself too as Murdoch's wife Wendi and his children James, Elisabeth and Lachlan have all spoken to him.

They have been “incredibly open and generous and really revealing”, says Wolff, who adds: “His 99-year-old mother gave me a joyride on her golf cart at her estate outside of Melbourne.” Despite it sounding like the book could be a snow job, Wolff insists the Murdochs have had no say over the contents and won't see it before publication.

* Farewell Roger Yates, the outgoing chief executive of fund manager Henderson, who is standing down after nine years. And welcome to his replacement, the excellently named Andrew Formica. The dictionary says Formica is a heat-resistant, wipe-clean, plastic laminate of paper or fabric. Ideal credentials for current market conditions...

* Terminal 5, the new £4.3 billion home of British Airways at Heathrow, is back on track after its disastrous opening in March. At least that is the message from BA, which boasts that passenger numbers have risen from 40,000 to 65,000 a day, and about 90% of flights are on time. Does that mean around 6500 passengers are delayed each day? That would be nearly 2.5 million late passengers a year. Should BA really be so proud?

* How the BBC spends the licence fee: the Business Unit has come up with a brilliant wheeze. It has got hold of a shipping container for a year, and it is going to be sent round the world “to tell stories about the global economy”. The idea is that Beeb business reporters will follow the shipping container, named “The Box”, explaining the mysteries of international trade, global inflation etc. Perish the thought the BBC's team of travelling reporters might have to slum it in stowage themselves...

Russian bailout for B&B?

Media muddle: This doesn't quite rank with Bloomberg News accidentally putting Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' obituary on its news wires last week, but the BBC's News 24 TV channel has been running a headline about the Bradford & Bingley crisis. A headline beneath reads: “Officials in South Ossetia say Russia to absorb it”. B&B would probably be quite keen on some Russian funding...

* Bradford & Bingley chairman Rod Kent is keen to defend his third-time lucky £400 million fundraising, which only 27% of shareholders supported. Such take-up would usually be seen as disastrous, but Kent argues it was “massively more than at HBOS” where only 8% of shareholders joined in. Indeed, but hardly an achievement. The City knows where its money is heading. James Hamilton of Numis reckons B&B shares are worth just 41p, and says: “HBOS offers dramatically less risk and is a materially better business.” Sorry Rod.

An invite to Dowdy Street

Two weeks to go until London Fashion Week, and the invitations are plopping on to the desks of retail bosses.

The most high-powered stiffy to arrive comes from 10 Downing Street, where Sarah Brown is hosting a cocktail party on 15 September to celebrate the 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week.

Doubtless Mrs Brown will be keen to make a better impression than she did with the dowdy holiday outfit she wore over the summer. And City Spy trusts that the Prime Minister's wife will be sure to invite the creative director of upmarket stationery and handbag maker Smythson — Samantha Cameron.

Mrs Cameron's sister, Emily Sheffield, is deputy editor of Vogue. So if she gets an invite too, Number 10 could be packed with Tories. How
soon before Samantha Cameron can start measuring up for curtains there?

Buffett fuels the energy tax debate

Warren Buffett has waded into the debate raging on both sides of the Atlantic about whether governments should impose a windfall tax on energy companies because of the soaring price of oil.

Although his favoured Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, has backed the idea of a windfall tax, Buffett has made clearly he is firmly agin it (as has our Business Secretary, John Hutton): “Soy beans have gone up. Wheat's gone up. Iron ore's gone up...nobody's suggesting a special tax on some farmer because his corn has gone up in price or on a wheat farmer in Kansas because his wheat has gone up in price or an iron ore producer.

“And the oil companies are easy to pick on, but it's a world price. It isn't set by ExxonMobil or anybody else. And I'm sure they're happy to have it, but the idea of taxing somebody just because what they sell has gone up in price a lot, taxing them in some special way, doesn't make sense.”
Buffett said the windfall tax was just one of Obama's ideas that he did not agree with, but reiterated he thought the Democrat was better than John McCain.

* Here's Buffett on the perils for any businessman backing a politician: “The only way you get somebody that jives with all your views is to run yourself, and I have no interest in that.” The recent experiences over here of Lord (Digby) Jones and Tim Parker suggests business should keep its distance from politics.

* Perhaps the hokey-cokey should have been adopted by the new TKMaxx store on Kensington High Street as a theme tune for its opening. Shoppers had their designer bargains wrestled from them so they could evacuate for a fire alarm. No sooner were they halfway out of the door than a soothing voice over the Tannoy advised it was a false alarm, no cause for concern. This was interrupted by a male voice saying it was not, repeat, not a false alarm and to evacuate. Seconds later, shoppers were again informed it was a false alarm and, with the bells left ringing, told to “enjoy your shopping experience”.