Over to the Institute of Directors on Pall Mall, where last night US ambassador Matthew Barzun was speaking on a panel about the global outlook for 2014. Richard Quest, CNN’s international business correspondent, wanted to know what he thought of the Snowden/NSA fallout, and whether the US had got it right. There was a long pause before Barzun said: “I’m going to choose my words very carefully here.” To which Quest asked: “Why? Afraid someone’s listening in on us?”
The most interesting revelation, however, was not about NSA data breaches but Barzun’s footwear. He told the audience that he had taken to wearing “happy socks”, a habit picked up while he was ambassador in Sweden. Sadly it wasn’t possible to see what Barzun thought made for jolly footwear. Any sightings, Londoners, please tweet us on @standarddiary.
