Stuart Rose: Overpaid? Yes. Politically incorrect? Yes. But we'll miss him

So farewell Sir Stuart Rose, who will this week chair his final annual shareholders' meeting at Marks & Spencer. Last week he insisted he was looking forward to the usual "fun and games" at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday. The AGM is a big day out for hundreds of M&S's small shareholders, who look forward to a free packed lunch and the chance to moan publicly about important matters like a shortage of dresses with sleeves, which are so vital for ladies with wobbly arms. He has always dealt with such matters with aplomb. Women (always referred to as "girls" by the politically incorrect Rose) who can't find a thing to wear in M&S have often been offered a visit to the Marble Arch store with Rose in the role of personal shopper. This year there will be a pay protest. City shareholders don't like the £15m first-year pay deal offered to new chief executive Marc Bolland or the £875,000 Rose negotiated for himself, which makes him the best-paid chairman in the FTSE 100. But his imminent departure means the rebellion will probably amount to less than the 47% of voters who failed to support the Tesco pay report recently. Rose is overpaid: of that there is little doubt. But he is also the sort of charismatic leader of which there are so few these days.