Time to tackle our terrible tax code March 3, 2011 AMAZINGLY, the world’s fastest talker can speak 637 words aloud a minute. Yes, seriously. The record-holder is a Londoner called Steve Woodmore, who has featured repeatedly in the Guinness Book of Records. Tolstoy’s War and Peace comes in at a hefty 1,204 pages; it would therefore take 12 and a half hours for our record-holder [...]
Yes, Minister: when reality is like TV February 7, 2011 SOMETIMES, fiction is the best guide to reality. I have been rewatching Sir Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn’s brilliant Yes, Minister, one of Britain’s best-ever and much-loved sitcoms. It depicts the warped relationship between a wannabe reforming politician and his civil servants, who spend all their time thwarting him and gradually turn him into a pathetic [...]
City A.M. exclusive: Michael Douglas on Gordon Gekko | City A.M. January 28, 2011 IN THE character of the Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko, Michael Douglas created one of cinema’s most memorable scoundrels, writes Timothy Barber. That was in the 1987 film Wall Street, made at the height of the 1980s boom years. In last year’s follow-up, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (released on DVD on Monday) Gekko [...]
From midlife podginess to lean, mean jockey machine | City A.M. January 27, 2011 FROM JUMBO TO JOCKEY: ONE MAN’S JOURNEY TO BATTLE HIS WEIGHT AND AGE TO LIVE OUT HIS CHILDHOOD DREAM BY DOMINIC PRINCE Fourth Estate, £10.99 “Most people said I was mad. Others thought I’d get myself killed. The rest just howled with laughter at the idea that I – 16st 7lb and aged 47 – [...]
The City is back but under new management December 21, 2010 BRITAIN’S financial landscape has been transformed since we last shone a light on the City’s most powerful figures two years ago. The City A.M./CityJet Power Hundred 2011 list ranks the most influential figures in UK finance as we head into the new year. It should be no surprise that it is very different from 2009. [...]
The dos and don’ts of being headhunted November 24, 2010 YOU may be forgiven if the case of Lonmar Global Risks v West & Others, which came to a conclusion in the High Court earlier this month, passed you by. But the verdict may well have a significant impact on you if you are in one of those City jobs where you work in a team, [...]
Office jokes are here to stay, legally November 16, 2010 THE Equality Act arrived with a fanfare last month and was broadly welcomed for clarifying existing discrepancies within employment laws. But some employers are concerned that the new Act could make it easier for disgruntled members of staff who are offended by office jokes to take their employer to an employment tribunal. So does this [...]
Finally, the City gets the retail hub it deserves October 27, 2010 DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR AT LAND SECURITIES AFTER years in the making, I am very excited to introduce One New Change, the City of London’s newest and largest retail experience, as it opens at midday today. Boasting 60 stores over three floors, One New Change offers something for everyone. Some of the UK’s most loved brands, including [...]
The Square Mile’s long transformation continues October 27, 2010 POLICY CHAIRMAN, CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION THE wind of change is blowing through the City and in this instance, I am not referring to London’s financial heart in the wake of the economic crisis. I am talking about One New Change, Cheapside’s largest shopping destination, which is set to transform the Square Mile. Is that [...]
Smooth operators come to the City October 27, 2010 IT is said that there is a craze at Goldman Sachs for traders to wax their chests, then unfasten three buttons on their shirts so that their glorious, smooth skin is shown off. Which suggests that when Strip, the upmarket waxing chain, opens its first City store in One New change, it might not just [...]