It gets worse for Sir Fred Goodwin. He's gone from Royal Bank of Scotland and now the Prince's Trust, which he chairs. But there is talk that he could resurface, at Formula 1, as president of the FIA, the sport's governing body, in succession to Max Mosley.

A story has appeared to that effect in The Times, saying that Goodwin was a “scapegoat for the banking sector's ills” and concluding: “Sir Fred is a petrolhead who enjoys stripping down engines in his spare time and who, after steering RBS into sponsoring the Williams F1 team... was frequently seen in the pits during races.”

But is anyone seriously thinking Goodwin could bounce back as head of another global organisation? He just steered RBS to the biggest loss in UK corporate history, after all.

* While the push is on to get Fred the Shred installed at F1 — there does appear to be a lobbying campaign under way — his cause is unlikely to be helped by the decision of his former bank to review its F1 sponsorship. The bank supports the Williams team and admits that backing is under review. The contract still has two years to run, but a spokesman says: “We recognise the need to ensure that our sponsorship activity reflects the process of restructuring that the bank has under way.”

* More Freddery. The tilt at the F1 top job is unlikely to be aided either by Goodwin's friendship with Sir Jackie Stewart. The three-times world champion is employed by the bank as a roving ambassador and he is frequently to be seen wearing RBS regalia. But he is also an implacable critic of Bernie Ecclestone, the sport's kingpin, and Mosley.

RBS can't be so generous...

How long, too, before Royal Bank of Scotland, 70% owned by HMG, ends its sponsorship deal with Andy Murray? The bank also sponsors Jack Nicklaus, the golfing legend, and Zara Phillips, the three-day eventer and the Queen's grand-daughter. Are they, too, for the chop?

* One arrangement that appears secure is the Six Nations Championship. Just ahead of the arrival of RBS's new, get-tough CEO Stephen Hester, the rugby boys are thought to have secured a four-year extension to their contract and persuaded the bank to up its backing by 25%. It remains to be seen what view Hester takes of RBS's logo being emblazoned at the rugby grounds and executives tucking into grand lunches in the corporate hospitality suites...

* The boy just can't help himself... columnist Anatole Kaletsky writes in yesterday's Times: “The worst of the collateral damage to the non-financial economy inflicted by the credit crunch could soon be over.” So we're definitely doomed then.

* An early contender for headline of the year from the latest PR Week: “Banking industry lashes out at negative media coverage”. So just who started all this?

* City Spy hears that another bunch of redundos are going down at Goldman Sachs this week, with the word from Wall Street being that more will go in the autumn.

Mandelson: let's hear it for 45p top rate of tax

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has told
the Fabian Society that the new 45p top tax rate is necessary, that everyone should pay their “fair share of the burden” during difficult economic times. This is the same Mandelson who previously rejected increasing top-rate income tax — declaring New Labour “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”.

* Macbeth is coming to the rescue of the movers and shakers at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Richard Olivier — son of Lord Olivier — is drawing on the play for the likes of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and Rupert Murdoch. The Davos theme this year is “Shaping the Post-Crisis World”. And Olivier, artistic director of Olivier Mythodrama in London, a corporate leadership-training outfit that has coached executives at Nokia Oyj and Royal Dutch Shell, reckons fellow delegates should look to the Scottish play. They will be able to see extracts from the play as well as take part in discussions comparing Macbeth with the apparent evil of bankers.

“The dark black magic of Macbeth has a particular resonance this year at Davos,” says Olivier. “It's about ambition, about how people who have bloody, murderous or greedy thoughts attract bloody, murderous or greedy spirits.” He adds: “Macbeth also allowed the darkness to overcome the light. Macbeth is asking evil spirits to cut the bond between his soul and his conscience, so that he can carry out his dark deeds.”

* Sticking to literature, the demand for errant bankers to appear in sackcloth and ashes grows ever stronger and more poetic. “If the trees are to bear fruit once more and the buck to circulate again (not sit forever like an antique artefact on the President's desk), it's time for the villains to cry out, I did it,' and — symbolically, at least — sacrificially slay the fatted cat,” writes novelist Walter Kirn in the New York Times.