I have just taken my youngest daughter to see Father Christmas in one of the big department stores. By pure chance standing in front of me in the queue was none other than Stuart Pearson. He entered the Grotto and came out about 5 minutes later with a big smile on his face. Curious, I stopped him and asked him why he was so happy. He told me that for weeks that he had been trying to come up with a solution to Langbar’s problems, and all of a sudden the answer had come to him, “simply ask Father Christmas for £360 million”. When I questioned the possibility of Father Christmas not existing, he looked at me as if I was mad, saying that he had met him only a few minutes earlier, and that he had confirmed that the money would be available by boxing day. He was going home to issue a RNS on the strength of it.
Don’t hold your breath though. When I talked to the big red guy later he smelled of meths and confessed to being a non-medical doctor.