FAREWELL Sir Tom McKillop — like Sir Fred Goodwin, who in theory answered to you at Royal Bank of Scotland, you will not be missed.

McKillop's state of denial about RBS's difficulties and who was responsible, City Spy hears, was something to behold.

As RBS chairman, he refused to accept any personal blame, digging his heels in. On Sunday, as talks with the Treasury on the amount of taxpayers' money required to save his bank were taking place, he tried to get his fellow directors to agree that they would resign en masse if he was forced out.

Needless to say, they told him where to go.

* SIR Fred Goodwin's comment on talks with City Minister Paul Myners: “Less of a negotiation, more of a drive-by shooting.”

* SAY farewell to Fred the Shred, say hello to Fred the Dead.

* OH dear. Only four London-based whiz-kids feature in this year's 30 Under 30 list of the world's top traders yet to turn 30 years old. The rest of them are based in the US or Switzerland.
A sign of Mayfair's declining significance on the world stage? We do provide the list's only woman, though: Goldman Sachs' Mona El Isa, 25, who started out in 2004 as trainee at Fleet Street.
El Isa now trades Goldman's own and clients' money on the pan-European cash equities desk, having been promoted to associate level. She's currently specialising in market-making for natural resources-linked equities.

* YOUGOV's plans to launch a hedge fund (which it has now dropped) may be seen as the height of hubris. But much of opinion pollsters' revenues increasingly comes not from media organisations or consumer goods producers but from hedge fund managers hoping to gain information to support their investment strategies. Although this could explain why a seemingly recession-proof business such as YouGov has seen its share price collapse by 75% this year.

An Evan-sent gift of foresight

NOT much modesty from Evan Davis, former BBC economics editor and now a presenter on the Radio 4 Today programme. “I predicted there would be a fall in house prices this year of 5%-10%,” he declared at the Turning the Tables lunch for Cancer Research UK at the Dorchester.

“House prices go down as well as up. When people ask if we will have a full-scale slump, I have to tell them that I don't know. What I find extraordinary is that people who have far less knowledge on the subject than I do can pronounce with such certainty.”

* THE state of play, according to Knight Frank: “In the current financial maelstrom, where all economic rules seem to have been rewritten or cast aside, predicting where property values might be next week, let alone next year, appears rather foolhardy. It seems somewhat akin to picking the winner of the 4.20 at Chepstow when you don't even know who is running.”

Baugur's £2bn pick 'n' mix

HERE is Icelander Jon Asgeir Johannesson, chairman and founder of the Baugur retail group, on how he managed to borrow so much cash — thought by some to be £2 billion or more.

“You have to keep in mind that we were not just buying nothing with all that money. We were buying — in many cases at least — very good assets.” Eh? “In many cases”? Which ones weren't very good? Just because someone's mad enough to lend doesn't mean you have to spend, Jon.

* BOYS, boys. Jeff Randall quizzing Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green on his Sky show: “Why did you go to Iceland?” Green: “I heard it was a good place to go fishing.” Oi Oi!

* HBOS got into a bit of a spin over Andy Hornby and his reward for failure. The outgoing chief exec was due a year's pay, or £975,000, on departure and the bank at first suggested he would take it: “Everyone in the land is entitled to their contractual rights.” Er, cue change of heart: “Andy Hornby is giving up his contractual entitlement to a pay-off…in the interests of the company.”
This was, apparently, his intention all along. Poor Andy — it just gets worse.

* HEADLINE in a German paper: “Das globale Bankensystem wankt”. Quite.

They love you Gordon, in New York at least

FROM the New York Times: “Has Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, saved the world financial system? The Brown government has shown itself willing to think clearly about the financial crisis, and act quickly on its conclusions.
“This combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn't been matched by any other Western government, least of all our own.
“Luckily for the world economy, however, Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense. And they may have shown us the way through this crisis.”
Gordon, you cannot buy that sort of publicity...

* SIR John Gieve is hailed in The Independent as one of the “secret architects” of the rescue plan. Really? When City Spy put this to one of those in the know there was a loud guffaw...

* “CASHIER No 10” has been a little busy in recent days but surely Downing Street could get round to updating its official website on who's who in government after the Cabinet reshuffle?
The actual list would show an unprecedented (at least since Margaret Thatcher's days) number of non-elected people running the Department of Business.
Peter Mandelson, Shriti Vadera and Stephen Carter (all now wearing ermine in an upper house which Labour was supposed to have reformed) together equal the number of elected MPs holding down posts in the department.

* TRUST Ken. The former Mayor would go further — full-scale bank nationalisation is what is needed.
“The Government should set on one side its initial package, which is rapidly being superseded by events, and which carries unacceptable risk to the taxpayer, and proceed immediately to the nationalisation of those British banks unable to raise private capital as the most decisive way to strengthen their balance sheets and resume lending.”