Business Diary: 28/04/2010

A bookmaker hoping for some redemption?

Within hours of the launch yesterday of the Stoxx European Christian Index – no investments in weaponry, tobacco or gambling – the bookie Paddy Power unveiled a groundbreaking deal with St Etheldreda Church, a Catholic place of worship in Newmarket, close to the racecourse.

It is sponsoring the church's confession box – to the tune of £10,000 – ahead of this weekend's Guineas meet. Do what we say, not what we do?

So tell us what you really think Mr Perloff

Panther Securities' annual results are always worth reading for the "chairman's supplementary remarks", or Andrew Perloff's diatribe, as most investors know it. This year's note is as entertaining as ever. Running to 19 pages, it contains a string of complaints about regulators, banks and climate change campaigners, and concludes: "I have just heard on the radio that our Prime Minister was on his way to see the Queen to ask her to disband the current Band of Bureaucratic Bounders, Brigands and Bare Faced Liars."

Bye bye Edward Elgar, hello Adam Smith

Be warned: capitalism has triumphed over culture and you could be the loser. From the end of June, £20 notes carrying the portrait of the composer Sir Edward Elgar will no longer be legal tender, meaning that you'll have to make a trek to the Bank of England to get your money. Since 2007, the notes have been gradually replaced with those featuring a picture of the economist Adam Smith.

Searching for the country's best workers

News from Dickies, supplier of gear for workmen – think hard hats and hi-viz jackets. It is offering £30,000 in a competition to find the Worker of the Year: "the person who truly epitomises the spirit of the UK worker". The details are scant so far – not least on the attributes you need to meet the ideal – but start putting your CV together.