Joke job number 7,082...

Usually the Guardian merely advertises these hilarious vacancies. Now it is giving them to staff...
Guardian News & Media
Georgina Henry is now The Guardian’s Head of Culture, responsible for the integration of cultural output on The Guardian, The Observer and guardian.co.uk. She can be reached on +44 (0)20 3353 3784 and georgina.henry@guardian.co.uk.

Sindy Column...

For this week's column (unusually from South Africa), click here.

SafaBelly

Apologies for the paucity of posts - but being as ITV seems intent on ruining the World Cup for all its viewers I've decided to go to South Africa to watch it live.

Anyway, a couple of early thoughts occur.

1. Everybody seems upset by the noise of the vuvuzelas, but is that constant whine any worse than listening to Clive Tyldesley?

2. Investment bank, JP Morgan, decided to get itself lots of publicity last month by using its quant models to predict that England would beat Spain in next month's final. So far, its picks for the tournament have produced one point and one goal from two games. That might all change, of course, but will the US bank care? Like its real equity research, it's unlikely that JPM has backed its hunches with much of its own money.

Laura Jane gets another distress call

More peculiar goings on at West Register – the secretive vehicle created by Royal Bank of Scotland in which it dumps its distressed assets. You'll recall that there seems to be a policy of constantly switching directors at West Register (Investments) and West Register (Property Investments). Now I note that one Laura Jane Barlow (already a director at the property group) has joined the board of the investment company. Oddly, virtually all the directors seem to be based in south-east England, despite West Register being located in Royal Bank's buildings in Edinburgh, while construction sources reckon the bank and its off-shoots are impossible to reach to do any deals. Developing…

Sindy Column...

IG boss admits spread betting punters make no money! For this week's column, click here.

A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma

Is this the most ridiculous statement ever issued to the stock market? "BP IS NOT AWARE OF ANY REASON FOR SHARE PRICE MOVEMENT" it screams. "BP notes the fall in its share price in US trading last night. The company is not aware of any reason which justifies this share price movement."
Indeed. What a mystery. What could possibly be causing investors to fret?

Three Lions lose your shirt

Is World Cup fever finally starting?

I hear that publicly-listed Ladbrokes has just taken a £100k punt on Spain at 4/1 from an international customer, while the worrying (for the bookies) absence of bets on England seems to be alleviating. A few mug punters are now starting to back the Three Lions, making an England win the second worst result for the layers. The worst result? An Argentina victory - in more ways than one.