“We live well, we sleep well, we eat well”: Why Sofitel’s boss is leaning into its French heritage
“We know how to live life”
Maud Bailly is on a mission to give Sofitel a new lease of life as a global luxury marker – with a very French identity
Maud Bailly could be doing anything. In her glittering career she’s worked in the French finance ministry and the French Prime Minister’s office. She’s run a train station – Paris Montparnasse – and indeed the entire country’s railways as director of trains at SNCF – and she’s sat on the board of Groupe Casino, one of France’s largest retailers.
And now, as global CEO of the French hotel giant Sofitel, she is coordinating the delivery of some scones to my partner, having heard she’s under the weather.
“That’s hospitality,” she says with a beaming smile, which does rather suggest she’s found her calling.
A “flagship” Sofitel in London
Bailly is in the chain’s London St James hotel on another leg of what must feel like a punishing world tour. Sofitel is 60 years old, and Bailly has not been slow in making her mark. After her appointment in January of last year she set about “cleaning” the estate – cutting ties with some of the brand’s hotels – and is now overseeing the renovation and refurbishment of vast swathes of the estate, much of which requires being there in person. In the course of a twenty-minute interview she talks about recent trips to Strasbourg and New York and soon she’ll cut the ribbon on a new Sofitel in Benin, but she remains cheery; our chat is pushed back slightly so that she can host members of the team for a glass of champagne to thank them for their efforts.
“For us London is a flagship,” she says. “It’s a top city, especially after Brexit. It’s my… other European capital.”
That may be why the St James outfit is soon to join the list of those being given a touch-up. The lobby will be renovated in 2024 and selected suits in early 2025, both masterminded by French interior starchitect Pierre Yves Rochon. It’s all part, for Bailly, of reinvigorating the brand.
‘French zest’ at the heart of Sofitel
“It’s an opportunity to rethink who we are, the ideal occasion to reflect on who we are, what makes us different in a very aggressive competitive set. There are so many brands, why should we choose Sofitel? We needed to clarify our identity,” she tells me.
What that means for her is across four pillars. She wanted to emphasise the logo (“the blending of French culture with the local culture”), the brand’s corporate responsibility and culture. But throughout it all is the most difficult to explain in words: a “French zest.”
“The idea is to be a little bit of France everywhere,” she says.
The appetite for Sofitel is getting stronger and stronger. We have clarified the brand, we have cleaned the network, elevating the promise
“Not in a lecturing way. But in a way of embracing life; we French people are complaining all the time, we are super grumpy, but we know how to live life.
“We know how to live well, sleep well, eat well,” she laughs. With French brands riding higher than ever around the world, especially luxury brands, she appears to be onto a winner. In local markets – like Benin, where the hotel was ‘co-designed’ – she is making a conscious effort to engage the local community in the design of the hotel to ensure that the blend between the French joie de vivre and the context stays just right.
“Most of the guests (at the Strasbourg hotel) were neighbours, not sleeping in the hotel,” she says. “They came for lunch, for breakfast, for wedding anniversaries – a bit like being the beating heart of the neighbourhood.
“This is proximity luxury, which is what I like. We don’t stand for ultra-luxury, being eight stars full of marble and gold. I’m not going to be the reference point for nightlife. Never going to be an 8-star hotel. But I would like to be a recognised, clearly distinguished, cultural, five-star hotel brand with a promise of the same brand markets no matter where you stay, in Australia, in China, in Benin… you will feel the same sense of welcoming, the same ‘touch,’ which is hard to express.
“Everything in luxury needs to seem seamless, and needs to be bespoke. I don’t need to be a bling bling brand, but I do want to (deliver) sustainable, locally anchored luxury.”
Appetite for luxury
Whatever she’s doing, she’s not struggling for interest in opening new Sofitels. The group – owned by Accor, and which also encompasses MGallery – is now ‘asset-light’ meaning that they sold their hotels, and operate them instead on the behalf of owners. Owners are getting in behind the renovations too, with a refresh of the New York property announced just a few weeks ago.
“The appetite for Sofitel is getting stronger and stronger. We have clarified the brand, we have cleaned the network, elevating the promise,” she says. But her excitement is around building the atmosphere, the ‘feel’ of Sofitel.
“I’m a big fan of that phrase, culture eats strategy for breakfast. EBITDA, all of that, will come as a result of culture.”
Canary Wharf unveils spectacular plans for ‘reimagined’ HSBC building
8 Canada Square – currently the headquarters of HSBC – will be transformed into a new-look, re-imagined multi-use skyscraper once the bank leaves its Canary Wharf headquarters.
The global bank is moving to the Square Mile in 2027 as part of a company refresh.
And this morning Canary Wharf Group announced a plan to overhaul the building into a building which it says will “include best-in-class workspaces, leisure, entertainment, education, and cultural attractions.”
The building itself is wholly owned by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund – the QIA – with Canary Wharf Group as the development partner.
It is hoped that the new 8 Canada Square, which will be one of the world’s biggest redevelopment projects, will add to the Wharf’s appeal.
Last year the east London hub received a record number of visitors, more than 65m, despite the rise of hybrid working.
The redevelopment will be led by renowned architects Kohn Pedersen Fox and will also include a new public walkway from Canary Wharf’s Elizabeth Line stop and the main Canada Square park at the heart of the Wharf, and a public viewing gallery atop the building.
Shobi Khan, CEO of Canary Wharf Group, said: “We look forward to working with QIA on 8 Canada Square
to deliver a building of outstanding design, engineering and sustainability standards. This redevelopment is another step in Canary Wharf’s evolution into a vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood offering workspace, retail, homes, leisure and amenities all in one location – a true 15-minute city.”
Khan, who took over just before the pandemic struck, has driven a reinvention of the Docklands hub as ‘Canary Wharf 3.0’ with life sciences, retail, and residential added to the mix alongside the traditional finance houses which made up the Wharf for so long.
Elie Gamburg, Design Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), said: “We are extremely excited to collaborate with QIA and CWG to reimagine the single-use office building as a blueprint for the highly sustainable, mixed-use building of the future.”
Canary Wharf Group announced earlier this year that Sir George Iacobescu, the property developer who had been instrumental to the Wharf’s growth since the ’80s, had stepped down as chairman to be replaced by City grandee Sir Nigel Wilson.
Planning permission will now be sought for the project, which would begin in 2027 if granted when HSBC’s lease comes to an end.
Lessons in leadership: How to manage, according to monkeys
Think your office is full of monkey business? According to a study, that could be a good thing, with new research showing we could learn a few things from our treetop cousins.
Analysing the lives of 66 rhesus macaques, growth-minded scientists looked to discover what traits made for a good leader. The results? Revealing.
We’ve examined the science. Here’s what to learn from the best monkey leaders.
1. Be expressive
The study found having a diverse range of expressions – which included lip smacking, nose wrinkling and ear flattening – made monkey leaders better communicators by reducing uncertainty. So flex those facial muscles.
Work in the actors’ intense vocal warm-up into your 5am wake-up routine. Repeat after us: ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh. Stretch that mouth wide, pucker those lips and prepare for a day of emoting (facially) at a screen. Diaphragmatic breathing exercises, lip trills and straw phonation, articulation and tongue twisters are all encouraged.
“Facially expressive individuals may be better equipped to build and maintain strong social connections, potentially leading to the range of benefits associated with group cohesion, such as increased access to resources, mating opportunities, and protection from threats,” explains Dr Jamie Whitehouse, research fellow at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and lead author of the study.
Workers are often unemotional and inexpressive cogs in the machine: your job as a leader is to express the emotion that they lack access to. And oh boy, will they thank you for it (it relieves them of the distracting pressure of inner emotional turmoil, you see).
2. Communicate directly
Monkey leaders communicate better by making clear what their intent is and reducing uncertainty, the researchers said. So no more beating around the bush.
An underling came up with a new idea in the company thought shower? Drop that jaw. Phil from sales made another inappropriate joke? Raise those eyebrows. In emails, this can be done via emoticon. We recommend :O, 😀 and :’( as go-tos.
Issue orders and give feedback clearly. Monkeys don’t tend to use extra words. So: cut out jargon. Monkeys don’t give a dog’s about “synergy” – and neither should you.
3. Use your ears
Think about specific body parts. God gave you them for a reason, and monkeys have now proved that using all of them is an astute move. In the aforementioned study, scientists tracked 17 different types of expressions correlated to strong leadership, including puckering, mouth stretches and ear movements.
“Humans have evolved incredibly expressive faces with highly complex facial musculature, and these findings help us understand what advantage this has provided over evolutionary time,” said Bridget Waller, professor of evolution and social behaviour at NTU and research project lead.
So, move your ears. Now ear movements are hard to master – but you can easily learn according to Wikihow (no, it’s not necessarily a quirk of genetics). In the meantime though, how about becoming a good listener?
4. Lend a helping hand
Good monkey managers occupied central positions within their networks and fostered social cohesion through actions like friendly grooming interactions. Don’t do that, but do be friendly. A smile, a hello. Just don’t get tactile.
Comb through your minions’ reports with manual dexterity and give verbal praise readily. Offer treats and metaphorical head scratches in the form of extra pay. NOT in the form of free office snacks though.
Being known as a hands-on and generous manager will inspire trust and respect.
5. Stick together
Well you’d never guess it, but monkeys who make good leaders are those who spend the most time with their crew. It’s the same with homo sapiens. So spend as much time in the office as you can. Monkeys function best together. So too do colleagues.
Five minutes with the man behind London’s newest must-have membership
In the know Londoners are obsessed with Mortimer House and 1 Warwick – two new members’ clubs that combine work, wellness and much more alongside food, drink and socialising. We meet Guy Ivesha, the 45-year-old Londoner behind the capital’s most-sought-after membership.
London has always been the home of the members’ club – how are you building on that history?
Guy: Historically, members’ clubs originated from London, but it’s important to highlight that we’re not trying to make a play on the London members’ club scene. There is already an abundance of London clubs, but with an overwhelming majority of them being for pure social satisfaction. We came at this from a different angle, offering everything under one roof which is something very rare for a lot of clubs, in order to satisfy the personal and professional needs of all types of people.
Members have the ability to work in a beautiful environment, enjoy a delicious lunch on the rooftop in Soho, host meetings in our charming private rooms or attend a specialist fitness class with one of our in-house practitioners.
What do members want from a members’ club in 2024?
Guy: Some London members’ clubs are very exclusive and elitist, however we aim to be inclusive but selective. We try not to use the word ‘club’ and instead prefer to say members’ house instead as the word is very much associated with exclusivity and social hierarchy, therefore we aim to steer away from that perception. We are still curating, however we wanted to create a space that brings people together from different professional and personal backgrounds. In fact, what people really want is a simpler way to harmonise their life.
This moves onto our next question, you offer wellbeing, workspaces, food and drink, socialising… was the idea always to be a full service offering? Or is this just about work/life balance?
Guy: 1 Warwick and Mortimer House offer the harmonising of people’s needs, without compromising any aspect of your life; especially with changing lifestyles and new working patterns. Therefore, the members’ houses enable you to achieve all your personal and professional aspirations all in one place, focussing on a much healthier work/life balance. The wellbeing aspect is also very important to us, which we showcase with our dynamic wellness programmes, as well as our brilliant fitness facilities.
We came at this from a different angle, offering everything under one roof which is something very rare for a lot of clubs, in order to satisfy the personal and professional needs of all types of people.
Business students are all well aware of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – was that the inspiration for the name and the offering?
Guy: Before COVID-19, I started observing how working patterns and styles were changing and how the traditional office model was no longer serving the future of how we work. Many co-working spaces began to open, however I knew these spaces could be elevated; particularly coming from a background in hotels and hospitality. We designed a space to offer and satisfy all of our member’s needs in one place and ultimately allow them to advance and reach self-actualisation. This concept of reaching your full potential is the whole philosophy behind Maslow’s as well as reflected in the name.
Talk us through the past few years – it’s been a tough period for hospitality. Was there ever a doubt that London would bounce back?
Guy: I think everybody had some form of doubt that London would bounce back during the worst period of Covid. Hospitality businesses were unable to operate as it took away the opportunity to provide hospitality at the level we would have wanted. To recover, it was important for us to be flexible in adapting to changes, both operationally and meeting the needs developed during Covid. Our model allowed us to adapt very well and take advantage of the changing needs, with the high demand to merge the home and the office. We focussed on providing a unique environment that combines all the elements you would like in your own home with facilities that most people wouldn’t be able to incorporate into their house.
Breakfast at Mortimer House, lunch at 1 Warwick…what does a perfect London day look like for Guy Ivesha?
For me, I cycle to work and start the day with breakfast at Mortimer House Kitchen, usually I have the granola and yoghurt and a cold pressed green juice from the menu. Then I go to the fifth-floor lounge of Mortimer House and catch up with members, before reviewing designs for our new expansion projects in our beautiful private meeting rooms.
I will then head to 1 Warwick in Soho for a reformer Pilates class with our in-house practitioner, before heading to Yasmin, the rooftop restaurant for a Mediterranean lunch. Something healthy and flavoursome, like the sumac smoked duck and the strawberry and feta salad. I would spend the afternoon working in the Drawing Room on the first floor as I love the interiors there! Finally, attending one of our members’ events such as the How To Spend It event with Tim Spector or a talk with Victoria Beckham and then finishing with a drink at Nessa is the perfect way to end the day.
Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, Fitzrovia
1 Warwick, 1 Warwick Street, Soho
The one luxury hotel you cannot miss in Paris
The Shangri-La in Paris is everything you’d expect and more – from stunning views to unbeatable service
Paris, perhaps more than any other city in the world, offers plenty of opportunities to star in your own movie.
Strolling through the dappled sun in the Jardins de Luxembourg, sipping a glass of wine at the terraced cafes surrounding the Place des Vosges, even climbing the stairs of Montmartre.
Add to that list the entrance hall, the view, and almost everything about Shangri-La’s Parisian outpost. Audrey Hepburn eat your heart out; this place makes anyone feel like an A-lister.
Built originally for Prince Roland Bonaparte, the 19th century residence that now serves as home to Paris’ most discerning visitors still has the historical touch. Bonaparte’s ‘B’ motif still adorns much of the original decor. Guests are made to feel not unlike French royalty from the moment one arrives – an army of elegant staff whisking luggage away to the well-appointed rooms, heels clicking on the immaculately polished marble floors. It does rather set the tone.
As you’d expect from a Shangri-La this is luxury of the highest order; all high-end cosmetics, thousand-plus thread-counts and impeccable service. But it’s not all those little touches, from the impeccable turndown service to the artfully stocked minibar, that take your breath away: from the river-facing rooms, it’s the unobstructed, crystal clear view of the Tour Eiffel that takes one’s breath away, day or night.
Hearteningly for a luxury hotel, the Shangri-La is lively with Parisian voices day and night, with the grand event spaces evoking all the glamour you’d expect of a purpose-built Bonaparte palace. The ground-floor atrium restaurant, La Bauhinia, serves as an airy and light meeting point for guests, ladies who lunch and grand family celebrations – the seafood inspired menu bringing a touch of both the Med and Asia to the Parisian table, never more so than on the quite extraordinarily lavish seafood Sunday brunch.. Downstairs lies Shang Palace, the only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant in all of France. A stunning bar – Le Bar Botaniste – pays tribute to Roland Bonaparte’s botanic career and a beautiful lounge room is buzzing and busy all day with some of the finest French suits you’ll ever see.
If Paris is the city of light this might be its most sparkling hotel. For a luxury break in Paris, you really can’t go wrong at the Shangri-La.
The new hotel that lets you do Paris like the Parisians
After a hotel that’ll let your stylish Parisian dreams come true? We’ve found the perfect spot
Close your eyes, and conjure up an image of Paris as the Parisiens might enjoy it. Is it bustling cafes, elegant facades, effortlessly cool locals popping into independent shops and bakeries? If so there may be few neighbourhoods in the French capital’s urban jungle that tick those boxes more than the vibrant Rive Gauche neighbourhood of Saint-Placide.
A 15 minute metro from some of Paris’ more famed attractions, this is the capital at its very best. At the heart of it is the recently opened lifestyle Hôtel des Grands Voyageurs, a 138-room affair designed by renowned interior architect Fabrizio Casiraghi, which has given the already buzzing neighbourhood another destination.
Within a five-minute walk you can find almost all that you might want from a Parisian weekend; the small but perfectly formed Le Vin en Bouche wine bar, Quinsou, a remarkably good-value Michelin starred neighbourhood bistro, the buzzy (and hyped) Thai restaurant The Crying Tiger and more boutiques than you can shake a stick at.
But should leaving the beautiful, nautical-inspired hotel be too much, at the centre sits the Grands Voyageurs brasserie itself, open from morning to night and serving up American-inspired fayre to residents and Parisians alike. And should you still feel full of energy after that, well, the downstairs Poppy’s bar is open until late.
Should there be any morning fuzziness, you can shake it off with a stroll around the nearby Jardin du Luxembourg, or simply wander some of Paris’ prettiest streets. This is the French capital in fine fettle.
Hôtel des Grands Voyageurs, Rooms from £258 per night, hoteldesgrandsvoyageurs.com/
Agony, again: England fall at final hurdle as Spain win Euro 2024 final
England’s wait for a first major men’s trophy since 1966 goes on after substitute Mikel Oyarzabal struck at the death as Spain inflicted a second successive European Championship final defeat on Gareth Southgate’s side.
Three years ago the nation stood on the edge of history, only for an agonising, all too familiar, shoot-out defeat meaning they had to walk past the trophy as Italy celebrated long into the Wembley night.
England overcame an unconvincing start in Germany to make another continental showpiece, but the country’s first ever final on foreign soil ended in more heartbreak as silky Spain triumphed 2-1 at the Olympiastadion.
Substitute Cole Palmer’s superb equaliser had breathed new life into Southgate’s side after Nico Williams shook what had looked sturdy foundations 69 seconds into the second half.
But England could not wrest control from mightily impressive Spain, with Oyarzabal sliding home what proved the decisive blow four minutes from time.
Marc Guehi saw a header cleared off the line as England showed the never-say-die attitude that has served them so well in Germany, but Southgate’s side just did not have enough in his 102nd – and potentially last – match in charge.
England’s heartbroken players dropped to the deck at the final whistle with those clad in red running wild as Spain celebrated a record fourth European Championship crown.
Southgate’s side attempted to use the pain of their 2021 near miss as fuel, with retired Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini providing a reminder of the frustration that drives them when placing the trophy on the plinth.
Luke Shaw scored England’s goal that night and was the only change in Berlin, replacing Kieran Trippier as the left-back made his first start for 147 days after hamstring issues.
Dani Carvajal and Robin Le Normand returned from suspension for Spain, with the latter hooking wide after John Stones twice extinguished the threat of Williams.
Kyle Walker shook off a knock sustained sliding into the Spanish technical area to drive in a cross as England began to show flickers of attacking intent following a one-sided start.
But they were just not clicking in attack, with Harry Kane a subdued outlet and picking up a booking midway through the first half for a challenge on Fabian Ruiz.
Dani Olmo joined him in the notebook for a challenge on Declan Rice after Guehi blocked a Ruiz shot as play continued scrappily, with Spain bossing possession but failing to penetrate organised England.
A fine forward run from Stones came to nothing and he soon helped squeeze out Alvaro Morata, with the half ending in Phil Foden meeting a flicked free-kick with a far-post volley stopped by Unai Simon.
Injured star Rodri was replaced by Martin Zubimendi at the break, with the second half just 69 seconds old when Spain struck the first blow of the night.
Quick, incisive build-up play caught Southgate’s side napping, with Lamine Yamal – who turned 17 on Saturday – cutting inside and showing great vision to play over for Williams to send a left-footed drive past Jordan Pickford.
England were shell-shocked and fortunate not to be further behind in the 49th minute as Olmo somehow dragged across the face of goal.
Southgate’s side swayed as Spain threatened to deliver a knockout blow, with Stones clearing a shot after Morata was slipped behind before Williams drove narrowly wide from distance.
Fans chanted Ollie Watkins’ name as the semi-final super sub replaced ineffective skipper Kane in the 61st minute.
The England faithful needed a boost and Jude Bellingham’s excellent spin and strike wide from 20 yards raised the volume as streetwise Spain began to slow play.
Pickford pushed a Yamal snapshot wide as Luis De La Fuente’s side threatened a second, with Ruiz lasering over before Bellingham breathed a sigh of relief after losing possession.
It led to Oyarzabal seeing a shot saved and England quickly countering as Bukayo Saka raced down the right and cut back for Bellingham to prod into the path of the freshly-introduced Palmer.
The ice-cool substitute, who was brought on in place of Kobbie Mainoo three minutes earlier, sent a low 22-yard strike skipping beyond Simon’s reach into the bottom corner in front of the England section.
The 73rd-minute drive took a slight touch off Zubimendi and brought renewed hope and energy having lost control, although Pickford had to produce another big stop to deny Yamal as the clock wound down.
Spain were on top and they struck in the 86th minute as Oyarzabal beat Guehi and Pickford to Marc Cucurella’s low cross, sliding home from close range to spark wild Spanish celebrations.
England tried to rescue another match, with Rice seeing a header saved and Olmo clearing a Guehi header off the line from the same corner.
Stoppage-time quickly evaporated as Southgate’s side again fell just short.
Trump shot at campaign rally: ex-President recovering, one killed
Donald Trump said a bullet “pierced” part of his ear when he was shot at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The former president was rushed off the stage in Butler after gunshots rang through the crowd.
One person in the crowd was killed and two people were critically injured after an attacker fired “multiple shots”, said the Secret Service. The suspected gunman was killed according to Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger.
The Secret Service said the suspected shooter fired from “an elevated position outside of the rally venue” and that the FBI has taken over the investigation.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear”.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he said. “Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening.”
Mr Trump thanked the Secret Service and other law endorsement for their “rapid response” and he extended condolences “to the family of the person at the rally who was killed and also to the family of another person that was badly injured”.
“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead,” he said.
Spokesman Steven Cheung said Mr Trump is “fine” and being checked out at a local medical facility while the former president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr said his father “is in great spirits”.
Mr Trump flew back to New Jersey ahead of his spending the night at his golf resort in Bedminster.
Kevin Rojek, the FBI officer in charge, said they had not identified a motive nor released the identity of the gunman for what he a called “an assassination attempt on our former president”.
President Joe Biden said “everybody must condemn” the incident, adding that he hoped to speak with his 2024 presidential rival soon.
Addressing the nation about two hours after the shooting, Mr Biden said he was relieved the former president is reportedly “doing well” and the White House confirmed the presidential rivals have spoken.
“We cannot allow this to be happening,” he said. “The idea that there’s violence in America like this is just unheard of.”
Mr Biden said he was waiting for additional information before formally calling the attack an attempted assassination on the former president.
The president delivered his comments from the White House’s emergency briefing room in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which is set up whenever the president travels. He was spending the weekend at his beach home and was at a nearby church when the shooting occurred.
Mr Biden received an “initial briefing” from aides after he left church minutes after the shooting and then convened security officials for a more in-depth update.
The Biden campaign said it was pausing all messaging to supporters and working to pull down all of its television ads as quickly as possible, the campaign said.
Mr Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee said the party’s convention in Milwaukee, which is due to start on Monday, will “proceed” after the shooting.
Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that she was also briefed, adding that she and her husband “are relieved” that Mr Trump was not seriously injured.
“Violence such as this has no place in our nation,” she said. “We must all condemn this abhorrent act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to more violence.”
Mr Trump was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers when bangs started ringing out.
The ex-president could be seen reaching with his right hand towards his neck and there appeared to be blood on his face.
He quickly ducked as agents from his protective detail rushed the stage and screams rang out from the crowd. The bangs continued as agents tended to him.
The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist before he was taken to his motorcade which left the venue.
Police began vacating the site in Butler shortly after Mr Trump left the stage.
Former President Barack Obama said in a statement: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy. We should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics.”
His predecessor George W Bush described the shooting as a “cowardly attack” on Mr Trump’s life.
Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who was sitting in the front row, said: “All the sudden shots started to crack, someone behind me appears to have been shot.
“There’s lots of blood, and then the Secret Service were all over President Trump.”
Press Association
Meet the man quietly building London’s next bit of vital infrastructure
Internet access is the new crucial bit of infrastructure in any global city. Vorboss offers fast connectivity to London’s fastest growing and most established companies. We meet the man behind the cables, CEO Tim Creswick
“It’s one of those funny things,” Vorboss CEO Tim Creswick tells me as we make small talk about the (for once) warm weather outside.
“You think you’re building a fibre network, and then suddenly you’re approving 50 grand’s worth of sunscreen for your engineers,” he says with a chuckle.
When the weather’s bad? “If we’re doing more delicate work, they’ve got a tent they erect. It looks like a crime scene tent, so we had to brand it. It looked like we’d murdered someone so we had to change it.”
Creswick has a reason for keeping an eye on the weather. He and his army of engineers are quietly building London’s newest infrastructure project, day after day, under our very feet. Vorboss are everywhere and nowhere; their dark green ‘welfare vans’ providing unassuming shelter from sunshine and rain across the capital whilst engineers build a fibre broadband network, specifically for business, that is faster and more reliable than any other major competitor. In a few short years the firm has built a network faster than just about anybody else in the industry can believe.
It wasn’t necessarily the plan from the off, though. Vorboss has been through a few iterations, from data centres to cloud infrastructure. And then he started to look at the infrastructure of connectivity itself: fibre networks.
“There’s a great anecdote of a Midwest fibre-to-home company that used to be a video rental store. They looked at their business go out of the door to Netflix, and they looked at their small town of 7,000 homes, and said well, if Netflix wins, what’s the one thing everyone’s going to need? So they started building a fibre network. That was our thinking too.”
Vorboss was already laying high-performance fibre for specific clients, procuring the kit from other suppliers. The closer they got to the connectivity infrastructure – the actual cables and fibre themselves – they realised they could do it better. And then a 2019 regulatory change opened up a brave new world, with Openreach – the BT-owned digital infrastructure builder, the telecoms equivalent of Network Rail – being forced to open up its ‘ducts’ to other connectivity businesses. To build a cable network you could now use the ‘ducts’ to lay your own kit, rather than having to create your own ducts with all the disruptive, and expensive, building that requires.
Creswick accelerated the firm’s growth but was still thinking about client-led projects. But as other potential competitors bailed out of London as “too hard” or simply because of pandemic uncertainty, Creswick burrowed away with his own (his words) “particular brand of autism” to work out if he could go the other way, and build a fibre connectivity network across the whole of London. His laptop spat out a number. And then he went to find the cash, and the people.
The first was taken care of in a 2020 acquisition by Fern Trading Limited. The second came with a different challenge; telecoms engineering requires trained staff, with most competitors using contractors. Creswick wanted to go a different route, training a diverse band of Londoners who are in-house, part of the family, which he thinks has created a business packed with people who care about the city they’re working in.
“Our field workforce are hyper-local. We have a map of people’s addresses and it’s really cool, they all live in London. I think that changes (the culture) because there is a real community in London,” he tells me.
“When you hire Londoners, they already have that sense of community. It feels like a small town. If you work in London, and you lay fibre day to day, and you know practically every street, you feel like you’re partly responsible for building the fabric of the city.”
If we’re doing more delicate work, they’ve got a tent they erect. It looks like a crime scene tent, so we had to brand it. It looked like we’d murdered someone.
Vorboss’ band of engineers – male, female, ethnically diverse – go through training in everything from complicated cable splicing to first aid. And, crucially for Creswick, that culture and the ownership of the infrastructure itself means he’s confident that he can provide constant, reliable, high-quality 100gigabit connectivity to businesses that need it. They offer an automatic refund to customers who experience outages or slowdowns (a four-minute shutdown equals a day’s worth of compensation), and since Covid-19, IT managers and those in the C-suite have come round to the idea of buying connectivity capabilities that they don’t necessarily need now, but will do in the future.
That’s translating into greater demand, which in turn makes it more feasible to train an ever larger workforce. And then buy more sunscreen.
Creswick bounds off after our chat – not many questions, very long (and enthusiastic) answers – to his other hobby: motor racing. He drives a Porsche 911 in the Lemans Cup, a set of races across the continent.
“My job is now almost entirely thinking slow. I don’t get to shoot from the hip. To function I need to think fast sometimes. There’s something very visceral about it.”
The Debate: Should Labour scrap the early release scheme?
Should Labour scrap the early release scheme?
The UK’s overcrowded prisons running out of space – they are literally days away from capacity. There are construction plans for new jails but they won’t be ready anytime soon. In February, the government started releasing prisoners early to try to deal with the problem. Many prisons are housing two inmates in cells built for one. So what should Labour do? Extend the scheme? Or should the scrap it?
Yes: The early release scheme is masking a problem but not solving it
Successive governments have released prisoners before the end of their official sentences into community supervision to ease overcrowding. Yet, many eligible for release have committed serious violence and are at high risk of re-offending. It was an understandable temporary measure, but has become standard practice to hide permanently low prison capacity.
A useful analogy is with inflation. The government sets sentencing guidelines centrally which is followed by courts. Yet there is a mismatch between what the government considers a fair sentence and the resources set aside to carry them out. Just like when too much money chases too few goods in the economy (leading to price rises), we end up convicting too many serious offenders for the cells available. It is as if the police and courts did their jobs ‘too well’ by catching and convicting serious criminals. Early release is a way of hiding that mismatch rather than solving it. For example, a 12-month prison sentence handed down by a court becomes a six-month sentence in “real terms”.
Once this is well known, career criminals become undeterred by the threat of a “long” sentence because they know they are not real. Victims are shocked to see serious offenders back in their community soon after conviction. This undermines public perceptions of justice.
Scrapping early release aligns with the new government’s commitment to long-term investment in Britain’s public infrastructure and to abandoning the shallow public relations tricks played by their predecessors.
Nick Cowen is associate professor in criminology at the University of Lincoln
No: We need to move towards safely releasing more people from prison
Our prison system is in an untenable state of crisis. To stabilise the justice system, it is imperative that the government address the prison capacity crisis. The early release scheme is a necessary emergency action.
The failure to tackle the source of demand on our prisons (like reoffending) poses a real danger. There is a prospect of serious riots and the courts no longer having the option of being able to send people to prison.
Safely releasing people from prison is an important goal. We live in a society where we are supposed to seek justice for victims and have a justice system designed to ensure people pay their dues. And there are many clear examples and strong evidence that with the appropriate support it is possible to successfully resettle those who have committed offences back into society. It has been proven (time and again) that this can be done in a way that minimises reoffending, keeps communities safe and reintroduces people as contributing members of society.
The case for ‘adding capacity’ can’t take immediate effect and fails to consider how we would safely staff this. A January 2024 inspection of Five Wells prison discovered that almost 750 officers had been hired since it opened in 2022, but only 272 remained in post.
Early release can be, and has been, enacted effectively. We know that if those eligible are released with access to resettlement support (a well-trained probation officer, mentorship, access to resources and opportunities) people can, and do, live life differently. This would not only impact the capacity crisis but help to reduce reoffending and stabilise the system. For too long, criminal justice policies have been judged on whether they appear “tough” or “soft”, when what really matters is whether they work. With the right support, this works.
Antonia May is head of influencing at Switchback
The Verdict:
Clearly, releasing prisoners early is unlikely to form part of any government’s dream manifesto. But here we are: the Conservative government first opened the doors and Labour is unlikely to close them now – and is even considering opening them wider. Breaking pledges undermines public perceptions of justice as Cowen points out. It could also endanger people. Current rules exempt criminals of sexual, violent and terror crimesm, but they may let domestic abuse perpetrators and other unsavoury offenders out. Setting national parameters is tricky when in reality cases are safer judged on a case by case point.
May is right that many prisoners can be better resettled outside prisons though “If enacted effectively” is key to her argument here. We need a strong probation service to release people safely and effectively. On the whole, seeing as we have the highest incarceration rate in Western Europe (fully higher by half than Germany and a quarter than France) we need to move towards locking up less people. But there are various ways to go about it and the early-release scheme as it’s been enacted so far is far from perfect.