City Diary: Around the world in 360 parties, says hedge fund reveller There's a first time for everything. And yesterday, as Sir Mervyn King bowed out with his last set of quarterly inflation forecasts, the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street heard the sound of applause. Sir Mervyn may not have seen eye to eye with the banks, but veteran economics writer William Keegan commended the exiting Bank of England governor for a "virtuoso performance" over 82 successive inflation conferences. "You have attended every one," noted Keegan. While some of us are usually in Provence in August. ITV goes to the dogs ITV chief Adam Crozier has revealed what pulls in the ratings. In his presentation at the broadcaster's annual meeting yesterday, he confided to shareholders: "Paul O'Grady's For The Love of Dogs is a favourite in our household." But Crozier gave short shrift to one investor who called for ITV to cover his club's forthcoming Championship final play-off with Watford, currently scheduled on Sky. "You have my deepest commiseration for being a Crystal Palace supporter," came the reply from the former head of the Football Association and Celtic FC fan. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion could be forgiven for being exasperated with its biggest UK partner, Vodafone. The telecoms giant has been taking orders for BlackBerry's much-hyped Q10 model, but has been implementing subscribers" billing plans for the upgraded handsets before they have been delivered. Unfortunately, there are areas of "incompatibility" between the old and the new models, say Vodafone support staff, meaning some customers have been cut off from their emails for hours at a time. "I was on the phone for three hours trying to sort it out," rages one multiple-contract client. The writ is on the wall for Ruhan Andrew Ruhan, who has emerged as a 2pc stakeholder in the Lotus Formula One team, has been described as "the most successful property developer you have never heard of." But Gerald Smith, the convicted fraudster, is familiar with his work. Last month, Smith's family issued a £100m High Court writ against Ruhan over a contested verbal contract for a 2002 hotels deal. Not such a winning formula. Fashion is back in fashion among City dealmakers. Richard Thwaites, a former M&A chief at HSBC, and ex-Goldman Sachs equity head Remi Olajoyegbe are among the private equity and investment banking names funding the next stage of growth of online emporium BuyMyWardrobe. But then the bankers" co-investor Carmen Busquets has form in spotting the next big thing. She was a founding investor in Net-A-Porter, now a multi-million-pound empire owned by the luxury goods group Richemont.