Bonus boom

Despite the increasingly upbeat chat, I've been loathe to hail the end of the recession. Until now, that is, when I breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that, after a tricky patch, City bigwigs' bonuses are set rise 50 per cent this year.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research reports that the total amount paid out to merchant bankers and the like fell from a whopping £10.2bn in 2007 to a paltry £4bn last year. Thankfully, they're set to rise to a much more respectable £6bn this year, before inching up to £7.5bn by 2012. Panic over.

I've always made a point of using a good chunk of the Dodgi board's collective bonus to pay for the staff Christmas bash. You'd be surprised how pricey McDonald's in Hornchurch is.