UK coronavirus: Matt Hancock tests positive March 27, 2020 Health secretary Matt Hancock has tested positive for coronavirus, Downing Street has said, just an hour after Prime Minister Boris Johnson also revealed a positive diagnosis. The minister, responsible for coordinating the NHS response to the UK coronavirus outbreak, said he has had only mild symptoms. He will self-isolate until next Thursday, when he will [...]
Royal Mail could be sent packing from FTSE 100 in final reshuffle of the year November 28, 2018 Royal Mail could be sent crashing out of the FTSE 100 next week as insurer Hiscox stakes a claim to replace the UK postal service in the blue chip index. The final FTSE reshuffle of the year takes place on Tuesday and barring a miracle Royal Mail, which delivered a shock profit warning in October, [...]
Best of travel: From Canada to Mexico to find Trump’s legacy February 1, 2021 To tide us over until we’re able to travel again, we’re republishing classic travel stories from our archives. This week we revisit Ashwin Bhandari’s coast-to-coast trip across America to try to understand the Trump phenomenon. ••• The Seattle skyline, with the iconic Space Needle against the backdrop of Mt Rainier, may be familiar from TV [...]
Has-beans? What Chilango’s CVA tells us about the struggling casual dining sector December 11, 2019 Mexican chain Chilango offers its customers a choice between three different types of salsa: mild, medium, or hot. Faced with those options, who chooses the middle one? This is – in a way – the conundrum facing the increasingly polarised casual dining sector. Nowadays, customers either want fast, cheap fuel, or they want a quality [...]
Ostrich shops need to stop blaming the high street and step up January 16, 2020 Stories of failing retailers seem to be as regularly in the news as Brexit or Harry and Meghan. And when we read about them, it’s usually accompanied by lamentation that the state of the high street is to blame. Just this week, City A.M. reported that department store Beales is facing collapse. Its chief executive [...]
The metaverse could be just the tonic for social prescribing April 30, 2022 Dr Jane Thomason says community tokens can be an effective tool to set incentives for desired behaviour within a community.
Lose five pounds for the government? It’s thanks to the government I gained it in the first place July 29, 2020 I cannot be the only person who has gained five pounds during lockdown. I am still far from overweight (the NHS BMI calculator helpfully tells me that I am in the optimum range for my age and height), but the government’s sudden fixation on slimming down the nation has not exactly been great for my [...]
Parasite movie review: Bong Joon Ho’s surreal social commentary is a work of rare genius February 7, 2020 Over the last 90 years, the Academy has deigned to nominate just 10 foreign language films for the Best Picture gong, with none of them walking away with the gold statue. There’s an 11th in the running this year: Bong Joon Ho’s superlative Parasite. The director, whose oeuvre spans both Korean- (The Host, Mother) and [...]
Pret in talks to gobble up rival Eat as part of health-conscious expansion plan May 16, 2019 Sandwich chain Pret A Manger is in discussions to snap up rival food group Eat in a bid to create a swathe of vegan and vegetarian-friendly food outlets. Read more: Pret A Manger reveals latest plans to help London's homeless Pret is nearing a deal to buy most of Eat’s 94 outlets or the entire [...]
The best of travel: Spending a week in an ‘apocalypse dome’ January 12, 2021 Throughout January we’re remembering better times and sunnier climes by reposting some of our favourite travel stories from the last decade. In the second instalment, our Life&Style editor Steve Dinneen retreats from civilization to live inside an artist’s “apocalypse dome”. Read more: Pink goes offline as Covid takes the shirt off its back The more we [...]