usiness big wig Allan Leighton’s arrival as new chairman of set top box maker Pace plc could be viewed in two ways.

It’s either a vindication of the panic among City analysts – against whom I railed in this column last month. They got their collective knickers in a twist after the group warned of lower than expected profits this year.

The arrival of an expert trouble-shooter could be seen as confirming their fears about the firm’s prospects after five years of spectacular recovery from death’s door.

Or it could be regarded as a stroke of genius by the Pace board to recruit someone with Mr Leighton’s pedigree for helping businesses to succeed. It should certainly calm the nerves of the City scribblers.

It has been suggested that, even as the digital technology group produced its gloomier profits forecast, its directors were already negotiating with the former Asda and Royal Mail boss to come on board.

It was always likely to be an appointment that would carry weight and impress pundits, even if it reinforced the view of some that Pace’s recovery is running out of steam.

To be fair, most analysts are reported to believe Pace’s business is sound and do not want Mr Leighton to be too radical in shaking it up – nor to dispense with the services of chief executive Neil Gaydon, who has inspired the firm’s spectacular recovery and global growth. Such a move should be unthinkable.

Mr Leighton has been reported as saying that his main priority will be to improve Pace’s relations with the City.

Much of the fuss over its projected performance this year was caused by City types feeling miffed and believing they had been misled.

So, I trust that is where Mr Leighton will put much of his focus while he remembers the old adage – if a thing ain’t broken…..

l I was flabbergasted to read that Bradford Council chiefs are happy to boast about the fact that the average rate of employee absence has fallen to... ten days per worker per year.

Unbelievable!

The figure has come down from 14 days five years ago, but its hardly something to crow about.

Does it mean that anyone with a sniffle bunks off work? Is taking a ‘sickie ‘ at public expense seen as an acceptable privilege of working for the Council? Is it part of the culture?

Any private business with a sickness rate of this dimension would be bust. It only goes to underline the common belief that Council staff are mollycoddled – and probably mismanaged.

They’d better start pulling their socks up at City Hall – the axe man cometh.