Alibaba smashes record sales on Singles Day November 11, 2016 E-commerce giant Alibaba has topped its sales record for its annual Singles Day savings event in China. The biggest retail event in the world totted up $1bn worth of sales in the first five minutes, the retailer claimed, and by 20 hours in had reached $15bn (£12bn) as people snapped up bargains in its annual sale. Total [...]
Horseracing betting tips: Fry’s hurdler won’t be Behind for long at Newbury November 24, 2016 PUNTERS heading to Newbury on Friday looking for Cheltenham Festival clues may not have to wait long as Nicky Henderson’s highly-regarded Jenkins is set to make his hurdling debut in the opener (12.30pm). He is unlikely to be much of a price today, so the more speculative amongst you could do a lot worse than take [...]
Aslef’s not happy with Southern over “misleading” claims it cancelled a strike ballot November 7, 2016 Train drivers' union Aslef is not happy over a press release sent out by Southern's parent company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) over the weekend. A press release from GTR said Aslef "cancels ballot 24 hours after launch", calling it off for technical reasons. Aslef said it had simply been postponed. Angie Doll, Southern's passenger services director, [...]
Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Eastenders: Here’s how much timeshifted Christmas TV we watched on catch-up services January 4, 2016 It may have been the classic Queen’s speech which got us tuning in on Christmas day, but it was Downtown Abbey and Call the Midwife which we settled down to watch on catch-up in the days afterwards, as we continued to stuff ourselves with festive food. Britain’s on-demand TV habits meant that both the popular dramas, on ITV [...]
Appy Christmas: $1.1bn sales record breaker for Apple’s App Store January 6, 2016 Apple is celebrating a record-breaking Christmas after people spent $1.1bn (£753m) through the App Store over the festive season. $140m was spent on New Year's Day alone, Apple's biggest single day of sales after Christmas day. That includes apps themselves, in-app purchases (think buying lives on Candy Crush), across iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watch and Apple [...]
What heatwave? M&S is already filming its Christmas advert August 7, 2016 It may be a sweltering weekend of sunshine and clear blue skies, but one street in London has already seen snowfall – albeit the fake kind – after one high street favourite started shooting its Christmas advert. Yep, you heard that right. It may be the height of summer, but the Marks & Spencer is getting [...]
Pressure mounts on mayor Sadiq Khan to step in over London Underground strike action November 15, 2016 London mayor Sadiq Khan is facing calls to step in over prospective strike action on the London Underground. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union announced earlier today that thousands of its members had voted in favour of industrial action. The RMT said that balloting on two disputes had resulted in workers supporting strike action. [...]
Yes, Selfridges has just opened its Christmas shop and this is what it looks like August 1, 2016 Is that a little bit of Scrooge spirit we sense spreading across the capital? That would be because Selfridges became the world's first department store to open its Christmas shop. Bah, humbug. The retailer has put 50,000 decorations on display, with plans to expand the store later this year to accommodate another 70,000 decorations. When the [...]
Lewis Hamilton to learn new team-mate this month as Mercedes hurry to hire replacement for world champion Nico Rosberg December 4, 2016 Mercedes expect to hire a replacement for Nico Rosberg before the end of the month as the team comes to terms with the newly-crowned world champion’s shock decision to quit the sport. Rosberg, 31, announced his retirement on Friday, just five days after winning the Formula One drivers’ title for the first time – an [...]
Filing your tax return for 2015-16: The questions you want answered January 25, 2017 If you've put off doing your tax return, I don’t blame you. It is hard to find the motivation to forage around for all those documents, only to part with your hard-earned cash. The bad news is that if you haven’t already got the ball rolling on your self-assessment form for the 2015-16 tax year, [...]