Accountants BDO to pay back millions in furlough cash after payout outcry December 13, 2020 Accountants BDO will return £4.1m in furlough cash after being subject to a barrage of criticism for paying out hefty profits to its partners. The Sunday Times reported that the company, which is one of the UK’s biggest accounting firms, would give back the money after paying its partners an average of £500,000. Managing partner [...]
Patient admitted to hospital ‘every 30 seconds’ as Covid hospitalisations hit record January 18, 2021 “Someone is admitted to hospital with coronavirus every 30 seconds,” the health secretary has said, as hospitalisations continue to hit fresh heights amid the rapid spread of new Covid mutations. There are currently 37,475 people in UK hospitals with coronavirus, with more than a tenth on ventilators. “That is the highest that it’s been throughout [...]
Janssen begins stage three Covid vaccine trial in UK November 16, 2020 Janssen has today begun stage three trials of its coronavirus vaccine, the third such company to do so in the UK. 6,000 volunteers across the country will take part in the tests of the vaccine, which has been developed in partnership with US giant Johnson & Johnson. The trials come after Pfizer last week announced [...]
Grocery sales on track for bumper Christmas after reaching record high in November December 8, 2020 November was the largest month ever for the UK’s grocery market as out of home socialising was restricted by a second national lockdown, figures show. Market researcher Kantar said grocery sales rose 11.3 per cent in the 12 months to 29 November and climbed 13.9 per cent year-on-year in the last four weeks. Last month [...]
Switzerland and the Czech Republic added to UK quarantine list August 27, 2020 Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Jamaica have been added to the UK’s quarantine list from Saturday, transport secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed. From four o’clock on Saturday morning, all travellers returning to the UK from these countries will have to self-isolate for 14 days. In a tweet, Shapps said: “Data shows we need to remove [...]
Editorial: London, like Josef K, awaits its sentence November 24, 2020 On Thursday, we will find out whether the death warrant for thousands of London’s businesses, mainly in hospitality, will be signed. But, like Josef K in Kafka’s Trial, those businesses are left clueless of what their future depends upon. London will enter Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 of the new restrictions next week. [...]
City of London to host ‘back to work’ week in bid to revive Square Mile December 14, 2020 The City of London will call on office workers to return to the Square Mile in a “back to work” week in April, in a bid to help resuscitate the bars, restaurants and hospitality venues hammered by empty streets during the pandemic. William Russell, lord mayor of London and a former Merrill Lynch investment banker, [...]
Exclusive: Test and Trace slammed for tweaking counting method to boost stats January 26, 2021 The Government’s Covid-19 Test and Trace programme has come under sharp criticism for tweaking its method of counting coronavirus contacts to boost figures. The beleaguered contact tracing system last week changed its methodology so that Covid-19 contacts can be counted multiple times, City A.M. can reveal. Previously, people who had been in contact with any [...]
Tiering it down: Boris Johnson backtracks on Covid restrictions November 29, 2020 Boris Johnson has bent to the demands of Tory backbench MPs by softening England’s future Covid restrictions regime. Johnson wrote to MPs telling them that people stuck in the strictest Covid restrictions will have them downgraded next month, while also promising that the tier system will end earlier than expected. Millions of people put into [...]
Ed Warner: Why 2022 is the year of the sportswash January 5, 2022 A city without snow and a state in the desert. Obvious places to hold the Winter Olympics and World Cup if you are the International Olympic Committee and football governing body Fifa. Welcome to 2022, the Year of the Sportswash. The principal outdoor venues for Beijing 2022 are – on a good day – 90 [...]