CITY DIARY

Michael Henderson is remembered among industrialists for his aggressive expansion of Cookson Group, which ended in tears in 1990 when rising interest rates and problems with its profitable tioxide plant lead to his surprise resignation.

For five years Mr Henderson has stayed out of sight, spending much of his time in Kazakhstan, where he is helping to develop the new republic's massive raw materials resources. Now he is back in town, this time as non-executive chairman of Henderson Crosthwaite, the stockbroking and portfolio management business owned by Guinness Mahon, which is in turn owned by the Bank of Yokohama.

He combines the new post with his positions as trustee of the Natural History Musem and as the governor of a couple of Home Counties private schools.

Mr Henderson's voluble distaste for City short-termism does not seem to have diminished. He insists he is not looking for any public company appointments. "The row at British Gas reminds me how little I miss the atmosphere at public companies."

Careful thought on the part of Mike Ryder, whose new job is selling Jardine Fleming's unit trusts in Hong Kong and Asia. His business card, an instrument taken very seriously in the Far East, bears not only his name in English, but, as is common, Chinese characters that provide a fair approximation of its pronunciation - in this case "Muck High-Day". And the actual meaning of the characters? "Professor of Morality".

The blood continues to splatter against the wall at Wellcome after the merger with Glaxo. Following the departure of John Robb and Gabriel Cipau last month three executive directors left yesterday, which means there is only one top manager left at the pharmaceuticals giant. Yesterday's departures are Dr David Barry, the head of research development and medical affairs, Keith Merrifield, director of international operations, and Philip Tracey, director of North American operations. With their exit, the 10- person integration executive, which is meant to be administering the smooth amalgamation of the drugs behemoths, will be losing two of its members.

Preparations for next week's Derby are under way at Vodafone, the new sponsors of the event, who have paid pounds 3.5m for three years of corporate hospitality and promotion. At the Savoy yesterday there was excitement on the part of Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman, who has an interest in several horses and is a member of the Jockey club, and Gerry Whent, chief executive, whose wife, Lady Whent, breeds horses. She is looking forward to Vodafone Sunday, when one of her four-year old sprinters will try to beat the world record of 53.6 seconds over five furlongs and win a pounds 40,000 jackpot.

"We have not got into this event to fulfil our dreams of seeing one of our horses romp home first in one of the races," insists a spokesman.

The court technology at the Maxwell trial is not keeping up with Alan Suckling, the Serious Fraud Office's avuncular QC, and his Rumpole-like performances. Each time his rhetorical style gathers pace he drifts away from the microphone and the specatators in the gallery start shouting for him to speak up. If the audio system does not improve the trial could last years.

John Major's suggestion that his current economic troubles date from his predeccessor's boom-bust policies in the late 1980s brings to mind an apocryphal story that continues to do the rounds in the Treasury. It concerns Nigel Lawson's preparations for the Budget in March 1988. The then-Chancellor was concerned about the housing market over-heating and decided to take the opportunity to limit mortgage interest relief to one person per household. It was intended to enact this measure quickly, as officials realised there might be a rush if buyers had a period of grace in which they could still get multiple Miras. However, the draft proposal contained a mistake: the date for the cap's introduction was written as 1 August rather than 1 April. But the hi-tech spell checker on the Treasury's computer system failed to recognise the error - after all, August was spelt correctly.