Ahead of the Game: British Horseracing Authority accused of ‘selling out sport’ December 11, 2024 Campaign group Clean Up Gambling has switched horses and is backing racing in the sport’s push to be regulated separately from online casinos and slots. Clean Up Gambling, which is funded by multimillionaire Labour donor Derek Webb and run by former party official Matt Zarb-Cousin, has called for racing to be exempt from affordability checks [...]
Exclusive: Forest, Chelsea and Inter players join £1.1m boot firm Sokito’s funding round December 11, 2024 Players from clubs such as Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Inter Milan have joined a £1.1m funding round for eco-friendly football boot firm Sokito. A total of 60 players, 44 of whom are new investors, have joined the roster of investors from leagues including the Premier League, MLS and the Bundesliga. Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah is on [...]
The Notebook: Is it time for the City to embrace behavioural science? December 11, 2024 When Rachel Reeves laid the groundwork for deregulating the finance sector last month, the City’s behavioural scientists spied an opportunity. After all, you don’t need an encyclopaedic knowledge of the City’s post-crisis rap sheet to understand that relying on regulation and controls to influence financial workers’ behaviour has its limitations. Whereas if there were a [...]
Labour’s tax bombshell for high streets December 11, 2024 The government is rushing through business rates reforms for private schools without considering the wider implications for sectors we all rely on, says John Webber Twelve months ago, the Labour Party was still talking about scrapping business rates if it got into power. Whether that was a genuine plan or whether the £22m blackhole discovered [...]
The Naked Truth December 11, 2024 Stefano di Blasi created some of Italy’s most iconic wines, such as Solaia and Megan Markle’s favourite, Tignanello. Now he makes his own wines for Naked in Italy’s beautiful Tuscany WHAT HAS TEAMING UP WITH NAKED WINES MEANT FOR YOU? I joined Naked Wines in 2013, and it completely changed my perspective on winemaking. Firstly, I was able [...]
The state is nothing like a start-up December 11, 2024 Pat McFadden wants the state to be more like a start-up, but the ‘move fast and break things’ mentality has no place in public services on which so many depend. There is, however, a better model… The government’s announcement of a £100m innovation fund to embrace a “test-and-learn” mindset is undeniably ambitious. Speaking at University [...]
McLaren winning Constructors’ Championship shifts tectonic plates of F1 December 10, 2024 At first glance Formula 1 might look like a billionaire boys’ club, where the cash reserves are endless and the supplies infinite. And to a large extent, that’s true. But the motorsport series has a budget cap now which was introduced to level the playing field, to allow challenger teams to take on the might [...]
Fugitif can escape with December’s Gold Cup December 10, 2024 WE’RE back at the home of the Jumps this week as Cheltenham hosts its two-day Christmas Meeting. While there’s some good racing on Friday, Saturday’s card makes more appeal at this stage from an ante-post perspective and the big handicap, the December Gold Cup (1.50pm), is definitely a race to focus on. This is the [...]
Change in business rates could cost firms millions, research finds December 10, 2024 A number of sectors could be hit with hundreds of millions of pounds in extra business rates due to “poorly thought-out legislation”, according to new research. The analysis, conducted by property consultancy Colliers, highlighted the impact that the new business rates legislation proposed by the Labour government could have on larger retailers and hospitality businesses. [...]
Private clubs and boarding schools: Abu Dhabi’s plan to attract ultra-wealthy December 10, 2024 Abu Dhabi is targeting the ultra-wealthy with private clubs, elite schools, and revamped banking, aiming at those considering leaving the UK