Rugby World Cup 2015: All Black is the colour as first match England v Figi kicks off tonight September 18, 2015 For the first time in 24 years, New Zealand have arrived for a Rugby World Cup as champions, finally able to bat away the ‘choking Kiwi’ tag that has haunted them for almost three decades. While England are a tempting bet at 9/2 with Sportingbet, it appears that the only chink in the formidable [...]
Buffett sparks optimism with latest purchase – New York Report August 10, 2015 OPTIMISM over Warren Buffett’s latest deal and gains in commodity-related shares helped to buoy US stocks yesterday, giving the S&P 500 its biggest gain since May. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 241.79 points, or 1.39 per cent, to 17,615.17, the S&P 500 gained 26.61 points, or 1.28 per cent, to 2,104.18 and the Nasdaq [...]
Epiphany co-founder Shane Quigley turns his hand to Matalan with launch of homeware brand July 15, 2015 Serial entrepreneur Shane Quigley, who turned £5,000 into £18m by co-founding digital marketing group Epiphany, is leading the charge for Matalan’s launch of an online-only homeware brand – Matalan Direct. He heads the retailing group’s challenge to established online homeware retailers B&Q, Dunelm and HomeSense. Earlier this year Quigley started Earth Bathrooms, a homeware brand [...]
The British love affair with Bordeaux is here to stay September 26, 2015 The UK has traditionally been a nation of claret-lovers, dating as far back as the 12th century when Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet. Eager to please his French subjects, King Henry II decreed that any ship sailing from Bordeaux would be exempt from export tax. By the 14th century, England, Scotland and Ireland were [...]
Debt: The alternative lending landscape July 1, 2015 Loan-based alternative finance might be victim to sloppy definitions, but it is too significant to ignore Alternative finance grew by 168 per cent in the UK last year, according to a report by Cambridge’s Judge Business School. While the oft-vaunted equity crowdfunding saw volumes totalling £83m in 2014, debt-based lending, via crowdfunding and peer-to-peer [...]
Order Of St George to give O’Brien his fifth St Leger title September 11, 2015 Bill Esdaile previews the best of the UK and Irish racing THERE were surprisingly no defections at yesterday’s declaration stage for tomorrow’s Ladbrokes St Leger (3.45pm). It had been widely expected that the Aidan O’Brien-trained ORDER OF ST GEORGE would bypass the world’s oldest Classic in preference for a tilt at Sunday’s Irish equivalent. However, [...]
World’s third richest man Warren Buffett donates $2.84bn to five charities July 7, 2015 Warren Buffett has donated $2.8bn (£1.8bn) of shares in Berkshire Hathaway to five charities, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Read more: Warren Buffett sings Coca-Cola song, plays ukelele to shareholders The billionaire investor has made his 10th annual donation to the charities, taking his overall contribution over $21bn. Buffett, the world's third-richest person [...]
Restaurant review: There’s more to Palm Court than afternoon tea, thank god October 29, 2015 If I could click my fingers and banish one element of our national cuisine, it would be afternoon tea. It’s a dreary throwback to a time when we felt the need to ape our social betters, in this case by eating wildly overpriced cucumber sandwiches. Its emergence is often credited to Anna Maria Russell, the [...]
We’ll fight fire with fire in Ashes, England boss Trevor Bayliss tells Aussies July 1, 2015 England coach Trevor Bayliss has taken a flame to the unusually conciliatory tone of this summer’s Ashes build-up and urged his new charges to carry the fight to Australia. Read more: Tremlett – Bayliss factor already apparent and worlds away from last Ashes So refreshing was the goodwill fostered by last month’s Test [...]
Mundane meetings: Making a getaway – don’t hit ‘accept’ too hastily and bag a seat by the door October 8, 2015 Meetings are like a box of chocolates, but not in a good way. Occasionally informative and thought-provoking, all too often they are time consuming, irrelevant and poorly planned. Worst of all, you don’t know what you’re getting until you’re inside the meeting room, having put off other potentially important commitments. Many meetings are a [...]