Chris cross enough to leave ASAP

Time for another of The Diary’s occasional looks at life in the ASA press office.

Last time we visited Torrington Place, ginger-haired external affairs manager Chris Reed was cheerfully accepting his lot, despite his employers refusing to adjudicate on a cruel anti-ginger ad campaign.

But it seems the wound was deeper than anyone thought, because a few weeks later Chris announced he was leaving to go travelling.

The Diary is told Chris agonised long into the night over breaking the news to colleague Steve Ballinger, only to find that Steve was leaving too – to go travelling! How they must have laughed!

Reed’s first stop is New Zealand, he tells us, while Ballinger is Thailand-bound. The Diary wishes them both well (and wonders what it is about the ASA that makes its employees want to flee to the ends of the earth).