Business Diary: Harriet doesn't like to think out of her red box

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My eye is caught by a question posed on Monday to the minister for women and equality, Harriet Harman, about how many ministerial red boxes were provided to her office over the past five years and what they cost.
It was asked by John Hemming, the businessman-turned-LibDem MP for Birmingham Yardley, who has always had an eye for the opposite sex, but it turns out that this is not another flirtatious move.
It's actually a serious(ish) experiment Hemming is conducting into how Whitehall departments answer or avoid written questions and he's had 19 replies so far.
Incidentally, Harman batted Hemming away. The tease!
On Bell's list: do Deutsche
I see that Deutsche Bank has hired Scott Bell as a managing director and global co-head of the consumer industry group. And good for them.
Not only do they gain a banker with gilt-edged experience from spells at HSBC and Goldman Sachs, but also one of the City's most organised figures, renowned for his extensive to-do lists.
I was once handed a copy of one of those from the late 1990s which contained all sorts of interesting things that Bell was planning to achieve (including some pretty personal stuff).
He also detailed ambitions to write his own recipe book, apply for work abroad, apply for FD positions, set up his own business, and a curious entry of "self pres" (self-preservation?).
I wonder how he's getting on with all of that?
Another sign of the times, as a press release from over-50s group Saga arrives bragging that the banking crisis has seen applications for its savings products double. Paul Green, a Saga spokesman, smooths: "We take no pleasure in the current troubles at Northern Rock."