American politics is reassuringly consistent. Every four years we get a presidential campaign – and every four years Donald Trump says he will run.
Like the property tycoon’s barber, connoisseurs of The Donald’s presidential mutterings often worry how deep-rooted things will prove – but this time Trump insists he really means it. He will give speeches in Maryland and Chicago this week, which are likely to entertain, but more tantalising is the imminent filing of The Donald’s personal financial disclosure, which is sure to work Trump aficionados into a heightened state of arousal.
The exact size of the great man’s fortune has never been quite clear. The self-proclaimed multibillionaire once tried to sue Tim O’Brien, author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald, for suggesting he might be a mere millionaire. Trump’s case failed – possibly because when asked during a deposition if he’d been “completely truthful” in public statements about his wealth, he replied, “I try.”
So will Trump shoot straight as a politician? When asked during the same hearing whether he exaggerates, Trump said: “You always want to put the best possible spin on a property that you can. No different than any other real estate developer, no different than any other businessman, no different than any politician.”
A heartwarming tale of everyday banking folk
“Deputy bank manager Claire has 12 weeks to improve the all-important customer service score of her branch. She and her team are desperate to succeed. But with faith in banks at an all-time low, the team know that they have their work cut out.”
That may sound like the start of a tedious role-playing exercise at some dreadful corporate awayday, but the scenario is real. Real in a 2015 sense, that is, seeing as the text is the marketing puff for a new three-part BBC2 documentary called The Bank: A Matter Of Life And Debt, which promises “unprecedented access to the behind-the-scenes workings of one of our most important everyday institutions”. (Well, this is the Huddersfield branch of NatWest.)
It starts on Tuesday, the same day as NatWest owner Royal Bank of Scotland fields questions about its latest technology calamity at its annual meeting. But if you think the film risks another PR disaster, you are probably wrong. Such documentaries are fast becoming an easy way for troubled brands to get some soft-soap PR, as even bankers aren’t daft enough to be filmed getting up to no good (Paul Flowers excepted).
Tesco’s Clarke faces unfair shares revolt
This month, Morrisons suffered a massive shareholder revolt after awarding sacked chief executive Dalton Philips a £1m bonus. Almost 38% of the votes cast opposed the remuneration policy at our fourth-favourite supermarket.
When he left, many industry watchers were coming to the view that Philips had had the right strategy, but taken an age to get there, then implemented it averagely: so one wonders what reception awaits another grocery casualty at the major retailing annual meeting of this week.
The general consensus in the City is that former Tesco boss Philip Clarke went one better than Philips by not even alighting on the correct strategy. Yet when he left in September, he was given a £1.2m payoff and a £13.7m pension pot; Tesco got a £263m profit overstatement and an invasive probe by the Serious Fraud Office.
So it’s safe to assume shareholders may not back Tesco’s remuneration report this week, although not just because of Clarke. Shareholder advisory groups seem just as cross about the sums being trousered by new boss Dave Lewis, with shareholder consultancy Pirc also recommending a vote against new chairman John Allan, who is reckoned to be too busy with other jobs to pay proper attention.
