Now is graduation time for universities and business schools around the country - a time not only to reward students but also distinguished public figures with honorary fellowships.

Alas, this July marks an unfortunate anniversary for the London Business School. A year ago, it bestowed an honorary degree on, er, Sir Fred Goodwin, then boss of Royal Bank of Scotland - just three months before the bank's collapse into the arms of the taxpayer.

My mole tells me Sir Fred still has that honorary degree, and incidentally one bestowed upon him by St Andrews University. The honeyed words the LBS said about Sir Fred last July sound rather hollow now. Professor Nigel Nicholson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, who conferred the award said at the time: "An honorary fellowship is given to a person who has accomplished outstanding achievements or has made significant contributions to business. If entrepreneurship is the exploitation of opportunity, then leadership is the making of opportunity, and Sir Fred clearly excels in both."

Robin Buchanan, Dean of London Business School added that he was "delighted to honour a man who has transformed a regional bank into one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world".

Transform it Sir Fred certainly did.

* The head honchos behind the Co-operative Bank like to be accurate. Credit-card applicants have a choice of 61 titles to choose from, including Canon, Chief Warrant Officer, Monsignor, Very Reverend, Rabbi, Prebendary... It looks a little excessive, but customers like it. The bank just came top in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index.

Madoff really brought to book

Given that he's got 150 years behind bars to fill, it's lucky that Bernard Madoff will have lots to read. Amazon already lists nine books about the Ponzi fraudster, ranging from Madoff: Corruption, Deceit and the Making of the World's Notorious Ponzi Scheme by Peter Sander, to Madoff with the Money by Jerry Oppenheimer . Wonder how soon they will be joined by Madoff, my Life, by Bernard Madoff. Surely that's the reason he refused to give details of his scheme in court?

* Retail reality check: Since 2005, the celebrated US department stores chain Macy's has cut its newspaper advertising budget from $1.2 billion to $583 million. But Macy's was still the second-biggest US newspaper advertiser in 2008.

* WORD from the wine bars around Knightsbridge is that Harrods is having a recession-busting time of it. Unconfirmed reports indicate Mohammed Fayed's chintzy emporium has recorded sales growth well into double digits in the five months to the end of June. Sales though are a little lumpy, City Spy is told. Much of the growth can be put down to the occasional tsunami of petrodollars such as the recent occasion when one young Saudi lady dropped £1.5 million in the jewellery department in the space of 10 minutes.

GLG is set to cross swords over Saudi

GLG Partners is to go before the beak in the autumn. Two days have been set aside at the High Court in The Strand to hear accusations that GLG, one of Mayfair's biggest hedge funds — admittedly a relative term these days — reneged on an arrangement to pay tens of thousands of pounds to a London businessman who introduced a wealthy Saudi investor to the firm.

GLG, advised by Mishcon de Reya, is understood not to be challenging the fact it received $4 million from the sheikh after meetings with GLG founder Noam Gottesman and his chief executive Manny Roman at the firm's Curzon Street headquarters.

The usual form is reckoned to be commission of 2% for the introduction of such lucrative new business.

* Is this the most stupid advertisement ever made? Aviva, the insurance-group-formerly-known-as-Norwich Union, has a rolling advert on its website homepage saying “looking for cheaper car insurance? Get car insurance direct from Aviva”.

It then shows various case studies and their insurance quotes. There's a range of quotes from Aviva and its competitors for a single man, 50, from Milton Keynes driving a Ford Ka. So how much is the quote? Well, Direct Line would charge £155; Churchill asks for £163 — and Aviva asks for, er, £181.

When City Spy paid a visit, around half of the quotes seemed to show Aviva is the more expensive option.

* IT should come as no surprise that Gordon “zero per cent rise in spending” Brown is struggling to admit that expenditure will have to be cut to reduce the UK's ballooning debt. Having claimed for so many years to have abolished boom and bust, it took the Prime Minister until October 2008 to finally admit the UK faced recession. Now, thanks to the Office for National Statistics, we know that was six months after the recession began... in April 2008.

* PARENTS must be ruing the day Woolworths returned. A top-seller on the website, which rose from the ashes of the High Street chain, is water bombs. Meanwhile, there are signs the pic'n'mix revival was a wise move, with Woolworths.co.uk shifting more than a ton in its first week. And almost 70% of its music sales have been Michael Jackson CDs.

* Good news from John Lewis, which is creating 192 jobs — although 171 are part-time — for its new £6.7 million food hall at Bluewater in Kent. Bluewater doesn't have the most upmarket reputation, but John Lewis's food arm Waitrose is hiring four specialists in meat and fish, three in cheese and four in wine.