David Cameron at a PM Direct event last week. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters 1.56pm: Cameron says that no one wants “brutal cuts”. He says that he has put a levy on the banks. And there should be action against tax avoidance too. But he would be “misleading” voters... 

General Sir ­Richard Dannatt said he only heard of the UK’s lead role in Helmand when Blair announced it at a 2004 summit. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters Tony Blair bounced military commanders into deploying large numbers of British troops to Afghanistan while they were facing a growing... 

Richard Fuld at an earlier hearing in Washington. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP 4.47pm: Since Lehman’s demise, Fuld has kept an ultra-low profile. Fortune magazine’s William Cohan recently provided a good round-up of what Fuld’s been up to. Cohan quotes sources who say Fuld has... 

Sir Bill Gammell has led a full and varied life, including stints as a Scotland rugby player, an oil baron and sports charity founder Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian If you were to design an archetypal Scottish oil baron, you might very well design a Bill Gammell. He is a former...