Bob Diamond bags a diamond tipped bonus from Barclays.

The banking business is now a computerised casino for making money out of bytes. Touch the button and zeros become prime numbers with alacrity. Bob Diamond is the chief of Barclays Bank. He gets a salary of £250,000 for his day job. For his croupier activities he gets a whopping £6,500,000!

Now I'm firmly behind David Cameron's notion that the entrepreneurial community is going to get Britain out of the mire. But what did Bob Diamond do entrepreneurially last year to get his salary paid 26 times over in ONE YEAR?

Breast milk ice cream gets boobed by authorities

Ice cream made from breast milk has been removed from a central London restaurant on health grounds following complaints by members of the public. Surely not those who tasted it. The owner of the ice cream parlour says the stuff is very fine indeed. It's pasteurised and excellent. The ice cream was churned with donations from London mother Victoria Hiley, and served with a rusk and an optional shot of Calpol or Bonjela. Each serving costs £14. All very enterprising in a less than enterprising year so far.

Along comes Westminster City Council to scoop the confection off the counters and experiment with it in their laboratories. Tory Westminster Councillor Brian Connell said, "Selling foodstuffs made from another person's bodily fluids can lead to viruses being passed on and, in this case, potentially hepatitis. As the local authority we will support small businesses and applaud innovative ideas wherever possible, but must protect the health of consumers." Pity he's not so hot on hospital filth or catering establishments with rats as inhabitants.

I'd think that "bodily fluids" of another person which had been pasteurised were far more efficacious than some of the so-called food fed to animals. Mad cow disease didn't come from breast milk ice cream! I think this is more about the sensitivities of a couple of Brits unable to see the funny side of this enterprise. If people want to pay £14 for an ice cream delight that's their business. What if the council finds out that this ice cream is 100% virus free and hepatitis negative? Maybe they will go to the Council of Europe for a verdict, from the fallen madonna with the big boobies.

FIFA go red at sight of orange!

FIFA is the international money-making organisation that promotes association football (allegedly!) and promotes its own business vigorously with a ruthless eye for commercial miscreants and cheeky wannabe competitors. This nonsense about the Dutch beer, which I now see is Bavaria, is a bit OTT. But FIFA has always been OTT. Bavaria Brouwerij traditionally gives away orange clothing to fans. Orange is the colour of the Netherlands. This happened in the last World Cup. Budweiser got in a terrible lager lather then.

Then FIFA tried to get Dutch fans to strip off their clothing to their undergarments all because the Bavaria logo was on their shorts. It's all a bit fascistic. Perhaps the FIFA bosses picked up a few tips from the old Stasi or other such delightful outfits.

Many companies see the World Cup as an opportunity to sell more merchandise. In a free market economy fans as well as non-fans should have choice. FIFA has this notion of "official partners". Well, OK as it stands. But that's no reason to take on the MAFIA's code of business practice and try to throttle the competition.

Should the mutual back-scratching stop?

It seems to be that honour, integrity and a sense of decency are in short supply for those in public life. John McCain has got caught up with a character called Charles Keating. I don't think McCain has done anything particular wrong except to be around a man who "spread a lot of money around Washington, and it was time to call in his chits". This is what I read on azcentral.com in an article titled "McCain Profile: The Keating Five".

The United States has a format for matching public funds with that raised by contributions. No political party can exist past the one-man-band stage without funding. That's a given. However, it's the way the money is collected that matters.

This Keating appears to have been a bit of a ducker and diver in his time. His savings and loan business was going the same way as the proverbial handbasket, or in his case handcart. So he wanted favours. Apparently he said, "McCain's a wimp" when he heard that McCain was nervous of a meeting with him.

Do we really want the likes of Keating sniffing around the Congressional halls, without an ounce of moral fibre, seeking out senators and members of the House in order to "call in their chits"?

It's the legalised crooks like Keating who have brought us to this sorry pass. Ironically, this all happened in March 1987. That's over 21 years ago! Then we knew that there was recklessness in the accounting system. It's been mounting up ever since. Thankfully, the greedy banker was ultimately convicted of swindling investors, but only ELEVEN years later in 1998!

So, should the mutual back-scratching stop? I say YES, because this is not free enterprise. It is covert corporatism, with the average person catching the cold!