HE may not be laughing as such, but I imagine Robert Sharpe will certainly be smiling all the way to the bank.

The former chief executive of the Portman Building Society has pocketed a cheque for £1.7 million for his sterling efforts in leading the institution into the merger with Nationwide. A colourful character, Mr Sharpe attracted some unwelcome publicity back in 2003 when the Portman threatened legal action against a customer who used the society's annual meeting to question the wisdom of his relationship with a graduate trainee of the company. Be that as it may, Mr Sharpe will receive a redundancy cheque of £709,000 and £977,000 in return for foregoing his 12 month period of notice. Having just checked my own contract here at the Daily Echo, it appears that the terms of my own golden handshake would not be too dissimilar, you will no doubt be pleased to learn. I am sure all the customers of Portman were delighted at the smoothness of the transition that Mr Sharpe engineered and feel that he has earned every penny of that tidy sum.

I gather he did not even have to queue up to collect the cheque.

  • The annual Poppy Appeal is now well underway. Two of the local launches are featured in today's paper. There has been a significant change in emphasis in recent times to involve children and young people in the promotion of Remembrance Day, partly to remind us that it's not just the ex-serviceman from the two World Wars who are helped by donations. We'd all do well to remember that fact at a time when our Armed Forces have never been more stretched or faced such a myriad of global challenges.