Business Diary: PR guru appealsfor some slack

Lord Bell wants you all to know he's had enough of people having a go at the public relations industry just because some of its members see fit to take a bit of cash for representing countries in the Middle East and elsewhere about which there are sometimes ethical concerns. In a stirring defence of his business, Chime, Lord Bell writes to PR Week magazine to say he is "tired of the criticism of both my firm and myself in relation to the various public outcries in various countries around the world". Far be it from us to split hairs, but "public outcries" does seem to us to rather undersell some of the uprisings in question.

Murdoch keeps his eye on the ball

James Murdoch, the European CEO of News Corporation, clearly wasn't too anxious about the grilling of a senior policeman by MPs yesterday in the latest episode of the phone hacking storm surrounding the company's News of the World. He wasn't even in the country: the TV cameras – on Sky, he will be pleased to hear – picked Murdoch out in the crowd at Ahmedabad where he was watching Australia take on India in the cricket World Cup.

Disgraced dealer nurses his wounds

Never accuse Romain Camus of lacking the skills necessary for a career in the City. True, he may have got the push from Deutsche Bank after a newspaper published a picture of him at one of its office windows taunting protesting nurses who were passing by with bank notes. But check out the entrepreneurial spirit: Camus has put an appeal for personal donations on his home page on the Linkedin social networking site.

Gamekeeper returns to poacher

While the Institute of Fiscal Studies presented its annual appraisal of the Budget yesterday, the usual coruscating analysis was missing – presumably because it no longer enjoys the services of Robert Chote, the media-savvy economist who used to run the think tank. He, of course, is now installed at the Office of Budget Responsibility, which had its own briefing yesterday. Still, Chote was clearly curious about how his former colleagues would cope without him: after making the OBR's presentation he hotfooted it over to the IFS to hear what they had to say.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk