Far from the Medina crowd November 14, 2010 MARRAKECH might not immediately spring to mind when choosing somewhere to unwind. And to be sure, its main square Jemaa el Fna delivers noise, commotion, smoke and crowds, with tourists tripping over dancing monkeys and baskets of cobras to get to their next tagine. But there’s another side to the pink city, away from the [...]
The commercial property king who says the City is ready for take-off November 2, 2010 Land Securities’ chief executive leaps from behind his desk, bounding across his seventh floor office overlooking Trafalgar Square as he welcomes City A.M. – after years of stagnation, the country’s biggest property developer is on the move again – and it certainly seems to have put a spring in Francis Salway’s step. Last week, the FTSE [...]
Tax hits UK airports November 22, 2009 AIRLINEShave cancelled more routes out of London than any other city in Europe as a direct result of the British government’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax, according to figures released by insurers. APD will rise from £10 to £11 in November and industry insiders are worried it could add to the 76 routes already cancelled [...]
Austerity Games can still be a triumph July 26, 2010 WHEN London last hosted the Olympic games, it was 1948. The Allies had won the war, but Britain’s rewards were still to come: food was still rationed; the capital’s streets looked like rows of broken teeth (post-war construction was but a dream); and there was quite simply no cash at all to spend on stadiums [...]
Labour and Liberals move to the left April 14, 2010 NEW Labour isn’t dead: about that Alistair Darling could not have been any more emphatic in his interview with City A.M. today. We asked him whether Labour’s manifesto – with its 50p tax, restrictions on hostile takeover bids, increases in regulation and no clear plan to reduce the size of the state – should be [...]
ANALYSTS TAKE THEIR GAMBLE ON WORLD CUP April 7, 2010 WORLD Cup fever is starting to grip the City in earnest ahead of the summer in South Africa, as evidenced by the latest analysts to have a pop at the business impact of the tournament. Sanford Bernstein’s Trevor Stirling, Joao Valli and Melissa Yates yesterday released a missive on the effects of the World Cup [...]
Go hide away in the sun-drenched valleys of Jordan May 9, 2010 THE afternoon sun is browning our sweaty pink skin as we lie by the pool at Evason Ma’in, nudged between a massive yellowstone fortress-style hotel and a water-spewing rock face. Well, it may be all lemonade, glossy magazines, dramatic scenery and sun-tanning poolside, but just a few kilometres away on the Dead Sea’s south-east coast [...]
Tories need to switch strategy or lose March 15, 2010 ALL the opinion polls are giving the same message: Britain is on course for a hung parliament, with no political party in overall control come May. Given that this election ought to be a shoo-in for the Tories, and that they were easily ahead just a few months ago, this is an extraordinary state of [...]
Banks and champagne are out, but the Tory big beast is still standing May 4, 2010 KEN Clarke has gone awol. He left the last campaign stop at the same time as his chief of staff, who has long since arrived, but is nowhere to be seen. “He insists on driving himself,” one aide tells me, with an exasperated look. Eventually, forty-five minutes after we’re supposed to meet, he storms into [...]
Bermuda’s financial future is rocky January 18, 2010 TEN years ago Bermuda was still drunk on the unprecedented success of its conversion from a tourist haven to an international business centre. Scores of bankers and insurance brokers zipped down its narrow streets on expensive Vespa scooters and tills in local bars rang with money being spent by rich guest workers. But the UK [...]