Credit crisis diary: Even Keano can't get people to Ipswich

It's a snub for the Tractor Boys – as Ipswich Town's football stars are known – from Ryanair. Sources at the airline say that when Roy Keane managed Sunderland, the airline used to put on extra flights from Ireland to the North-east so that his compatriots could follow the team. Now Keane has been appointed at Ipswich, Ryanair has apparently decided additional services can't be justified to East Anglia.

Rebuck cracks open the bubbly

As this diary predicted would happen on Monday, Gail Rebuck walked off with the Veuve Clicquot businesswoman of the year award yesterday. Perhaps she should take over from husband Philip Gould in the running of daughter Georgia's campaign for selection as a Labour candidate for the next election. Georgia was a shoo-in until becoming embroiled in a dirty tricks row.

The taxman gets it wrong again

Red faces all round at the Inland Revenue after officials were forced to withdraw a leaflet giving advice on tax credits. The leaflet attempts to explain why people sometimes received too much money from the tax-credit scheme – which the Revenue then claims back, to almost universal displeasure. Sadly, the advice flatly contradicted the Revenue's actual rules and had to be pulled after a string of complaints.

Feeling the heat in the Dubai property market

Disappointed by the plunging value of your home? Well, spare a thought for property owners in Dubai, where prices have fallen 41 per cent during the first three months of the year alone, according to Colliers International, a real estate consultancy.

An outbreak with profit potential

No spin-doctor worth his salt misses an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon of a global crisis. So Berkeley PR is keen to get client Jean Challiner some headlines out of the swine-flu crisis. "Having the tools to react quickly and effectively to these situations can really make the difference between life and death," warns the good doctor, who just so happens to work for Clinical Solutions, a company that is contracted to provide the UK's National Pandemic Flu Line Service.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk