Credit crisis diary: The (rare) highlights of the G20 demonstration

IT boss looks ice cool

Cracking note out from Panmure Gordon this week. Following a meeting with the Micro Focus chief executive, Stephen Kelly, the analyst George O'Connor came away with two feelings. One, that the firm's revenue forecasts looked good in the short term; and two, that Kelly had been hiding his past as the American "rapper" Vanilla Ice. He certainly would be a good man in a crisis. As the hit Ice, Ice Baby said: "If there's a problem yo I'll solve it/Check out my hook while my DJ revolves it."

Poland unimpressed by 'worst-hit' country tag

The Diary landed a copy of the official G20 mag this week. Among the articles on the various issues of the London conference was a piece pointing out that "no region is more affected by the global crisis than central and eastern Europe". The article was illustrated by a smashed-up old factory in Lodz, Poland. Not so, cried the Polish embassy in London when the Diary got on the blower. "We will not deny that Poland is experiencing some currency instability," but... "Poland's prognosis is positive [as] there are no indications regarding the onset of recession in 2010." So there you go, G20 pointy heads.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk