Whitehall's spin doctors are crafty. Last Thursday, while the row was raging about British National Party leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time and the Royal Mail strike was causing chaos, the Government slipped out the news that — after 10 months of discussion — it was refusing to back a compulsory register of lobbyists.

This means that PR agencies will be able to keep their clients secret. Spinwatch and the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency, both organisations dedicated to trying to expose the links between corporate lobbyists and government are livid — especially as MPs on the Commons Public Administration Select Committee had called for external regulation 18 months ago. Instead, ministers continue to back self-regulation. Quelle surprise!

Sage of Omaha has right idea about Microsoft

HANDS-OFF management, the Warren Buffett way. Microsoft founder Bill Gates tells the BBC's Evan Davis of a half-day spent going round the software giant's headquarters with investor Buffett. “Now I've toured Microsoft more than any business that I own,” the Sage of Omaha wearily said to Gates.

* IS the RNS — the Stock Exchange's Regulatory News Service for corporate announcements — really the appropriate place to advertise your company's annual fireworks and bonfire night? Westminster Group however has done just that, to get the invite out to all its customers, suppliers and shareholders. Westminster specialises in supplying security and safety systems, often employing former military personnel, so the do at the firm's Banbury headquarters the weekend after next should be spectacular.

Extra-marital love is in the air

ALL the fuss about Andrew Moss of Aviva having an affair with a (now ex) employee has set City Spy's phone ringing. Moss, it seems, is not alone. There's the extremely well-known FTSE 100 chief executive who is in a relationship with his PA.

His wife knows what is going on and has moved out of their London home…

* AS investment bankers get it in the neck from all sides for their bonuses, other City professionals, who are paid equally well, seem to avoid the flak. Overheard at the communal table at The Jockey Club in Newmarket: “If the bankers and brokers are the great gourmet chefs of the City, creating the highly priced artistic financial dishes with flair and passion, then their solicitors are just the overpaid washers-up.”

Bad news in mail from UBS

WHOOPS! Has UBS boobed? The Swiss bank has been battling the US taxman about releasing the names of 4500 account holders, until it was decided that UBS would dispatch a list to the Swiss government, for it to decide which names to pass on. But according to Swiss newspaper Sonntag, UBS sent out letters warning American customers that their account details may be revealed to the Internal Revenue Service.

Er, the letters were sent via US registered mail, which makes it very easy for the US authorities to identify the recipients.

* FOR all CEO Steve Ballmer's pugilistic bluster, just how hungry is Microsoft these days? Fortune magazine reports its Redmond, Washington headquarters is packed to the gunnels with wealthily-tanned, fit-looking types just returned from their sailing trips and rounds of golf. It's not exactly the geeky, workaholic image we've come to associate with that industry. Tod Nielsen, Microsoft alumnus and chief operating officer of VMware, says: “It used to be the velvet sweatshop. Now it's all about 9 to 5, 10 to 5 if you're good and 10 to 4 if you're really good.”

* DISCONTENT at Cambridge over the lengths that accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers are taking to attract new blood. They've been using “reverse graffiti,” to advertise themselves on dirty paving slabs in the genteel university city. Pressure hoses are deployed to clean up portions of the pavements, leaving clean bits that advertise their website and show their corporate logo on the slab, under the heading “Intrigued?” City Spy's man in the ivory tower, sorry, esteemed seat of learning, says “it's just another form of graffiti despoiling the city. They must be really desperate.” But how sad is this? Bank of America Merrill Lynch is handing out free mints to students and passers-by as part of a recruitment drive.

* A headline on Bloomberg: “Pound poised for Goldman Sachs rally not helping Brown with UK so cheap.” You what?

* HAPPY news! Sunday Telegraph business editor Kamal Ahmed has joined Twitter. But he seems to be a tad confused about how the social networking site works. Panicked Tweets spotted thus far include: “Someone just said they can't find me on Twitter. Which is worrying. Does this work?” and “This is new to me. a few have said doesn't work. how can i fix?” Then Ahmed posted a link to an Financial Times article, which, since the Telegraph's website contains a Twitter feed to his posts, meant its business page directed readers towards the FT. Presumably that wasn't Ahmed's intention when he signed up…