Business diary: BGC double act supports Osborne

If the Chancellor is feeling a little embattled with all the flak he is currently copping for sticking to his austerity plans – not least from the 42 economists who called for a rethink at the weekend – he ought to drop into City brokerage BGC Partners. It now has two separate spokesmen issuing supportive statements. Consultant David Buik was first up yesterday,urging the Treasury to "please pay not one jot of attention to any of those whingeing winnies". He was followed by strategist Howard Wheeldon, who was equally unimpressed by the "rather sad group of whingeing academics".

Reuters man sees red over rivals

To the Bank of England sports ground for the inaugural Diageo City Challenge, a five-a-side football tournament featuring 18 teams of City scribblers. The day was in a good cause, raising £6,000 for the Stroke Association, but that didn't prevent a bit of needle creeping into some match-ups – notably the game between arch rivals Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, which saw one of the former's stars sent off for fighting. Unkind observers also pointed out that the Bank of England was generous not only in offering to host the event – its defence also shipped 13 goals in five matches.

Fullers scores a historic double

Fullers, the brewer and pubscompany, clearly has an eye for a story. It has just snapped up a pair of historic pubs: the Coach and Horses in London's Soho, the hostelry immortalised by Peter O'Toole in Jeffrey Barnard is Unwell, and the Cabbage Patch, the Twickenham inn to which England rugby fans have been flocking for generations. You'll be pleased to hear that Fullers has no intention of turning these classic pubs into trendy wine bars.

Why your staff do so little work

Are your staff becoming ever more unproductive? If so, the explanation could be that they're all looking for another job – so berating them may only make the problem worse. A survey by Monster, the online recruitment consultant, suggests that more than a quarter of employees who are looking for new opportunities spend at least three hours a week of their current employers' time on the hunt. Almost one in 10 people spend seven hours a week.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk