Letters: Whose rules are they anyway? March 31, 2022 [Re: Chief execs in Boris Johnson’s position would fall on their sword for rule-breaking, yesterday] It’s an intolerable position for Boris Johnson to take that the boss of P&O should go for the graceless sacking of 800 seafarers if he himself continues to sit at the helm in Downing Street even as he faces the [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Cutting company ties with Russia is a balancing act March 31, 2022 Leroy Merlin and Bayer are two of the companies that haven’t pulled out of Russia yet. When giants like BP and Shell terminated operations in the country they were praised, and rightfully so. Companies that haven’t left face boycott calls. Sanctions are seen as a way to push the Kremlin in a corner, ultimately making [...]
For love nor money: after the clapping stopped, can we fix our health system? March 31, 2022 Derek Greatorex has been a GP for thirty years. He describes the current crisis in general practice as “more significant, deeper and like a runaway train which is heading down an ever-steepening slope to an inevitable crash somewhere ahead”. Patients are feeling it too. Satisfaction with the NHS is at the lowest it’s been in [...]
As Iceland rows back on palm oil, this is one slippery slope we should start to embrace March 31, 2022 Supermarket chain Iceland announced this week that it had no choice but to go back on a pledge to avoid using palm oil as an ingredient in its own-brand product range. Managing director Richard Walker wrote in a blog post that Iceland could no longer afford to use sunflower oil, the palm oil alternative it [...]
Saving it away for a rainy day? Now you just have to keep it there as costs spiral March 31, 2022 Over many decades, thousands of column inches have lamented the state of financial education and hours of speeches have been delivered by politicians vowing to fix it. When this hasn’t proven forthcoming, it’s fallen to bloggers and influencers to fill the education gap. Now, as we navigate the harshest cost of living crisis for generations, [...]
Once-fearsome Unions have let P&O off lightly as their political capital unravels March 30, 2022 A penny for the thoughts of Sir John Prescott as P&O Ferries plants itself at the top of the tree of corporate bad guys with its sacking of 800 British crew members. The Labour heavyweight and former Hull East MP started out, let’s remember, as a steward on the Cunard line at the age of [...]
Opinion-in-brief: Rishi is rich – he needs to stop pretending otherwise March 30, 2022 Rishi Sunak is, to put it simply, loaded. During the pandemic we chuckled at his £180 smart mug which kept his tea warm, we mocked him gently for his confessions-of-a-Peloton addict-style foibles. Many were a little taken aback when his wife, Akshata Murthy, headed to Loulou’s in Mayfair on the night after lockdown ended – [...]
Despite what we wish, there are no miracle economics Rishi can pull out of his hat March 30, 2022 The economic pressures now known as “the cost of living crisis” were at the core of the criticism of the spring statement last week. Those who once eulogised the Chancellor have now been selling their stocks of Sunak. While much of the commentary is unfair, politics is a trade in which the concept of fairness [...]
Chief execs in Boris Johnson’s position would fall on their sword for rule-breaking March 30, 2022 In the corporate world, there was a slightly different take on “party-gate” than the conventional wisdom of Westminster, which has waited for fines to be doled out to look again at allegations of wrongdoing during lockdowns. The invasion of Ukraine has, understandably, taken over as priority, but it should not be able to fly under [...]
Explainer-in-brief: The real showdown at the Oscars March 29, 2022 While all eyes were on the punch Will Smith served up to comedian Chris Rock, there was another brewing tension at the awards ceremony of the year. Apple and Netflix had been fiercely vying to become the first streaming service to win the Best Picture award, as the number of people turning to online platforms [...]