High street sunshine won’t last for long March 25, 2010 RECESSION? What recession? If the sound of tills ringing at Next is anything to go by, the consumer has weathered the worst slump in 60 years remarkably well. Full-year results came in at the top end of expectations, with pre-tax profits up 18 per cent, while like-for-like sales also edged up by 0.5 per cent. [...]
The spy who loves papers needs deep pockets March 25, 2010 JOURNALISTS at the Independent cheered when they found out that former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev had finally bought the newspaper. Their reaction couldn’t have been more different to the doomed silence that descended on the Evening Standard offices in January 2009, when hacks at that title learned of its sale to the Russian billionaire. But [...]
Tube staff threaten strike March 24, 2010 LONDON Underground has been given until the end of today to withdraw plans to axe 800 jobs or workers will walk out of the job. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which is representing workers facing job cuts said it will call a ballot for strike if management doesn’t comply. “We have already warned [...]
Network Rail, British Gas set to strike March 23, 2010 NETWORK Rail and British Gas joined the ranks of British Airways (BA) yesterday after staff at the two companies voted in favour of a strike action. Network Rail sat down with the Rail, Maritime & Transport (RMT) union yesterday to come to an agreement over a proposal by the rail operator to cut 1,500 maintenance [...]
Freeview could be a poisoned chalice March 21, 2010 THE outcome of Ofcom’s long-anticipated review of the pay-TV market is the world’s worst secret: it will almost certainly make BSkyB slash the amount it charges rivals to show its premium content. Less attention has been given to the ways in which Ofcom might placate Sky. Allowing the pay-TV giant to access customers via the Freeview [...]
Rail union votes for strike March 19, 2010 RAILWAY signal workers have voted to go on strike in action which threatens to throw easter travel plans into chaos. The Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said 54 per cent of its members had backed strike action over redundancies. A spokesman for the RMT leader Bob Crow is still willing to negotiate with Network [...]
Camp Carrey in strange but true romance March 18, 2010 Film I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS Cert: 18 Jim Carrey has never played it weirder than in this so-strange-it-must-be-true (and it is) story of a conman who became one of the most persistent escape artists in the American penal system, all for the love of another man. Written and directed by the creators of 2003’s [...]
Google prepares to fight on regulatory front March 17, 2010 GOOGLE is a company of contradictions. It claims to be open, but guards its secrets fiercely. It presents itself as a green company, but owns the world’s largest cluster of computers, using huge amounts of power to keep them cool. It is a quintessentially modern company that is run by like a feudal kingdom, with [...]
A recovery this year doesn’t mean that the worst is over March 15, 2010 SLOWLY but surely, activity is creeping back to the moribund commercial property sector. British Land and Songbird have signed tenants at their landmark developments Drapers Gardens and the Ropemaker, while it’s only a matter of time before Minerva finds an occupant for the now-complete Walbrook. That’s good news for adviser DTZ, which advised on Macquarie’s [...]
You should shop elsewhere March 9, 2010 LIBERTY didn’t suffer as much as rivals during the recession, which is why it isn’t bouncing back quite so energetically. Consensus forecast for net asset value (NAV) per share was between 480p and 500p, but those expectations were always too high. That said, even the bears were disappointed by the actual NAV per share of [...]