Betting suspended on Queen abdicating during her Christmas broadcast after “unusual” bets placed at Coral December 17, 2014 Bookmakers Coral has suspended betting on whether the Queen will announce her abdication in her Christmas Day broadcast after a number of “unusual” bets were placed today. A spokesman told City A.M a handful of different bets had been made within half an hour of each other – prompting the team to question whether [...]
2015 “will be warmest on record” says Met Office December 17, 2014 The year ahead looks likely to be the warmest on record – with data going back to the Victorian era – according to the Met Office. Worldwide, the mean temperature for 2015 should land between 14.52 °C and 14.76 °C, with a central estimate coming in at 14.64 °C. The range is plus or [...]
Treasury official Sharon White takes top Ofcom job December 17, 2014 Ofcom has appointed Treasury official Sharon White as its new chief executive. White will join the broadcasting watchdog late March next year, taking over from Ed Richards, who will step down at the end of December. She picks up an annual salary of £275,000. She is currently the second permanent secretary at the Treasury, [...]
Watch: Heathrow has visualised our Christmas 2014 journeys in this fantastic animation December 16, 2014 Flying this Christmas? You're not the only one. Heathrow has said it expects nearly 700,000 people to travel from the London airport between December 19 and Christmas Day as families fly home or abroad for the festive season. On Friday alone, it expects some 116,700 people to fly from Heathrow. In total more [...]
Falkirk MP Eric Joyce charged with assault, criminal damage December 16, 2014 Falkirk MP Eric Joyce has been charged with two counts of common assault and one count of criminal damage, following an incident that took place in London during October. The Labour politiican was arrested for the fourth time in nearly four years after an alleged confrontation took place in a convenience store on October [...]
Christmas 2014: Amazon delivering until December 24, while Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser and Asos face capacity problems December 16, 2014 Worried you've left it too late to order Christmas presents online? You need to get your skates on if you want to avoid paying for special delivery, but some retailers are offering premium services up to the last minute. A new survey of retailers has found a number of businesses that promise to deliver [...]
The business that called “bulls***” on Black Friday December 16, 2014 Britons descended into Black Friday madness this year in the scrum to get a cheap telly, but in the States – where the phenomenon has been going much longer – one business called “bulls***” on the whole thing. Literally. Party game Cards Against Humanity – if you don't know, it is really not suitable [...]
Bravofly Rumbo buys dotcom icon Lastminute.com from Sabre for just £76m December 16, 2014 Travel and tickets website lastminute.com – one of the legends of the dotcom era – has been sold for $120m (£76m) to Swiss travel group Bravofly Rumbo. Current owner Sabre, which bought lastminute.com in 2005 in a deal that valued it at £577m, had been looking to offload the business for some months. Sabre [...]
Outlook for 2015 better than last year, but emerging markets are a worry for Fitch December 16, 2014 Do you want the good news or the bad news? Let's go with the good: According to ratings agency Fitch, the global outlook is far more balanced for 2015 than it was this time last year. At the back end of 2013, there were twice as many negative as positive outlooks for sovereign creditworthiness, [...]
Google, Pinterest, Innocent and Microsoft: Who has one of the 10 best office spaces to work worldwide in 2015 December 16, 2014 Do you think your office is top drawer or a bit of a dive? Knight Frank has compiled a list of what it claims to be the 10 best offices in the world – and three of them are in London. But are you in one of them? 10. Google Where: Central St Giles [...]