In my opinion there is nothing better than a good banking scandal, and I say that purely for the wealth of puns that come our way every time someone finds themselves in trouble. Who remembers ‘Fred the Pleb’/ ‘Fred The Shred’? With Bob Diamond’s resignation we’ve had endless variations of ‘Diamonds aren’t forever’, although my personal favourite has been Metro’s ‘Diamond: Now we find out if his bite’s worse than his Barc’.
Oh, Bob. I happen to like Bob, but I also find him a bit foolish, and I’ll tell you why. We’ll start with why I like him. It turns out that Bob is something of a Biteback fan. Back in his glory days Bob was asked by Fox Business’ Liz Claman to name his favourite book, and his choice may have been a warning of Bob’s future fate, for he selected a book regarding a fellow fallen leader.
Bob Diamond, CEO, Barclays
Book: “Brown at 10” by Anthony Seldon. “About Gordon Brown’s years at 10 Downing. The most turbulent in post-war history.”
If that wasn’t enough, he also selected a scandal-ridden figure as his favourite political leader:
Leader: President Bill Clinton
“He’s a passionate citizen of the U.S. but more importantly, a passionate citizen of the world.”
Suddenly it all falls into place. Bob is clearly drawn to bad boys. He knows they’re no good for him, but he just can’t help going back. The lure of the bad boy life is too much. Bob! How did reading Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge’s Brown at 10 not teach you to avoid such circumstances?! As Francis Beckett said, over at The Guardian, ‘anyone seriously interested in modern British political history will want to have it around for reference. The authors have read everything and interviewed almost everyone, and tell the story in remorseless detail, week by week, sometimes hour by hour’.
Brown at 10 tells the compelling story of his hubris and downfall and, with it, the final demise of the New Labour project. Containing an extraordinary breadth of previously unpublished material, Brown at 10 is a frank, penetrating portrait of a remarkable era. Using unrivalled access to many of those at the centre of Brown’s government, and original material gleaned from hundreds of hours of interviews with many of its leading lights, Brown at 10 looks, with greater depth and detail, into the events and circumstances of Brown’s premiership than any other account published since the May 2010 general election. It also relates, for the first time, the full extraordinary tale of the pivotal role played by Brown in persuading the world’s leaders to address the global banking crisis head-on. The result is the definitive chronicle of Gordon Brown’s troubled period in Number 10, from the unique perspective of those who worked most closely with him.
It’s a shame Bob couldn’t have learnt from Gordon’s mistakes. Oh well. Another one bites the (diamond) dust. Sorry. Couldn't resist.