The latest recruit to the BBC Trust, the body that is immersed in the row about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, is former star Lehman banker Anthony Fry. Fortunately for Fry, whose appointment was announced at the beginning of this month, he doesn't take up his post until
tomorrow, when all the brouhaha will be dying down.

* City Spy's spell-check fails to recognise Shepherd's Bush shopping mall Westfield, which opened yesterday, suggesting instead “wasteful”.

* Worried about a lack of job offers, a wannabe City worker has contacted a bank boss to plea for an internship. Or just friendship.

“I ought to say that you are a person of pleasant manners,” the letter begins. And then goes on, “no matter whether I gain a winter/summer internship, I hope we will always maintain friendly relations. If you want, you may add me as a friend in the Facebook.” Included in the letter, described on hereisthecity.com, was a CV listing proficiency in eight languages and a 27-page PowerPoint presentation “to let you better understand who I am”. The letter concludes by claiming that the writer is “key to multiplying your prosperity and profits”.

* Tim Cockroft, the 41-year-old chief executive of Singer Capital Markets, won't say how much he and his 70-odd staff have paid to buy the corporate broking business from the administrators of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. It wasn't the token £1 which some people had been speculating. Cockroft, who is a real tennis and rackets fanatic and has won championships at both, says the past three weeks negotiating the buyout were tough. However, there was an upside: “Even though we weren't in administration we effectively didn't do any business for what were probably the worst three weeks in the London stock market. That was good for our market makers and our clients.”

Gatwick bags a go-slow

Anyone hearing Gatwick Airport managing director Andy Flower's announcement of the sale of the airport by BAA in September might not have been inspired by confidence. It will be “business as usual at Gatwick” while the sale goes through, Flower promised. That must be a reference to the airport being named last year as the worst in the country for delays. This week, travellers arriving there from Greece had to wait more than two hours at the carousels for their baggage to be delivered. Meanwhile, an airport taxi service reports on its website that Gatwick is seeing increased baggage delays: “In my memory of the past four years, Gatwick has always been prompt with the handling of luggage. I wonder what has changed?” What indeed has changed — could it be that BAA is less interested in the time taken by baggage-handling firms at Gatwick now it is up for sale?

* In City Spy's Thursday morning post was a package from the Bank of England, marked “News — Urgent. What was it? Oh yes, the Bank's Financial Stability Report, the one published at midnight on Monday. A little late for urgent action. Rather like interest rates.

* It's touching the faith the Americans have in their airlines. Mega-merger star Delta stands for Don't Even Leave The Airport.

Rose can brand a whole land

Picture the scene. You're the new President of the United States, you've just had an arduous campaign, you've got the affairs of your country and the world to consider, and who do you invite round for dinner? Only Sir Stuart Rose. According to Allan Biggar, head of All About Brands, Barack Obama or John McCain, whichever one wins, needs to reinvent “Brand America” and “that first call for help” should be to the Marks & Spencer chief. “The answer lies in a quiet dinner in the White House with Sir Stuart Rose. He has enormous experience of seeing how a brand can slide, and then applying a strategy to haul it back,” says Biggar in a press release. City Spy needs to lie down but before doing so, wants to pass on a few words to Biggar: Walt Disney, Wal-Mart, Mars, Procter & Gamble...

Woo us on a yacht and you're sunk

The website at Forbes, New York's bible for billionaires, has caught up with the Mandelson-Osborne-Rothschild-Deripaska affair, and offers its readers a wise conclusion: “If seeking to influence British government policy in the near future, dump the yacht.” After an extensive exposition of the events in Corfu three months ago, Forbes.com gives a big sigh and says: “If you want to pour honey into the ear of a British politico, avoid suggesting a rendezvous on a floating gin palace. The same probably goes for a marina, seafront or even a boating lake. Stick to terra firma. And don't tell Mr Nathaniel Rothschild.”

* Meanwhile, the Dark Lord is being pressed to change the daft new name of his Whitehall department back to what it used to be. At present, Lord Mandelson's lair is called BERR (for Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) but his fellow Labour parliamentarian Lindsay Hoyle, MP for Chorley, is pleading with the Secretary of State to change it back to plain old DTI. Why? Er, because Hoyle is on the Commons BERR Committee, or Berrc, pronounced berk. Still, word of BERR's name has yet to reach London Underground. On arrival at Westminster Tube station, travellers are greeted by signs directing them to the nearby headquarters of the “DTI”.

* Whatever it's called, some of the department's staff are doing all right. Hansard notes that in the past two years more than £5 million has been paid in “performance awards” to civil servants at the DTI/BERR.

* This patriotic email is doing the rounds in the US: “A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you proud to be an American!”

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