Thursday 2 April 2009

180 days

Stephen Hester has been the chief exec of RBS for 180 days now. My sources have revealed some of the highlights of his tenure so far:

November 23: offers to play Fred Goodwin at Risk with Goodwin's pension as the stake. Loses.

December 1: shaves Alistair Darling's eyebrows off at Gordon's Krazy Kredit Krunch drinks party

December 7: will only travel around executive suite on Mr Hoppy the spacehopper

December 11: solves the Gogarburn rabbit infestation problem with a shotgun and a bad attitude

December 15: finds juju left buried under office by Goodwin. Leads voodoo ceremony to purge evil spirits

December 18: photocopies his arse during Christmas party and faxes it to the Treasury

December 22: demands to know where Goodwin kept the office bottle

January 5: presentation to city analysts about further capital raising ends with him screaming 'the power of Christ compels you!'

January 8: finds the Gogardungeon. Frees prisoners, one of whom claims to be a 'Fred Goodwin', a brilliant and humane financial mind, who had been imprisoned by his evil twin, Hans Goodwin in 2004

January 12: refuses to come out of his office until the government is paid off

January 15: attends Board meeting carrying a white cat. Says nothing throughout the whole meeting, but stokes the cat constantly

January 19: helps out at Gogarburn branch of Starbucks

January 22: sticks picture of Gordon Brown on the executive dartboard

January 28: savagely beats head of JP Morgan shouting 'securitise this motherfucker!'

February 2: asks to be Tom McKillop's friend on Facebook. Is refused.

February 7: wonders if pretending to be McHester would help

February 19: farts in a board meeting. Blames it on the finance director.

February 22: will only answer to the name 'Fred'

Feb 28: is disturbed after head of the investment banking division is bitten by a Translyvanian bat and now will only attend meetings during the hours of darkness

March 3: tries on a series of wigs

March 10: attends his one to one with the head of the investment bank armed with a revolver with silver bullets and a crucifix. Reports tell of the sound of the flapping of leathery wings and shooting.

March 11: hires new member of staff, Professor Van Helsing of the LSE

March 17: cleans up in scrabble with the word 'leverage'

March 25: takes entire board to see 'Watchmen.' Gets in huge argument with Risk Director about Rorsarch

March 30: sings Jacque Brel's Amsterdam to ABN AMRO executive team

April 1: attends anti capitalist G20 demo as an anarchist. Throws TV throw the window of RBS branch in Cornhill. Screams 'rock'n'roll!'