How e-scooters, self-driving cars, and flying taxis will shape the future of your commute February 10, 2020 An air of tranquility hangs about Stratford’s electric scooter riders. Their bodies are still, poised, as they glide by on this crisp February morning. I try to copy them and end up skidding along, struggling to figure out how to position my feet — but after a couple of wobbles I’m gliding too. As I [...]
Mark Hix heads to the Tuscan hills to bring home the bacon October 30, 2019 I recently went on my third boar hunt in the hills of Tuscany. The first time was 20-odd years ago, and I only managed to get a single shot off, which went about a foot over its head. It didn’t even flinch, just continued to stare at me, indignant. Since then I’ve taken up game [...]
General Election 2019: Liberal Democrats pledge commuter fare freeze November 20, 2019 The Liberal Democrats will today pledge to freeze commuter fares for the next five years as part of a series of policies outlined in their manifesto. The party, which is seeking to win a number of key London seats by wooing the capital’s Remain voters, will set out plans to keep season tickets and rail [...]
Property of the Week: A Huguenot home in Spitalfields with a unique Rousseau rendition March 13, 2020 Wander a little beyond the balti houses and beigel shops of Brick Lane, and you’ll soon come across the Spitalfields Conservation Area. These narrow, relatively secluded residential streets offer a glimpse into the old East End, and are home to some of the best examples of early Georgian-era townhouses in central London. The rows of [...]
Let’s build back green, not grey June 29, 2020 Despite the tragedies of the last few months, we have not been short of the rays of hope and human courage that often come to define crises of these kinds. As cliched as it may now be to say, the weekly showering of applause for our keyworkers shows that even when facing the greatest adversities, [...]
Private equity and ESG: moving beyond box-ticking? October 13, 2020 Ahead of the CFA Institute European Investment Conference (which is open to CFA Institute members and non-members) on 16-17 November 2020 we analyse the private equity industry’s so far patchy engagement with ESG investing. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing has become mainstream, with the global pool of exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets under management [...]
Gas Wars and The Hotgate August 31, 2020 2-3 months ago, a Defi presale would be 100 Ethereum (ETH) at the most. At that time, ETH was around $200. The sale lasted for a day or two, and the standard announcement was: “We are going to launch this project. We will launch it at this particular time. Buy it at Uniswap.” Fast forward [...]
How a tea estate is helping to conserve Rwanda’s rich biodiversity September 27, 2019 There are only two things that most people think about when they hear “Rwanda”: the country’s unfathomable genocide, the 25th anniversary of which is in 2019; and, to a lesser extent, the critically endangered mountain gorilla. But Rwanda is unrecognisable from how it was in the mid 1990s, and although the gorilla population is steadily [...]
FTSE 100 falters, taking shine off best quarter since 2010 June 30, 2020 The FTSE 100 retreated today as fears over a second coronavirus lockdown dampened the end of the strongest quarter for UK stocks since 2010. The blue-chip index ended the session XX per cent down after news of the UK’s first local lockdown and poor GDP figures helped dampen investor enthusiasm. Nevertheless, the FTSE 100 recorded [...]
The best of travel: Anguilla is the epitome of tropical fun times January 19, 2021 To tide us over until we’re able to travel again, we’re republishing classic travel stories from our archives. This week we revisit Steve Hogarty’s trip to an island paradise in Anguilla. ••• Far out in the well charted waters of the east Caribbean lies the Leeward Island chain, and at its northern tip is an [...]