Business Diary: Corus doing better, but only in France

Good news from the steel firm Corus. No, it isn't intending to keep its Teesside steelworks open after all, but it is proud to announce that it will invest €35m in one of its facilities in France, having won a contract from the state-owned railway company, SNCF. We could do something similar in this country, of course, had we not privatised the railways.

Ryanair fails to spot an open goal

What's going on at Ryanair? It has been two days now since the British Airways strike was announced, yet the Irish budget carrier still hasn't dispatched a press release revelling in its rival's misery. Normally it gets something out within minutes. Instead, the vacuum has been filled by BMI, which wants the world to know that it "will do all we can to assist passengers who have been caught up in the dispute".

Why Accenture should have raised Tiger's pay

Top marks to Campaign magazine's Rory Sutherland, who makes this point on his blog about Accenture's decision to dump Tiger Woods. "Surely Tiger's decision to outsource sexual services to a range of competing providers is in line with management consultancy's established best practice?" he writes. "The arrangement where he could have anything from nil to three girls on call at any one time allows for better load-balancing, enabling him to handle the peaks and troughs of demand better than under the previous inflexible arrangement."

Bankers can't depend on beating bonus tax

Eversheds makes a good point about Alistair Darling's new bank bonus tax. Though it applies to awards made in the 2009-10 tax year, the detail of the legislation governing the charge isn't due until after that period has ended, the City law firm points out. It may be tougher to dodge this one than expected then.

No need to put these goodies on expenses

Happy news for freeloading MPs. Cadbury's is taking its campaign against a Kraft buyout to the House of Commons today, and promises free chocolate all round.

Number of the day: £39bn

The rise in value of homes in Britain during 2009, according to Zoopla, following an £811bn slump in 2008.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk