It is awesome, isn't it, to see how powerful the world's financial authorities are when they act together? For some weeks the markets have been bitching that the governments and central banks did not grasp the gravity of the financial situation; that their response was piecemeal and tardy.

It is not helpful to describe Sharon Edwards as "walking free" from court. The 40-year-old pleaded guilty this week to four charges of sexual activity with a child, and one of offering to supply Class A drugs. She may not indeed be in jail, but nor is she entirely at liberty.

Happiness, according to the American viewing public, is a warm puppy movie. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, the adventures of a pooch who talks just like Drew Barrymore, has been top of the US box office for two weeks, despite the efforts of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ridley Scott, and even Shia LaBeouf (meaty by name, meaty by nature) to unseat it with something more meaningful. But – sorry Leo, sorry Shia – people would rather see a dog wear curlers, go on holiday and fall in love; they would...
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Say what you like about Peter Mandelson, but things happen to him a lot. His life is vivid with incident, hectic, mouvementé. He bustles here, he whizzes there, furrowing his noble brow and setting his mouth in that reluctant, razor-blade smile. He is Mr Busy. He recalls that TV commercial in which a woman executive strides along a corridor, accompanied by an entourage of fawning acolytes, while a voice intones: "I move with the times... In this fast-changing world, I make decisions..." ...
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For Generation X, there is something almost reassuring about recession. For me, spawned in 1971, it's been a case of lack of business as usual, be it 1974-75, 1980-81 or 1991. Indeed, in the manner of professional Northerners, X-ers might boast that "It's All We Had".

In an extraordinarily candid assessment of past failures and disappointments, Rio Ferdinand said yesterday that Fabio Capello had ended the "circus" that had blighted England's recent attempts to win a major trophy and launched an impassioned attack on the culture of WAGs (wives and girlfriends) that detracted from the last World Cup campaign.

It sounded like an issue that Rio Ferdinand had been waiting to get off his chest for a long time and when it came to confronting the worst excesses of the national side's recent past – the WAGs culture of the 2006 World Cup finals – he finally nailed the sorriest episode of this current England generation. It took a senior player to say it outright and now you have to hope the "circus", as Ferdinand described it, really has left town for good.

Alexander Hleb is not just Belarus' best player, he is probably the greatest Belarusian footballer of all time but after a dispute with Barcelona it looks like the formal Arsenal winger will not even be in the stands to watch tonight's game in Minsk. Barcelona have said they do not want the player to travel, fearful that he may even opt to play despite a knee injury.

Three points in Minsk tonight and England would appear to be on a jet-propelled course to the World Cup finals in South Africa in two years' time. A moment for some mild self-congratulation among the players and their entourage, perhaps, and one for some private regret among a small band of aspiring English managers within these shores.

George Peat, the Scottish Football Association president, has told any players considering following Kris Boyd into international exile to get behind manager George Burley instead. Boyd told Burley he no longer wanted to play for him after being left on the bench for Saturday's goalless World Cup qualifier against Norway.