Business Diary: November 22

La Grillade celebrated 30 years as a Leeds dining institution on Friday night with the help of one of its most famous regulars, Alan Bennett.

The Leeds-born writer was guest of honour as more than 100 people gathered to toast the restaurant’s longevity and its owner Guy Martin-Lavall.

Mr Bennett, 77, took part in a question-and-answer session and read from one of his works.

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He said that he could never write a play about the restaurant because everybody is too nice and “you need nasty characters to make it work”.

Asked about the Leeds of his youth, he spoke with sadness about the loss of architecture from the city’s Victorian heyday.

“Walking down Park Row, I just miss the whole of that street. So many wonderful buildings have gone. I feel like an old git going on about it. I find it hard to take, some of the things that have been lost,” he said.

Asked about the work he was most proud of, Mr Bennett said he liked his 2004 play, The History Boys, but added that “it does not do to be too proud”.

The writer divides his time between London and Leeds.

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Phillip Hodson, chief executive of Oval, the Wakefield-based insurance group, and the current president of Marylebone Cricket Club, gave thanks to Mr Bennett.

He said it was “a great privilege to have the greatest living Yorkshireman with us.

“He wins it by a short head from David Hockney and three lengths from Geoffrey Boycott”.

Frenchman Mr Martin-Lavall thanked his staff and his loyal customers. “I hope to see you very soon,” he added.

The event raised £7,700 for the Yorkshire Cancer Centre.

Pace Wilde at heart

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After shares in TV technology group Pace plc took another battering last week following the devastating floods in Thailand and the Japanese Tsunami earlier in the year, chief executive Neil Gaydon turned to the words of one of history’s greatest playwrights.

Speaking at the Bradford Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner on Friday night, he said to the audience: “For those who follow Pace’s progress, you can see it’s been a tough week so it’s good to be back in Yorkshire.

“To adapt the words of Oscar Wilde: To have one natural disaster in a year may be regarded as unfortunate; to have two might be seen as carelessness.”

The struggle for a job

It’s a hard time to be young. Last week’s terrible youth unemployment figures underlined the challenges facing anybody aged 16 to 24 who is trying to get into the world of work.

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It’s also a tough time for anybody wanting to break into a career in professional services, with competition more intense than ever.

Diary was talking to a leading figure at a Yorkshire-based business advisory firm yesterday who said there had been a staggering 120 candidates competing for just two jobs this year.

With the economy in the doldrums, it’s unlikely that the labour market will get any easier.

Royal Mail received 110,000 applications across the UK for just 18,000 seasonal posts, a sign that there are people of all ages seeking work.

Outdoing Lady Gaga

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Turkish president Abdullah Gül knows how to make an entrance.

He swept into the CBI’s annual conference to deliver a speech on Anglo-Turkish trade with an entourage of more than 40 staff – including scores of bodyguards wearing trench coats and earpieces.

As CBI president Sir Roger Carr noted wryly on Mr Gül’s departure: “The audience has thinned out a little.”

“It’s better than Lady Gaga,” said one delegate in awe.

“That’s impressive. David Cameron only had three people.

“Still, when you’re presiding over a booming economy like that, you can do what you want.”

No Stone unturned

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Which Yorkshire chief executive has set his board the challenge of getting him tickets for the reunion of The Stone Roses next summer?

The baggy stars of the Madchester movement are reforming for three shows in their hometown next June.

The fresh-faced CEO will be lucky if his team succeeds.

All 150,000 tickets sold out within 14 minutes.

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