you can still wear a bow tie in the city March 25, 2010 HOW many men in the City would be comfortable wearing a bow tie to work? Answer: very few, even among those who can actually tie one. It may once have been a cornerstone of the banking look, but now it’s about as common a sight in the Square Mile as a bowler hat. That’s a [...]
Politics should be a marathon, not a sprint April 11, 2010 NOW that Gordon Brown has fired the starting gun on what is likely to be one of the most keenly contested general elections in recent memory, politicians across the country are gearing up for a marathon campaign. As I train for my 16th London Marathon later this month, I am well aware of how difficult [...]
CITY EYE February 11, 2010 CITY workers toast their fundraising efforts for the SOS Children’s Haiti Appeal yesterday evening at Leadenhall Market, after donning antiquated headgear for the second annual Bowler Hat Day. The event saw a number of Square Mile grandees taking part, including Cardew Group chairman Anthony Cardew and Strand Hanson chairman and chief executive Robert Hanson and [...]
Pink power April 7, 2010 T HE tangiest of British vegetables, so long relegated to fools and crumbles, stepped into the (pink-tinged) lime-light last week. Rhubarb made headlines when Waitrose suddenly found itself entirely sold out of the British variety, thanks to an advert featuring Delia Smith and a rhubarb and ginger brulee recipe. In just four days, the supermarket [...]
Journey into the mighty history of Samarkand December 12, 2010 AROUND Tashkent airport, giant hoardings proclaimed in English: “Uzbekistan Airways Wish You Good Luck”. It might have been more unsettling to read that message driving into Heathrow before our departure. In fact, we’d had an incident-free flight on Uzbekistan Airways to Uzbekistan’s capital. Tashkent sounds endlessly exotic but isn’t really. Much was destroyed by a [...]
Cannes awaits property fest March 14, 2010 THIS week sees the heavyweights of the property world embark on their annual pilgrimage to Cannes for MIPIM, Europe’s largest property fair. The four day event – known for its yachts and late night parties – is likely to be more upbeat than last year when the property market was still in the midst of [...]
Adair Turner calls for limits on speculation March 17, 2010 THE chairman of Britain’s financial watchdog fired a fresh shot across the City’s bows last night, calling for tough limits on financial speculation by bank traders and hedge funds. Arguing for a dramatic break with three decades of conventional wisdom, Lord Turner advocated a tax on financial transactions and said proprietary traders should face strict [...]
Find beauty on the Welsh coast April 15, 2010 SECOND home hunters with a bit of cash have tended to gravitate towards destinations such as the Cotswolds and Cornwall. Great minds think alike and because of this, those areas have become over-crowded and pricey to boot. So perhaps it’s time to think outside the box, and there are few places better – or more [...]
Drought of small firms listing could cost jobs March 31, 2010 QUOTED companies outside London’s FTSE 350 have rarely faced such challenging times. Equity markets are fragmenting while regulations are increasingly onerous and markets illiquid, making it harder to raise capital. But help could be on hand from an unlikely source. A French initiative has produced 20 recommendations to improve capital markets for the small to [...]
Jobs market is on the up, says City recruiter February 1, 2010 SQUARE Mile headhunter SThree said the fourth quarter saw signs of recovery in the jobs market even as it unveiled a sharp fall in profits. Underlying pre-tax profits at SThree slumped by 87 per cent in 2009 to £4.8m, with revenues down 18 per cent to £519.4m. The firm said its advertising spend, already halved from [...]