Guy Hands likes to surround himself with prominent international "advisers", to help him raise cash and do deals at Terra Firma. They have included William Hague, a former Oxford flatmate and erstwhile leader of the Conservative Party, Michel Rocard, a former French PM, and Lord Owen, the one-time Labour defence secretary who set up the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s. But perhaps the most controversial is Richard Perle, the former US assistant defence secretary.

Perle has been under fire for years over his cosy links to the Pentagon and to companies making money in the defence business. But the hawkish US right-winger has recently been savaged for sitting back at Hollinger International while Conrad Black allegedly looted the company. Last week's report by Richard Breeden, formerly of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, accused Perle of an "abject failure to fulfil his fiduciary duties" and suggested Hollinger pursue him for $5m he collected in fees. Let's hope Hands will give Perle a better CV.