Business Diary: Rooney seventh on soccer rich list

Last month's unfortunate swearing into the camera incident may yet cause Wayne Rooney even bigger financial problems – many people think this is what cost him a Coca-Cola sponsorship deal – but according to a ranking compiled by Forbes, the Manchester United star remains Britain's highest-earning football star, at least for now. Still, he's only seventh on the Forbes list – his $20m pay is only half the earnings racked up by David Beckham. Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kaka, Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry are all ahead of the England striker too.

Why politics is like groceries

It's good to see that Richard Taylor, the communications director of Morrisons, the supermarket group, isn't missing the world of politics. He first came to prominence as a special adviser to the Labour government and subsequently worked for Tim Allan's agency Portland. But flogging Morrisons' wares isn't any different to his previous incarnations, he tells the latest edition of PR Week. "We're telling stories, and that applies in politics, in an agency and in-house," he says. "True" stories, he subsequently adds, of course.

New York goes after another bank

It is not just Britain that worries about losing big banks to New York, which has been sniffing around after Barclays in the hope that Bob Diamond can be persuaded to move it to the Big Apple. In the state of Connecticut, just a few miles down the road, local officials in Stamford are having kittens over the possibility of UBS, which has almost all of its US business there after being offered tax breaks a few years back, relocating. The bank denies it, but the rumours persist.

One invite that Blair did receive

She and Tony may not have got the nod on Friday, but at least Cherie Blair isn't missing out on every invitation. She's been asked to give the keynote speech at a new event for leading women, particularly those with an entrepreneurial bent, in June. The bash in question features lectures on topics such as "Turning the corner – the new age of the high growth firm woman entrepreneur". Blair sounds like the perfect choice.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk