Business Diary: History taken into account

RBS's website proudly displays 100 objects showing the bank's journey from humble 17th-century beginnings to, er, a national disaster, but there are some recent anomalies. So 1999 features the offer document for NatWest, but the 2007 proposal to buy ABN Amro is missing. There's a £5 note from 1966, but no fiver featuring Jack Nicklaus issued during golf-mad Sir Fred Goodwin's reign. Still, there's a 1967 film promoting bank accounts in which workers label banking "a diabolical liberty". No change there then.

BlackBerry crash keeps roads safer

Some more negative news for BlackBerry makers RIM. Its three-day outage last week led to a 40 per cent fall in traffic accidents in Abu Dhabi according to Middle East paper The National. Policeman Al Harethi told the paper: "The roads became much safer when BlackBerry stopped working." Wonder what he thinks of RIM's attention-seeking $100 app giveaway?

Changing the Channel

There was excitement for the 156,000 residents of the Channel Islands yesterday when news broke that its TV station is being snapped up by ITV for an "undisclosed sum". An exiled islander breathlessly told Diary the Channel Television deal "is worth more than £10m". The excitement is not shared at ITV. A source close to ITV's senior management said: "The company sees this as a tidying-up exercise. Very small beer," and adding,"With all respect to Channel."

Bakin' is rakin' in the cash

To celebrate National Baking Week, Diary's stuffing itself with dainty fancies. Meanwhile, cakemaker The Fabulous Bakin' Boys – founded by futures trader Gary Frank after the 1987 crash – reports it's churning out 20,000 muffins and 25,000 flapjacks an hour, helping turnover to potentially top £23m this year. Which brings us to the question, just why did the apple turnover?