Feverish gossip is doing the rounds at Ernst & Young about Nick Land’s successor, and TS feels we have a moral duty to share it with you. The rumour is that a late candidate will join the council’s two nominees to the chairmanship ­ Mark Otty, a 41-year-old fitness fanatic who apparently does 100k runs, and Jock Lennox, a 49-year-old Scot.

Both of the current candidates are from the industrial and commercial office, and the financial services division apparently feels slighted. Mike Cullen and Christopher Price, from said division, are being talked of as potential challengers.

Meanwhile, insiders have described Lennox and Otty as management consultant types, better at the big picture than in dealing with subordinates. Otty apparently oozes charisma, but would put a few noses out of joint if he won, not least because he only recently became part of E&Y’s UK executive.