Business Diary: Will Kelly's new role prove short-lived?

Best of luck to Tom Kelly, hired yesterday as the new man in charge of communications at the Financial Services Authority. Currently at BAA, Kelly is a former spokesman for Tony Blair and knows his way round Whitehall well. That could prove handy given the Tories' determination to get rid of the FSA if they win the election.

The wrong type of apple for the blender

The frenzied release of Apple's iPad at the weekend has spawned a new craze: filming yourself destroying one of the devices and posting the movie on YouTube. The site already has clips of teenagers smashing up an iPad with a baseball bat, but we especially like the promotional video posted by BlendTec, a manufacturer of industrial blenders. Put an iPad through a blender and the results aren't pretty, it turns out.

Tesco cashes in on the World Cup

We can only applaud Tesco, which is proud to proclaim itself the supermarket of England's bid for 2010 World Cup glory. And can we be the first on the waiting list for the "Wag bag for life" that the grocer plans to start selling soon. Details are sketchy, but Tesco has singed up "Wags including Alex Gerrard" to design the must-have souvenir of this year's tournament.

The wages of spin are still in the ascendancy

As Lord Mandelson and other luminaries continue with their efforts to rebalance Britain's economy – not least by placing more emphasis on industries that actually make stuff – it's intriguing to hear where the growth in the UK economy is coming from. Recruitment consultant Reed says that while most of the job smarket slumped in March, demand for new staff in the PR and marketing industry was up sharply.

The allure of Goldman is undimmed

It's good to see the youth of today turning their back on the City in this post-credit crunch age. Or it would be, if that were what's really happening. Guess which company has just been voted as the employer most British students would like to join on leaving university? Goldman Sachs.

Number of the day: 9 per cent

The rise in the cost of motoring over the past six months alone, according to a survey from Sainsbury's Finance.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk