Tech City UK’s Gerard Grech on blockchain, BMWs and the Commonwealth November 22, 2015 A View To A Kill, with Roger Moore – you know, the one where Max Zorin plots to blow up Silicon Valley and halt microchip production? That was back in the mid-80s!” says Gerard Grech, chief executive of Tech City UK, the government-funded tech cluster at the heart of Silicon Roundabout and London’s burgeoning tech [...]
Foley’s in Fitzrovia review: Food that’s from everywhere and nowhere, but still impresses with its sense of fun July 5, 2016 The spice trail, if your GCSE history is a little cloudy, is the network of shipping routes linking Japan to Europe, via China, Indonesia, India and the Middle East. It formed the primitive tentacles of globalisation that began to inch around the planet from around 2000BC, giving man the first opportunity to screw over his [...]
Uncovering unexpected luxury in the flat heart of Norfolk April 8, 2016 THE WEEKEND: A luxury long weekend might conjure images of business-class flights to NYC or the Eurostar to Paris, but have you considered a trip to Norfolk? While it may rest in the public consciousness as the home of Alan Partridge, Bernard Matthews and Colman’s Mustard, it’s a beautiful part of the country and, if you [...]
Why business should embrace this summer of sport July 1, 2016 With the average worker spending at least 90,000 hours – over one third of all their time awake – in the workplace, it should come as no surprise that the quality of the working environment can have a serious impact on employee happiness, wellbeing and loyalty. According to government guidelines, the creation of a positive [...]
Londoners: Stop whinging about astronomical rents. It’s so much worse in these other cities April 22, 2016 Renters in London probably think they have good reason to feel hard done by. House prices seem to be going one-way, while wages just aren't keeping up. Map: How much you need to earn to live in every London postcode But a new report, out today, from the Global Cities Business Alliance, shows that Londoners [...]
It’s Tax Freedom Day: It may be the latest it’s been since 2001 but you’re finally earning for yourself June 3, 2016 Ask a random person on the street how much tax they pay and they’ll usually guess around 20 per cent of their income. That’s the basic rate of income tax, and it’s easy to forget taxes like VAT, council tax, beer and wine duties, air passenger duty, motoring taxes and stamp duty. Even if you remind [...]
Judge P2P firms on whether they’re profitable – not just on how much money they’ve lent October 19, 2015 Three years ago this week, the veteran venture capitalist Robin Klein made the case in these pages for greater support for UK high growth technology companies in their push into mainstream London capital markets. Over time, confidence grew and several good firms were helped onto the public markets through the London Stock Exchange’s High Growth [...]
Hugo Boss share price plummets following ugly results as the US and China look set to drag on future profits February 23, 2016 Hugo Boss shares have tumbled by almost 20 per cent, their biggest fall since October 2008, after it warned that sales in China and the US so far this year have been weaker than it expected. The German-based fashion label said in a statement earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation and excluding special items will decline by a “low double-digit” percentage [...]
There’s no such thing as “fat-shaming” – it’s just advertising February 27, 2017 I take issue with the Vicariously Offended; the virtuous who take up the mantle of oppression, regardless of whether they are personally affected, at every given opportunity. I bit my tongue last week when they took offence at Protein World’s Tube campaign questioning commuters’ ability to “keep up with a [very slim] Kardashian.” It was, [...]
We’ve hit peak stuff: Why we now spend on “doing” rather than “things” May 17, 2016 Earlier this year Ikea’s head of sustainability suggested the West was approaching “peak stuff” – the idea that consumer appetite to own ever more goods was probably waning. Indeed it seems that we’re seeing a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour from buying products to spending money on experiences. We’ve been keeping an eye on this trend at Visa [...]