Business Diary: The case we all want to see go the distance

Ryanair has had another idea for settling its legal row with easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou (who took exception to the Irish airline accusing him of lying in newspaper adverts). After easyJet said no to a race between Stelios and Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, the airline has asked customers to vote on alternatives – a mud-wrestling contest, say. Very funny chaps, but we're betting easyJet has the last laugh.

Pontin's sign up Bucks Fizz and Paul Young

Happy news from Pontin's, the holiday camp people, who report that bookings are 22 per cent up. And with next month's entertainment line-up you can see why: not only have they signed up Eighties pop star Paul Young, but Bucks Fizz will be doing gigs too. Cheap at three times the price.

Used vans are back in the fast lane

Beep-beep: a press release from www.thevaninsurer.co.uk cuts us up. It claims the price of a second-hand white van rose by 30 per cent over the past year, with the rise "parallelling an escalating resurgence in the British economy". We're not sure which resurgence they mean, but let's hope their driving is better than their economic analysis.

Shocking revelation about business on TV

Hats off to the University of Nottingham's Institute for Enterprise and Innovation. In a hard-hitting survey, it has discovered that most small business owners think shows such as Dragons' Den, and TV's depiction of entrepreneurs such as Alan Sugar and Richard Branson don't properly capture what it's really like to start up and run businesses. You don't say.

340 more signatures to be taken seriously

Should we heed the warnings of the 20 economists who wrote to the Sunday Times this weekend to call for a more credible deficit reduction plan from the British Government? Well, there were some eminent signatories, but the initiative didn't quite match the protest made in 1981 about Geoffrey Howe's plan to raise £4bn in new taxes. Then, more than 360 economists signed a similar letter to The Times.

Number of the day: £4.5m

The sum the Government is investing in the fight against online fraud, thought to have cost Britons £3bn in 2009.