Business Diary: Lloyds and RBS offer each other support

Sweet. If you're a bank with the Government as a major shareholder, you don't have too many friends in the industry. Your rivals resent your implicit state guarantee and the fact you provoked ministers into a tax on bonuses. So it's good to see banks in this position sticking together. The latest analysts' note from Royal Bank of Scotland has an unequivocal recommendation for investors: buy shares in Lloyds.

How to keep your supporters sweet

The Unite trade union is organising a get-together of British and Irish workers next Tuesday for the launch of their campaign against a takeover of Cadbury by Kraft of the US. It has got the right idea about getting people onside, promising Cadbury Creme Eggs all round. Will Kraft reciprocate by offering cheese slices to those backing its bid?

Tories pull a Budget fast one on Google

Those Conservative central office types know their new media. Staffers in David Cameron's office this week bought up a string of Google ad words such as Budget and Treasury in the hope that web surfers would find then themselves linking through to the party's home page. Top marks for invention.

Goldman's golden boy is disarmingly frank

Jan Sramek, a 22-year-old trader in Goldman Sachs's London office, cannot seem to help making waves. Having just been named as one of the 100 rising stars of global finance by Financial News, his updates on Twitter are now keenly watched. Maybe he shouldn't moan, as New York Magazine reports, about having to endure "three hours of classes", adding "academic finance is largely nothing more than intellectual masturbation".

Is Ryanair seeking a papal dispensation?

Ryanair is still plugging its charity calendar hard (it features revealing pictures of more glamorous cabin crew) despite objections from Irish women's groups. Its publicity claims the calendar has been blessed by "Vatican City residents". Further inquiries reveal that the airline means only that it has sold 30 calendars to people living in the enclave.

Number of the day: 0.8%

The rise in the number of passengers using UK airports last month, the first increase since March 2008.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk