Business Diary: No FT, no comment for Amnesty

So it's shame on the Pink 'Un. The FT was the subject of a furious press release from Amnesty International yesterday, decrying the decision to pull an AI ad that criticised Shell's operations in Nigeria and appealed to the oil giant's shareholders to raise the issue at its AGM. At the rather unsporting time of 4.58pm. "Editorially, the FT was willing to run the ad, but it couldn't be given the legal assurances on the claims made against Shell," said a spokesman. Assurances that allowed the Metro and the Evening Standard to go ahead.

This is how they won the bonus World Cup

So this is what JP Morgan's bankers do to deserve the bumper salary increases they've been enjoying in recent years (an average of 22 per cent last year). The US investment bank's stock pickers have applied their expensively constructed quantitative mathematical models (whatever they are) to predicting the winner of the World Cup. And the result? England to beat Spain in the final, with the Netherlands coming in third.

Chinese walls will of course prevent JP's investment bankers from using this to solicit clients, won't they?

What's up with Dein and Levy at the Wolseley?

Talking of football and business, just what were Daniel Levy, chairman of the Champions League aspirants Tottenham, and David Dein, former vice-chairman of Arsenal, talking about over breakfast at the Wolseley yesterday morning? Surely Dein couldn't be thinking of a return to football in white rather than red?

Tax advisers want tax man in their club

Diary notes the Chartered Institute of Taxation's launch yesterday of a branch with a difference. Chartered Tax Advisers (CTAs) within the Civil Service are to form a new branch of the Institute, based in HM Revenue and Customs. In other words, the poachers want the gamekeepers to join their club.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk