What they really do with our cash

Bank of Scotland has aspirations to be a cutting-edge financial institution now that it has merged with the Halifax. But the Diary wonders whether having a full-time butler really fits with this image. At the company’s HQ in Edinburgh, Andy the butler, resplendent in white gloves and wincingly deferential, can be seen every morning pouring tea from a silver teapot, while the watchful eyes of former BoS bosses grandly stare down upon him. Cut to the Halifax, where lowly employees are queueing up to humiliate themselves in the latest Sex Bomb-style ad. Talk about the North-South divide turned on its head. It’s not so much chalk and cheese as Lady Penelope and Parker.