Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin urges parliament to reject Chequers for free trade deal as annual profits soar September 14, 2018 JD Wetherspoon chief executive Tim Martin has urged parliament to vote against Theresa May's Chequers deal as his company posted a boost in annual profit thanks to this summer's heatwave. The colourful pub-chain chief executive and Brexit advocate said a free trade deal with the EU would be a "huge gain" for businesses and consumers [...]
Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin urges parliament to reject Chequers for free trade deal as annual profits soar September 14, 2018 JD Wetherspoon chief executive Tim Martin has urged parliament to vote against Theresa May's Chequers deal as his company posted a boost in annual profit thanks to this summer's heatwave. The colourful pub-chain chief executive and Brexit advocate said a free trade deal with the EU would be a "huge gain" for businesses and consumers [...]
Why as an investor I’m looking through Brexit fears September 24, 2019 Following the twists and turns in Westminster of the past few weeks I expect many more market participants will simply place UK equities in the “too difficult” basket. Anecdotal stories of overseas investors selling their last UK stocks could start doing the rounds again. Brexit and political uncertainty have been a drag on UK equities, [...]
DEBATE: Is there any point in having a televised debate over Theresa May’s Brexit deal? November 29, 2018 Is there any point in having a televised debate over Theresa May’s Brexit deal? Mo Lovatt, lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries and co-chair of The Great Debate, says YES. The message coming out of the Prime Minister’s office this week is that “people are bored with Brexit”, so it’s time to #BackTheBrexitDeal. The strategy is [...]
This series of UK politics feels suspiciously like daytime TV May 7, 2019 Last week’s local elections were a democratic amuse bouche. A mere mouthful of popular sentiment, sending a message to the political elite that an offering meant to delight the taste buds has fallen as flat as a soggy souffle. Like a daytime TV rerun of MasterChef, it involved lots of familiar names and tried but [...]
China: How George Osborne’s ‘golden era’ lost its shine February 17, 2019 When former chancellor George Osborne visited China in 2015, he pronounced it the start of a “golden era” of Sino-British relations. Britain threw itself into tens-of-billions of pounds worth of trade deals, Osborne turned a blind eye to a litany of Chinese human rights abuses and President Xi Jinping even joined David Cameron for a pint [...]
Get your Eurovision goggles, it’s time for yet another election May 10, 2019 Two years and 11 months since Britain voted to leave the EU, the country is voting again, on how we’d like to be represented in it while we struggle to work out what leaving actually means. Yes, we found out this week that the Euros are definitely on, despite the best efforts of an embattled [...]
Editor’s Notes: The River Thames is the key to London’s past – and its future March 8, 2019 The 19th century socialist MP for Battersea, John Burns, described the Thames as “liquid history”. Today, even a short cruise from Tower Pier to Westminster offers a glimpse of the capital’s rich past – from a Saxon landing bay by Southwark Bridge to the original access point for the Old London Bridge which, by the [...]
Focus On Harrow: Why this west London suburb is popular with families and first time buyers September 28, 2018 With inner city London gradually dividing itself into a series of ‘villages’, mimicking the community, farmers markets and independent high streets of semi-rural life, what’s the point of suburbs anymore? Places like Harrow have traditionally been quite pedestrian places, attracting families to its healthy stock of semi-detached houses and good quality schools. The ultimate – [...]
Retail giants to be hit by £190m business rate bill as industry fears ‘tipping point’ September 19, 2018 UK retailers are set to face a fresh tax bill worth hundreds of millions of pounds if today’s inflationary figures remain similar next month, with embattled high street businesses fearing another hefty levy could push the sector to its limits. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) predicts that the retail sector will be slapped with a £190m [...]