For babymooners, Brown’s is best April 18, 2010 WHEN I told people that my wife was expecting our first child, a lot of the men who already have kids did this laugh, a sort of bark that seemed to be at once ironic, sardonic and to suggest “you poor, poor fool, you don’t know what you are letting yourself into. No, really, you [...]
Flight chaos in wake of volcano blast April 15, 2010 THE vast cloud of volcanic dust blasted into the atmosphere by a gigantic underwater eruption in Iceland was still causing flight chaos this morning. All commercial flights were scrapped yesterday after the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, situated under a glacier, sent a noxious dust-cloud drifting South across Europe. Flight delays are now expected to last for several [...]
OUT OF OFFICE April 14, 2010 PIRATES OF PENZANCE AT WILTON’S Wilton’s Music Hall may be a stone’s throw from Tower Hill, but the oldest surviving music hall is a magnificently atmospheric throwback to another age. Its current show mixes the traditional – Gilbert & Sullivan – with the distinctly modern, in the form of an all-male production of the Pirates [...]
Oil and mining shares drag FTSE lower as commodity price falls take their toll April 13, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading shares shed 0.3 per cent yesterday as oils and miners fell back on lower commodity prices, while banks moved lower on investor caution ahead of first-quarter results in the United States. At the close, the FTSE 100 was down 15.99 points at 5,761.66, having been stuck in a tight 37 point trading range [...]
TRADER CALLS TIME ON SPOOF BAILOUT April 12, 2010 STRANGE happenings in cyber-space yesterday as a spoof charity site that has been causing much hilarity in the City was mysteriously whipped off the Web. The site in question was masterminded by Standard Bank bonds trader Jim Croft, who decided last week to set up a tongue-in-cheek JustGiving page to help raise £100m for crisis-stricken [...]
ANALYST VIEWS WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE OIL MARKET? April 11, 2010 IVOR PETHER | ROYAL LONDON ASSET MANAGEMENT “The recent rise in the oil price is intriguing as there has also been a flattening of the forward curve – the spot price is up from $75 to $85 over the last couple of months, while prices for delivery several years out have fallen from $90 to [...]
Bribery Bill to bolster UK’s law practices April 11, 2010 CITY law firms vying for anti-corruption work have started to significantly boost white-collar crime practices in anticipation of the recently passed Bribery Bill, putting them one step behind their US counterparts. The move by City law firms comes as the Bill, which reached Royal Assent in parliament late last week, is expected to produce swathes [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 8, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES HOLLYWOOD TOP GUNS TAKE SHOT AT REVIVING DEBT-RIDDEN MGM Tony and Sir Ridley Scott have emerged as surprise contenders to steer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer back to solvency after submitting a restructuring plan to the Hollywood studio’s lenders. The brothers, who between them are responsible for Alien, Top Gun and Gladiator, have expressed interest in running [...]
Live in a Cold War bunker – the ideal home for a nuclear family with style April 8, 2010 JUST imagine the dinner party possibilities of living in an unusual house. No matter what other people tell you about their wonderful new stables or their eco-conversion, revealing that you live in a converted Cold War military base is sure to stop people in their tracks. Two of the most desirable properties currently on the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 7, 2010 Nomura The Japanese investment bank has appointed Mikael Dahl as co-head of its Nordic investment banking team, based in London. Dahl was previously a partner at EQT Partners and brings with him over 20 years of investment banking experience. He previously worked at Citigroup/Salomon Brothers from 1994 to 2008, latterly as European co-head of the [...]