BUPA, the healthcare group, has fallen out with the man who runs its website selling medical products. Bupa-shop was taken down this week and the two sides are in mediation.

It sold slightly weird products such as anti-DVT socks and chilled pillows and was run on a trial basis by Frans Robey, a former barrister, who kept the revenue, but the two-year deal is running out. “We’ve been trying for six months to find a formula for continung the relationship,” says BUPA, which wants some of the cash.

Robey and his colleague put it rather differently. Because there is nothing in writing, BUPA can simply go ahead with a site based on his ideas without paying him at all, he says. Yes, I suppose it can.

“Because BUPA is a company founded on trust, we felt safe. We’ve left ourselves vulnerable to the possibility, which we wouldn’t have done if it was any other company.”

CARL LEAVER, the chief executive of hotelier De Vere, who screwed a £1.1 billion takeover bid out of the Alternative Hotel Group, will quit once the deal goes through. This may have come as a nasty shock to AHG, which thought it had secured the former Nomura man’s services. One source insists: “Discussions over the matter are ongoing.”

Ram raid

FROM a review of forthcoming events in Iceland: “The fourth annual ram-groping contest will be held next weekend on Strandir, northwest Iceland. The contest is divided into two categories, one for experienced and another for inexperienced gropers.”

The rams will be rated by independent judges. Afterwards, “Icelandic meat soup will be served, along with a cake buffet.” Baffling. I know there can’t be much to do in northwest Iceland, but still . . .

I nervously type “ram-groping” into Google, while awaiting the arrival of our IT people within minutes asking embarrassing questions. No search results, which is probably as well.

A mistranslation for grouping? Something to do with sheep-dogs? Let us hope so.

SUBSCRIBERS to BT’s new broadband service are supposed to receive a “hub phone” which plugs in and allows phone calls. They have been a little surprised to discover, on opening the box when it arrives, to find a bog-standard phone — “the kind that Argos knocks out for around a tenner,” says one — and an apologetic note. BT blames a redesign for the delay and says the new ones will go out over the next few weeks. The other phone is to ensure customers are not without a service. Fair enough. But it might not be too clever a trick to pull on your offspring come Christmas.

Party spirit rules

LORD Steinberg of Belfast chose Tel Aviv as the venue for his 70th birthday party. It probably seemed a good idea a few months ago, but I inquire about the take-up. “Very good,” says someone who was there. In all, 150 people, few no-shows and “a very low-key — not a Philip Green-type affair”.

Steinberg’s wife Beryl recalled the early days in Belfast. When the chain reached four in number, she suggested this might be a good time to stop. It was the one time in their marriage that her husband disagreed with her. When they were sold last year, Stanley Leisure had 600 betting shops.

city.diary@thetimes.co.uk

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