London Bridge staff are having hot coffee thrown on them and being spat at by angry commuters as travel chaos continues March 10, 2015 Union bosses at RMT have written an open letter to train operators Southern, Southeastern and Thameslink, along with Network Rail, claiming rail staff are being abused by angry commuters over the travel chaos. The union claims that staff have been threatened, had hot coffee thrown over them and been spat at by passengers who [...]
Andrew Flintoff: ‘I can’t remember England this strong’ June 4, 2015 Ex-England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff tells Ross McLean how he expects his old side to beat Australia and regain the urn Former captain Andrew Flintoff insists the current England side is the strongest he can recall and one that is primed to regain the Ashes which were unceremoniously surrendered 18 months ago. England head [...]
MPs attack policing of licence fee and push to scrap BBC Trust February 25, 2015 The BBC will come under fire from an influential group of MPs today, with a new report slamming the “anachronistic” way in which licence fee evasion is treated as a criminal offence. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee also criticises the BBC for squeezing out smaller rivals, and proposes scrapping the BBC Trust. The [...]
Fighting forward: The Black Farmer’s Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones talks sausages, political incorrectness and willpower May 31, 2015 Being an entrepreneur is all about timing. You can have the best-laid plans in the world, a huge amount of skill, but it’s really about catching the zeitgeist.” This is Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones’s opening line to me. After a brief pause, he adds, “life is also all about timing”. This is something the founder of [...]
KKR circles for British building materials firm Lafarge Tarmac January 26, 2015 US PRIVATE equity behemoth KKR is in negotiations to acquire Lafarge Tarmac, one of the UK’s largest building materials companies, it came to light yesterday. KKR has teamed up with FTSE 100-listed materials supplier CRH, with the pair jointly bidding €6bn (£4.5bn) for assets put in the shop window by Swiss building giant Holcim and [...]
The fast lane: Spencer Ogden co-founder David Spencer-Percival talks medevacs, detoxes, the youth of today and why banks get a hard time June 7, 2015 It is unlikely that David Spencer-Percival, co-founder of Spencer Ogden, will be reading this any time soon. On Saturday, he and his wife embarked on a caffeine, alcohol and tech detox in an Ibizan forest. “I feel frazzled. Our offices are end-to-end in terms of timezones, so I just never stop. You have to have [...]
The artful dodger: Prolific forger Mark Landis gave all his counterfeit paintings away for free July 2, 2015 Mark Landis was 30-years-old and living alone in San Francisco when, on a whim, he decided to become a museum benefactor. “I had been seeing things on TV about wealthy philanthropists giving pictures away to museums in memory of people. I wanted to show my mother that I was doing well, I wanted to show [...]
Silviniaco Conti can silence doubters and win Gold Cup March 12, 2015 BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS THE FINAL DAY OF THE CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL ONLY once before in the last 10 years has a bigger field gone to post for the Cheltenham Gold Cup (3.20pm), the feature event of festival week. Bobs Worth (2013) and Lord Windermere (2014), the last two winners of the 3m2f½ Grade One prize, both [...]
Admiral results solid not flashy says top boss March 5, 2014 CAR insurer Admiral has announced good results for 2013 with overall profits up 7 per cent despite an 8 per cent fall in group turnover. Profit before tax in 2013 was £370m compared to £345m the year before, while earnings per share were up at 104.6 pence, a 10 per cent increase. Group chief executive [...]
“Year of the baked potato” sees Admiral profits rise March 5, 2014 FTSE 100 car insurer Admiral has reported a rise in profit before tax of seven per cent to £370m, according to the company's preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2013. Earnings per share were up 10 per cent at 104.6p and group vehicle count was also rose four per cent. 7,000 staff are [...]