Trouble percolates for Caffe Nero over living wage after coffee chain bans free lunches for staff April 20, 2016 In recent weeks, several businesses have announced they will fund the living wage by cutting back perks for staff – something which is causing the public to turn against the brands in question. One of the best examples where this has happened is Caffe Nero. The high street coffee chain reacted to the introduction of [...]
Bank of England braced for historic Super Thursday – London Report August 2, 2015 THIS WEEK includes s-called Super Thursday when the Bank of England’s policy announcement, meeting minutes from the monetary policy committee and the latest Inflation Report will – for the first time – all be released simultaneously. HSBC gets the week off with a bang today with interim results, Standard Life tomorrow and Legal & General [...]
Britain’s future will be even brighter if we take back control from the EU this Independence Day June 22, 2016 Imagine the UK is the best place in the world to do business. With controlled migration that means we choose the skilled people we need, we now have a high wage, high productivity, high skills economy and are trading in a globalised world. Investment is strong, attracted to a high performance Britain, and we have a [...]
Learning the hard way: As the interest on student loans rises further, should parents help their children cut the cost of going to university? August 24, 2016 As school leavers jumped for joy at their A-Level results last week, parents may have had cause to grimace. Despite the government’s emphasis on apprenticeships, a university degree remains a passport to higher paid employment. Nevertheless, the costs of higher education have spiralled in recent years, and students are having to take on much larger student [...]
West Berkshire Brewery raises glass as it expands into Islington-based pub Shillibeers and puts pen to paper on new brewery June 2, 2016 Crowdfunding beer maker West Berkshire Brewery is raising a glass after it put pen to paper on a new £3m custom-built brewery and secured its first urban pub, Shillibeers, in Islington. The new brewery will allow West Berkshire to increase its brewing capacity tenfold and also to provide packaging for other breweries. The brewer has said the [...]
Watch out Tesco, now Amazon’s creating its own-brand range May 16, 2016 Is Amazon trying to eat even more of Tesco and the rest of the supermarkets' lunch? Not satisfied with muscling in on the grocery world with speedy deliveries straight to your door, the retailer-slash-tech giant is now planning on selling its own-label range of food and other sundries, according to reports. A new line of products that [...]
US Presidential Election 2016: Barack Obama mocks Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton May 1, 2016 As expected, President Barack Obama roundly mocked Republican contender Donald Trump at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. More surprisingly, Obama also used his eighth and final correspondent's dinner to make jokes at the expense of Hillary Clinton. Obama said: "Although I am a little hurt that he’s not here tonight. We had so much fun [...]
You are what you eat: How our eating habits have changed since the 1970s (and what to expect by 2050) February 18, 2016 If we are what we eat, the UK has changed from being a nation of canned mik puddings and canned peas to one of frozen pizzas and pasta. A major new study of 150,000 households in the UK has found just how much our eating habits have changed since the 1970s – and it's fair [...]
How the EU referendum is literally playing tricks with your mind June 15, 2016 Leading Brexiters agree that we’ll be financially worse off if we exit the EU, at least in the short term. So if leaving makes us poorer, why are so many prepared to vote for it? The credit goes to Vote Leave, the Derren Brown of politics, who are brilliantly managing our cognitive biases and, literally, [...]
Property of the Week: Sanctum is a rare floating home in Putney and it’s full of bespoke furniture and antiques May 25, 2016 Finding a property that meets all your requirements in London is no easy task. In fact, it’s such a bother that Charles Nicholson decided it would be easier to build one himself from scratch – on the Thames. Admittedly, Nicholson had a little help from his friends as he’s the managing director of The Contract [...]