The supermarket wars are in full swing and Tesco is beefing up to fight its turf December 1, 2021 I last saw Sir Terry Leahy in 2013, two years after his messy divorce from Tesco. He agreed to a chat about retail on the condition he wouldn’t have to talk about the supermarket juggernaut he helped to create or his successor, Philip Clarke, who’d begun to question the state of the business he’d been [...]
Shakespeare on advertising: Heineken hit by Pogba snub July 8, 2021 On June 16, France and Manchester United star Paul Pogba removed a bottle of Heineken from a post-match press conference – following the lead of Cristiano Ronaldo, who did the same thing with a bottle of Coca-Cola. The Juventus forward was (wrongly) accused of tanking Coke’s share price – so how did Pogba’s move affect [...]
Levelling up will fail if Boris Johnson pushes for a nationwide approach July 7, 2021 The phrase “levelling up” has permeated the political lexicon over the past year or so, but few seem to know exactly what it means or how to do it. Andy Haldane, outgoing Chief Economist at the Bank of England, put some flesh on the bones at a timely Policy Exchange seminar last week. For Haldane, [...]
Protect your health this winter November 30, 2022 As the nights draw in, it’s time to think about protecting our health this winter. We are preparing for a tough few months – with the potential for a further Covid-19 wave and a difficult flu season – and of course not everything can be prevented. But we can reduce the risk of Covid-19 and [...]
Labour says Boris Johnson had his ‘Kevin Keegan moment’ in PMQs April 28, 2021 Labour has called Boris Johnson’s angry performance in Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) today his “Kevin Keegan moment” in an allusion to the former football manager’s famous 1996 rant. Johnson was furious when answering the last of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s six questions in PMQs today, with the Prime Minister shouting so loudly that his [...]
My night watching the Ashes with England’s Barmy Army December 14, 2021 As London’s clocks struck 11pm on a cold Tuesday night in the capital, the sound of cheering, chanting and chatter pierced the night air as I entered a heaving sports pub in Victoria. I was there to watch the start of the 2021-22 Ashes series. Cricket’s biggest rivalry was an hour from its first ball, [...]
The legal issues around a European Super League: Can clubs really be banned from domestic leagues and players barred from World Cups? April 19, 2021 The battle lines over a European Super League may have been drawn but a legal fight that could last for years is only just beginning. Football authorities including the Premier League and Uefa have warned the rebel clubs they will be kicked out of existing domestic and European competitions if they push ahead. Players, too, [...]
Virgin Media down: Thousands of broadband customers hit by UK outage March 10, 2021 Thousands of Brits were left without internet access this morning after Virgin Media suffered broadband outages across the country. Users in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow reported issues with their internet connection. The issues began at around 7am and peaked two hours later with more than 2,500 reports of problems, according to website Down [...]
High Court rules against hospitality bosses on indoor closures May 5, 2021 Hospitality bosses have lost their legal battle for a quicker reopening of indoor hospitality in England. Punch Taverns founder Hugh Osmond and Sacha Lord, the night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, brought a case against the government challenging the current rules. Lord and Osmond said there was no justification or scientific bias for pubs and [...]
Drawing crypto comparisons from a 60s French film and inspiration from Brentford January 21, 2022 Monty is watching everyone stare at their shrinking crypto portfolios and scrambling to buy land now that inflation is back.