BAH humbug to Barclays’ US arm and American Express. At a time when their workers most need some cheer, they go and cancel the Christmas party.

Barclays/Lehman announced its Scrooge-like decision to cancel firm-wide and departmental parties in an e-mail last week.

“It is not appropriate for us to do anything that might be seen as inappropriate by any of our stakeholders,” said Rich Ricci, who runs Barclays Capital.

American Express, which has announced 7,000 redundancies, went one step further, cutting not just this year’s festivities at a stroke, but those of 2009 too.

Joanna Lambert, a spokes-woman for the company, said she still held out the hope that “we’ll have something to celebrate next year”.

The gloom is not confined to New York. Aima, the hedgies’ trade association, cancelled its annual Mayfair bash last week.

One hedgie’s response?

“No holiday parties? Short the party companies and hotels.”

Now that’s not very festive, is it?

- AND so to a prescreening of Quantum of Solace at the Mayfair hotel with Ocean Sky, the private-jet firm. There were raucous cheers and applause every few minutes but not for Daniel Craig’s finely honed torso. Ocean Sky’s groupies simply couldn’t contain their excitement at seeing their own planes in celluloid, having tied up what is surely thepièce de résistanceof product placement. The first roar was quite endearing - the ninth less so.

All booked up in Barbados

IT IS reassuring to see that it’s business as usual at the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados.

The rooms, which start at $3,200 (£2,000) a night and go up to $25,000 a night for the villa, are fully booked from December 17 to January 3.

The waiting list, I’m told, is very long.

We assume the usual crowd - Topshop boss Sir Philip Green, X Factor supremo Simon Cowell and Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones - will be down for the sojourn but does that mean it’s business as usual for them? Or could it just be that they paid the total cost in advance and didn’t want to write off the investment?

Drakes’ progress enrages Airey

DAWN AIREY was spitting feathers when she returned as chief executive of Five last week. Five months of gardening leave following her exit from ITV have been anything but restful.

An electric fence erected round her Oxfordshire garden has kept out foxes and mink, but Airey has still suffered from trespassers. Randy drakes have been breaking in and mating with her prized flock of Indian Runner and Khaki Campbell ducks, producing 13 half-breed ducklings so far. Airey suspects the drakes belong to a flock owned by Sir Richard Branson, whose estate lies across the field.

“He appears to have been extending the Virgin brand on my land,” she said. Branson’s spokesman is not so sure he should take the blame.

“We take the selection of our Virgin ducks very seriously - and as the name suggests we believe they are, and remain, Virgins,” he said.

- OUTRAGE on the fairways of Brocket Hall, the supposedly upmarket Hertfordshire golf club and former seat of ‘I’m a Celebrity’ toff Charlie Brocket. A name-and-shame list was put up outing those who had not paid their annual subs on time. Some of the top business folk who are members were furious when they were named despite having coughed up.

The club should be reminded of when it parted company with celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli recently. The Frenchman was forced to issue a writ for unpaid fees. At the time the manager Andrew Hepburn spluttered: “There was a slight delay in payment of fees but they have now been paid.”

Moody’s blues for Hearts owner

THE CURSE of the football-club-shirt sponsor seems to have struck again. Following the woes of Northern Rock (Newcastle United’s shirt sponsor), XL (West Ham) and AIG (Manchester United) now Heart of Midlothian’s shirt sponsor has issues. Ukio Bankas, the Lithuanian bank controlled by the club’s controversial owner, Vladimir Romanov, has had its lowly credit rating put on review for a downgrade by the credit-rating agency Moody’s. In football language: it’s facing relegation.

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