Does Alan Parker also want his life back?

As BP's share price slumps day by the day, and chief exec Tony Hayward feels unable to resist gaffes about wanting "his life back", how is the oil group's hired PR help bearing up to the inconvenience of this unscheduled trip to America?

I hear that Alan Parker, the supremo of City spinners Brunswick, is holding Hayward's hand out in the US having done a deal at the start of the crisis whereby he'd mind Hayward, while senior partner Nick Claydon was apparently tasked with looking after BP chairman, the invisible Carl-Henric Svanberg.

The best laid plans, and all that. That arrangement was cooked up when it was believed that Svanberg would be going to the US, with Hayward staying in the UK.

For some reason, Svanberg has not travelled, meaning Parker has had to.

Lady Parker

I'm sorry to learn of the death of Lady Parker, the wife of the late Sir Peter Parker, the former chairman of British Rail.

Her obituary in today's Times states: "She is survived by her four children: Lucy, Alan, Nathaniel, the actor, and Oliver, the film director." Indeed so, but why doesn't Alan's career warrant a mention? Last time I heard he was one of the Square Mile's most influential players, as founder and boss of City PR giants Brunswick.