The culture of celebrity comes to Regent’s Wharf

Congratulations to Leanne Graham, personal assistant to Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, who has joined the board of the Association of Celebrity Assistants, a not-for-profit membership organisation for, well, people who assist celebrities.

Congratulations to Sir Stephen, too. Any lingering doubt about your own celebrity has now been expunged.

The beneficiary less travelled

Charities often feel the lack of essential resources. Money, most often. But the Commercial Travellers’ Benevolent Institution, the benevolent fund for travelling salesmen, is running short of another essential: beneficiaries.

The charity was set up for the benefit of those hardy souls who trek our motorways in Ford Mondeos, selling rubber hose or paperclips or chewing gum to our captains of industry.

But following the birth of the internet, they’re apparently an endangered species. The charity is considering expanding its beneficiary class to include those less hardy stay-at-home sales souls it previously spurned.

Drive on, your worship

Following our first item on charities with entertaining names, Society Diary has turned up a rich vein in the livery companies of London. These 110 charitable organisations, dating back to the 14th century, represent a changing picture of the city’s most important industries over time. They’re just about all still active, too, although it’s clear that some – the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers, for example – don’t represent a growth industry.

Since 1515, they’ve held an annual parade, in order of precedence according to the date of founding. Rather wonderfully, for 499 years the Worshipful Company of Skinners and the Worshipful Company of Merchant Tailors have been arguing about who should go first.

There are still new companies being added, and juxtaposition of ancient and modern has thrown up a few delightfully incongruous names. The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers is Society Diary’s favourite.

Social entrepreneurs: great impact, great hair

Somewhere down the back of the internet lies a site whose author has a lot of of time on their hands, a lot of affection for the extended metaphor, and a deep-seated desire to describe in loving detail the self-styled heroes of the social enterprise sector.

It introduces itself thus:

“We know, because so many of their online biogs tell us so, that these people have passion. What is too often forgotten is that many of them also have great hair, the chiselled features of the romance novels and the steely gaze that sends a pleasurable shiver down the susceptible female spine.

“It is with the noble aim of bringing these glorious creatures to a wider audience that we hereby inaugurate the first social enterprise hot list.”

What follows on My Impact is Bigger Than Yours involves a long, loving excursion into purple prose which drifts somewhere between soft soap and soft porn.