Government to set out post-lockdown plan next week November 19, 2020 The government will set out a plan for exiting England’s month-long lockdown next week, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson has said. Boris Johnson has repeatedly vowed the country will return to a “regional tiered approach” when lockdown restrictions are due to expire on 2 December. However, head of Public Health England Dr Susan Hopkins earlier this [...]
Locked Down is the pandemic heist movie we didn’t need March 12, 2021 While some TV shows and awards ceremonies have made magic out of the limitations of the pandemic, movies haven’t fared as well. Michael Bay’s Songbird was a misfire, while Netflix’s Malcolm and Marie wasted talented actors on a self-indulgent script. Locked Down was conceived, written, filmed, and edited in around four months from the start [...]
UK coronavirus ‘R’ rate rises to between 1.1 and 1.4 September 18, 2020 The UK’s Covid reproduction or “R” rate has risen to between 1.1 and 1.4, the government has said, in the latest evidence that coronavirus is spreading quickly again through the country. It was up from last week’s figures of between one and 1.2. The government said that the new R rate means “that on average [...]
Debenhams launches rates battle to decide future of company August 25, 2020 Beleaguered department store Debenhams has launched a fight against business rates hikes, warning it could be forced to shutter more stores and lay off thousands of workers if it is unsuccessful. The retailer has appealed to a tribunal about a 12 per cent jump in business rates to £1.1m at its Swansea store. Debenhams, which [...]
Coronavirus: London braced for tighter restrictions as cases surge September 18, 2020 London could be on track for tighter restrictions on socialising and nights out amid reports official figures will show a surge in Covid-19 cases in the capital. The number of cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period has risen from 18.8 to roughly 25, the Evening Standard reported. The sharp spike in new cases [...]
Positive coronavirus tests fall 28 per cent as England’s lockdown makes its mark December 3, 2020 Positive Covid cases dropped more than a quarter in England last week, according to the latest Test and Trace figures, as the country begins to feel the effects of the nationwide lockdown. Figures from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) found that just over 110,000 people in England tested positive for coronavirus in [...]
Rishi Sunak warns second lockdown will have ‘significant’ impact on UK economy November 12, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned that England’s second nationwide lockdown will have a “significant impact on the economy”, as today’s record GDP figures laid the ground for a steep slump over the winter. “Obviously restrictions of this nature do have a significant impact on the economy. We’ve already seen that when we’ve done this over [...]
Fiery Sri Lankan and 36 other restaurant-in-a-box delivery kits March 19, 2021 Almost a year since the first lockdown, the restaurant world has been forced to change in ways that would have seemed laughable in the pre-Covid times. Top chefs are now launching successful at-home delivery platforms that promise to change the face of fine dining for years to come. We have sampled some of the very [...]
Parliament scraps plans to exempt its own bars from 10pm curfew September 28, 2020 Parliament has U-turned on a decision to allow the sale of alcohol on its premises after 10pm despite a nationwide curfew, following furious backlash from MPs and unions. Licenced bars and catering facilities within the Parliamentary estate had initially been allowed to stay open after the 10pm deadline after ministers argued that MPs and peers [...]
Official figures confirm jump in UK house prices September 16, 2020 UK house prices jumped in June after the property market reopened and a wave of pent-up demand was released, the government’s Land Registry has confirmed. Average house prices in the UK rose by 3.4 per cent in the year to June 2020, official figures showed. That was up from the 1.1 per cent increase in [...]