Credit crisis diary: Looking forward to Elliot's hospitality

An invite arrives to a House of Commons reception next month to unveil a report on how to encourage investment in green technology. A worthy aim, but will the bash still be on by the time we get there? It's just that the invite comes from Elliot Morley, the MP who forgot he'd paid off his mortgage and claimed another £16,000 for it. What chance of him still being around in June to buy the drinks?

Another beautiful day for U2 star

Looks like Bono is set for another big pay day. LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate, is on the verge of taking a stake in Edun, the ethical fashion label that the U2 singer founded with his wife. Chairman Bernard Arnault won't be drawn on how much of Edun he wants to buy – or what he'll pay – but the owner of Dom Perignon, Tag Heuer and Louis Vutton isn't short of a bob or two.

No good news for British jobs here

The Government was understandably keen to crow about British jobs yesterday, as it announced its decision to buy a third tranche of Eurofighter Typhoon jets. But the contract doesn't seem to have been much use to Atlantic Inertial Systems of Plymouth, which has just announced 40 redundancies, despite its work making terrain avoidance software for jets including the Eurofighter.

Leed's mystery suitor goes quiet

Bad news for shareholders in Leed Petroleum. Investors were buoyed a couple of weeks ago by its disclosure that it had received a takeover approach. But Wednesday brought a more disappointing revelation: Leed said it was unable to give an update on the approach, on account of not being able to track down the mysterious potential bidder. And yesterday, surprise, surprise, Leed added that all talks have now ended.

How to create some insufferable guff

Creative industries could be the key to the recovery of Britain's economy – that much most people agree on, as long as there's plenty of emphasis on the word "could". Still, does that mean we should have to put up with the sort of insufferable guff published this week in a little joint venture between the British Council and a quango called Creative & Cultural Skills? It is 100 pages of pretentious twaddle from creatives claiming they can build a new economy. Try to avoid it if you suffer from high blood pressure.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk