Business Diary: 27/07/2009

Whelan promises to dish the dirt on sector

Coming soon to a bookshop near you: the autobiography of Dave Whelan, the colourful former owner of JJB Sports.

Should be a storming read: Mr Whelan promises to tell all about his lengthy period in charge of Wigan Athletic Football Club and – potentially even more interestingly – tell a few tales about rival sports mogul Mike Ashley, who founded Sports Direct and controls Newcastle United. It's fair to say that Mr Whelan and Mr Ashley have not always seen eye-to-eye. When they famously first met, in 2000, Mr Whelan told him: "There's a club in the North, son, and you're not part of it."

Get off our patch, complain bank lawyers

Wondering why the banks keep making a mess of things? Well, it's all down to the dodgy state of their legal departments, apparently. Legal Week reports that concern is growing about the number of legal eagles at banks being seconded in from City law firms – the fear being that they don't understand the institutions for which they work. Who's worried about this trend? The surprising whistle-blowers are in-house lawyers at banks...

A business love-in emerges at the BBC

Good to see happy relations restored at the BBC, where the rivalry between economics editor Stephanie Flanders and business editor Robert Peston has in the past raised eyebrows. Mr Peston, above, has taken to plugging Flanders' blog on his own site, calling one recent entry "so eloquent". Maybe now he's noticed how many more comments his own blog is getting, he's relaxed a little.

Another Spanish bidder flies into UK

Good to see a Spanish company in the running to take over National Express, the troubled bus-and-rail business. After all, elsewhere in the transport sector, Ferrovial has made such a success of its ownership of BAA, the airports operator. Oh, hang on, that's not quite right.

Wolves fans don't score on savings

Wolverhampton Wanderers' promotion to the Premier League has been accompanied by its relegation from the savings tables. It has cut the rate on its affinity savings accounts from 5.25 per cent last season to just 0.75 per cent. Talk about an own goal.

Number of the day: £4bn

The amount Lloyds staff could lose if the bank closed its final-salary pension schemes to existing members