A name emerges, blinking, out of the mists. It is the Chicago Rib Shack on Knightsbridge, created by Bob Payton, the late entrepreneur. This has been through a set of ownership changes almost impossible to comprehend, having once even been owned by Capital Radio. (Those were odd times, indeed.) The restaurant closed for a while but was revived by Matterhorn Capital, the vehicle headed by property men Anthony Lyons and Simon Conway, and a group of investors including Michael “Woody” Sherwood, co-chief executive of Goldman Sachs International, who had 5 per cent.

The others have just sold out to Matterhorn, which as well as owning half of Earls Court and Olympia already has various pubs and bars around the UK, including the trendy Parker McMillan in London. Conway tells me that he plans to expand the business, rebranding some of his existing bars, and also to open in various European capitals.

An odd time to do so? “Not everybody wants to sit in and watch TV.” Woody is unlikely even to have noticed any profit. He was fingered this year as the recipient of a bonus reported to be $23.4 million.

Huddersfield high rollers out of the game for now

Is this some kind of record? Casino Red in Huddersfield has shut down, only eight weeks after opening. Shuddersfield is not perhaps the ideal location for “an unforgettable night out” the venue promised on opening. Or perhaps it is. I once spent a memorable enough wet Saturday afternoon there. And I suppose if you lose enough, it would stick in the memory. Someone answering the phone at the £5 million casino said the closure was “hopefully a temporary measure – we’ve got a few things to sort out”.

— A few sharp intakes of breath at the TUC the other night, when Derek Simpson, the general secretary from Amicus, arrived for the launch of the book and DVD relating the history of the T&G. The two unions are locked in a deeply unhappy marriage as Unite, and Simpson didn’t help matters when he recently likened his brothers at the T&G to SS troops.

It wasn’t quite like the bit when the gunslinger in black walks into the bar, but there was some surprise that Simpson saw fit to turn up, and a few askance looks. Various speakers were clearly on their best behaviour, and the book’s author, Andrew Murray, wasn’t entirely convincing when he joked that he was working on the history of Unite, “to be published by Mills & Boon”. At this point Tony Woodley, Simpson’s counterpart from the T&G, laughed nervously.

— Willie Walsh, the BA chief executive, lives in Twickenham, right under the Heathrow flight path. Does he get trouble from the neighbours, he was asked in an interview with December’s Reader’s Digest? “My friends know me well enough not to ask.” Though the Queen was more diplomatic, Prince Philip has complained. “He was very funny,” Walsh says. “He talked about aircraft flying over his ‘house’.” Does this keep Walsh himself awake? “Someone once asked me if I could hear the aircraft at home and I said, all I can hear is the sound of the cash register.” That will go down well with those protesting against a third runway.

— Worst pun of the week, from some research by Investec Securities on an outfit called Superglass Holdings: “Superglass’declinesbeendrastic, butoutlooknotatrocious.”

Digby joins Dubai scrum
In the blue corner: Lord Jones of Birmingham

Digby Jones is well on the way to becoming a national treasure. He stood down this year as Trade Minister after a frustrating time that did not see him actually get to vote in the Lords too often. Lord Jones of Birmingham himself admitted that he should never have become a minister and, controversially, refused to join the Labour Party, a sine qua non, surely.

However, he has displayed a self-deprecating wit since he came to prominence as director-general of the CBI in 2000. (He didn’t even seem to mind my headline “Digby Who?”) Admittedly, the extra time on his hands may be why there seemed to be a bit more of Digby when he appeared on Sky TV the other day – he has suffered from weight issues before, a victim of the rubber chicken circuit. Now, in his new role as Business Ambassador, he is heading a 200-company delegation to Dubai, to show UK enterprises how to operate there.

The timing seems odd, what with economic growth in Dubai well and truly stalled. Or perhaps not so odd; they arrive today, at the start of the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens. Digby is fond of his rugby.

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