Jimmy Savile told me it was for charity but it still made my eyes water

Well, since everybody else was, why not jump on the bandwagon? After all, he's dead and it's not as if anybody at the BBC including quite a lot of  high profile "talent" seemed moved to say anything for 30 years. When I was in broadcasting, whenever Jimmy's name was mentioned you always got a knowing look. So why didn't anybody squeak? Is it because its a can of worms? Has Paxman got more in common with Grayson Perry than we know and likes nothing better than to slip into a LBD after grilling Mandy on Newsnight? Is Clarkson into caravan holidays and shih tzus? You never know with the BBC. It's always been a job creation scheme for pervs and the Savile case is no surprise.

Richard Branson, captain of industry and Starfleet appears to have been vindicated. Its all very well, but when Virgin originally got the franchise they were promising a full restaurant service on the London to Edinburgh run. That soon vanished, as did rather a lot of profit from the various fiddles run by the stewards, not the least of which was selling "complimentary" coffee (served in first class) to the ordinary punters and pocketing over two quid a time, or how one middle manager managed to have an affair on his company charge card. (And yes, I can substantiate it) Nobody ever got sacked from Virgin, not even for being found out.

I notice Tescos share price has bombed since I published my supermarket guide (see below)

I try and keep abreast of the music scene as I have both and academic and a business interest in it. Mumford and Sons? What's that? Coldplay with banjos?

I notice that Eric Hobsbawm has passed to the great gulag in the sky. When I was at college he was more or less required reading, which is kind of ironic, since he was a Marxist, and in every Marxist state things have either been compulsory or illegal. Still, his perspectives are interesting, not because his conclusions are sound but because of how he reached them.

I notice with distaste that a lot of disputes these days end up in court, or with a police caution. It's usually the women claiming to be a "victim" - as if they had no free will. Hardly a paradigm of gender equality is it, when a woman goes complaining to anybody who will listen. Claiming victim hood is a serious thing. Best to leave it to those who are real victims and not merely a mechanism for revenge or derogation of responsibility.

As for Sir Jimmy and me, it was close, but no cigar.