Grenfell report: Fire service’s ‘serious shortcomings’ contributed to deaths October 29, 2019 Systemic failures within the London Fire Brigade (LFB) contributed to more deaths in the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy, a report published this week will say. Although firefighters have been praised for courage, the report by inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick has slammed the LFB for “serious shortcomings” in how it approached the blaze in which [...]
Mike Ashley calls Goals Soccer Centres’ move to call in SFO ‘too little, too late’ October 29, 2019 Mike Ashley today blasted a reported move by embattled Goals Soccer Centres to enlist the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate suspected fraud. The Sports Direct owner called the alleged action “far too little, too late”. Read more: Goals Soccer Centres calls in fraud watchdog The billionaire added that it “is a deliberate case of [...]
UK house prices: Growth ‘subdued’ in wake of Brexit slowdown October 29, 2019 House price growth remained below one per cent for the 11th consecutive month in October, as hopeful homeowners sat tight amid Brexit uncertainty. House prices in the 12 months to October rose 0.4 per cent to £215,368, according to the new figures from Nationwide. Read more: House prices suffer slowest October rise in more than [...]
DEBATE: Has the People’s Vote campaign blown its chance of a second referendum? October 29, 2019 Has the People’s Vote campaign blown its chance of a second referendum? Olivia Utley, deputy editor at TheArticle, says YES. So, the People’s Vote campaign has imploded. Why? Infighting has a lot to do with it. Political activism only works when the public can’t see what’s going on behind the scenes – and yesterday, the [...]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is fuelling the toxic media discourse she so despises October 29, 2019 At a US congressional hearing last week, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – the leading light of the 2018 Democratic intake – confronted Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg was supposedly attending the hearing to discuss libra, Facebook’s nascent digital currency, now facing considerable legislative pressure. In five blistering minutes, Ocasio-Cortez widened her aim, taking him to [...]
Happy birthday, internet – let’s make the next 50 years just as innovative October 29, 2019 How do we define the birth of the internet? As an ambiguous, shifting entity, it is often hard to define what the internet even is, let alone its beginning. In my eyes, the date the first message was sent across the telephone network, from one computer to another – late on the evening of 29 [...]
Level up: Lessons from London for boosting the rest of the UK October 29, 2019 Britain’s economy has been distorted. London takes all the jobs, all the talent, all the investment, leaving crumbs for everyone else. For Britain to prosper, the capital needs to be cut down to size. In the wake of the financial crisis, and then of the Brexit vote, this is an argument that has become increasingly [...]
UK spending rules should focus on investments rather than debt, economists say October 29, 2019 The UK needs new rules on taxing and spending in order to adequately tackle the major economic challenges the country looks set to face over the next decade, a new report has said. Read more: Hey, big spender: IFS boss Paul Johnson on the end of economic orthodoxy Rather than simply focusing on public debt [...]
Consumers choose challenger banks due to poor service on high street October 29, 2019 Poor customer service at high street banks is causing consumers to turn to challengers such as Monzo in droves, a new report has found. Read more: Monzo smashes past £2bn valuation in fresh funding round Customers are particularly peeved about the difficulty of mortgage applications and the resolution of problems, according to the report from [...]
Government backs MPs’ criticism of workplace ‘cover-up culture’ via non-disclosure agreements October 29, 2019 The practice of using non-disclosure agreements to cover up mistreatment at work has come a step closer to being abolished. The government has thrown its weight behind a parliamentary report which was highly critical of the practice, in which NDAs are routinely used by companies to cover up unlawful discrimination and sexual harassment at work. [...]