Pembroke: No designs on Paddy Ashdown

MARKS AND SPENCER responded in typically sniffy fashion to Paddy Ashdown's insistence yesterday that he dresses from head to toe in M&S clothing. The sartorial admission came at the British Chambers of Commerce conference in London, when the non-designer-clad Liberal Democrat leader was responding to a call by designer Jean Muir for more people to wear British gear.

Asked to name any other movers and shakers with a similar penchant, a Baker Street spokeswoman huffed: 'We don't keep those kind of records I'm afraid.' But M&S does point out that Mr Ashdown does his shopping during normal opening hours. 'After all the flak Virginia Bottomley got over early opening, I don't think anyone else would dare ask.'

LUNCHING CITY workers in Broadgate Circle have been amused all week by the sight of gents lurching around with their trousers rolled up to their knees. The cause was the Vittel water rollerblading competition, which ended yesterday. In the speed trials (one sprint around the specially padded circuit), non-City workers bagged the first two prizes. But Ray Bennett from the Stock Exchange puffed around in 9.76 seconds to finish third and win himself a pounds 200 pair of rollerblades.

THEY KNOW how to turn on the tourists at TI Group. The engineering conglomerate is crowing over an exhibit it has supplied to an innovation display in Milan. The fascinating item is a Type 28 gas seal as used in the trans-Siberian pipeline. A queue is not expected.

POOR OLD City Forum. Everything was going swimmingly earlier this year when the conference organiser arranged a session on Gatt and even persuaded Baroness Thatcher to speak. Now the bottom seems to have fallen out of the market. Next Monday it had planned a Property 2000 conference on the commercial market. But the event has been cancelled because of a paltry take-up of the pounds 250 seats. 'We are not disclosing how many seats we sold. But it wasn't enough,' says director Bart Collins.

LONDON accountants Wheawill & Sudworth are hitting the thespian trail again this month with a play about insolvency. The firm first trod the boards last year with a production called A Redundant Case. This time the suits are staging The Printer's Devil, a play based on a printing company's experiences of the recession.

The firm says insolvency partner David Rubin will have a bit part at the end where he will take questions from the audience. 'His part isn't scripted but he's quite good at the spontaneous stuff,' says an off-stage colleague.