The Evening Standard decided to prove the grip of the credit crunch and rang top London restaurants to find that many of them could offer them a table that night and some even had spaces on Saturdays traditionally booked up for months in advance. Proof then that we are in a consumer downturn. McDonald’s appear to hope that things have become so desperate that such empty stomachs will be coming to them. Hence they have begun a recruitment drive for 4,000 new staff - a 6% growth on their current UK team of 67,000. 10 new sites are to open across the country in the coming months as the company reported (hats off) its ninth consecutive sales growth last month, even while splashing the cash on rebranding their stores. The brand’s right up there as one of the sponsors of the Beijing Olympics and China have taken them to their heart. No wonder: for those of you who don’t speak Mandarin, the advertising posters McDonald’s have put up around the city say “I’m lovin’ it…when China win.” I love it too; when human rights win. Oh, yes, I do politics too (but only when I’m really drunk.)

Hey y’all: American electricals giant Best Buy has confirmed plans to open as many as 200 stores in the UK. They will be squaring up to Comet, Curry’s and PC World – the latter of which is sending staff on a customer service boot camp in preparation for the arrival of the American firm which puts product knowledge first. Best Buy is coming to these shores as a £1.1bn joint venture with the Warephone Carhouse who have ambitions to break out from its mobile phone roots. This is big news – anyone who’s bought from the big UK electrical firms recently knows the experience can be a little underwhelming. If DSG International (Currys and PC World) don’t see results from the new staff training soon, it could be an open market for Best Buy. Its time to choose which side you want to be on chaps, this area of retail is going to get very bloody. Choose wisely, young Skywalker. And do you want an extended warranty with that..?

I’m not sure which is more newsworthy: the fact that some spying on internal documents from a techy magazine has revealed that Microsoft is planning to replace Windows with a new product; or the fact that the new product is called Midori - it was a whole bottle of Midori that finally lowered the drawbridge to the second Mrs Hanson! Anywho: the new Microsoft platform will be virtual, using the internet to host itself, rather than us having to download software onto our machines. If you’re up for any IT interview, mug up on this; it may be a few years off, but its the second coming is something the nerds will be getting very excited about. Praise be!

You can’t move this week without tripping over defence firm BAE Systems. Down in Cowes they won a £100m contract from the government to stick a radar system onto two aircraft carriers (not bad when you consider the quote I got to do the bathroom); they have been patted on the back for development of the comic-book named Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System uses lasers to blow up bad guys but not civilians – a $46m contract. Then the furore of the Saudi fighter deal seem to come to a welcome conclusion with the House of Lords deciding it was lawful for The Serious Fraud Office to dropped a corruption investigation into BAE for allegedly making payments to win contracts. To continue the investigation it felt would be a risk to national security – with the Saudis threatening to stop sharing anti-terror intelligence with the government if the SFO investigation continued. Wow! It’s all corridor of power stuff. Attractive eh? It is to 310,000 people who work in the defence trade. If you’re keen, just be on your guard as to who you work for…Less welcome this week for BAE is that a subsidiary firm Red Diamond made £20m payments to a rather odious looking character called John Bredenkamp who has alleged links to Mugabe and according to Channel 4 once distributed land mines out of the UK to Iran and Iraq. No one will confirm the £20m payments or say what they were for. When “national security” can be used as a pacifier, it makes it difficult for even a sweet old fool like me to fully embrace BAE’s promise of an ethical approach their business.