London | Labor eminence grise Mike Rann walks into a swish restaurant in London’s Mayfair carrying a gaudy drawstring bag. He sits down, fiddles with it, and whips out what looks like a wine bottle. The eatery – Chutney Mary, a legendary institution in the capital’s Indian fine-dining scene – isn’t BYO. So what’s he up to?

It turns out the former South Australian premier and national ALP president, who later served as our top diplomat in London and then Rome, has gone into the oil business. Not the black stuff – the yellow stuff.