Business Diary: Tories in trouble over Heathrow

The Institute of Directors today offers tacit support to the Conservatives with a business manifesto calling for immediate steps to cut the deficit. One demand will cause problems: the IoD wants the next Government to agree to a third runway at Heathrow, to which the Tories are implacably opposed.

O'Neill's impossible ultimatum

A tough call for Jim O'Neill, of Goldman Sachs. With rumours that the Glazer family, owners of Manchester United, have been putting pressure on the bank about its chief economist's role in their bid for the club, O'Neill may have to pick between his job and his passion for the Reds. Now there's an impossible choice.

No more pocketfuls of small change

Good news about the Bank of England's cash management policy. It aims to get more fivers into circulation, addressing a persistent whinge of business and consumers, for whom there are never enough £5 notes around.

If you're struggling to get to sleep...

At last, the bean counters get their day in the sun. Far be it from us to suggest that the BBC might have found a slightly more interesting subject than a history of accounting (which began thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia, apparently), but let's just say we won't be rushing to the wireless. Radio 4's A Brief History of Double Entry Book-keeping starts today.

Strapped for cash at HM Treasury

Just how short of cash is our Government right now? Diary has lost count of the colleagues and contacts who have been told recently that a tax rebate or refund they are due is being delayed. Is the Revenue hanging on to extra cash to help No 11 through the crisis?

Number of the day: 1

The number of days left for BA to reach agreement with unions, says TUC boss Brendan Barber