Tube delays: Commuters endure rush hour misery amid Northern Line delays July 9, 2019 Commuters suffered a miserable rush hour commute this morning, with the Northern Line suspended along the Bank branch due to the same problem that caused huge delays yesterday. A signal failure at Kennington meant there was no service running southbound between Camden Town and Kennington on the Bank branch of the Tube line. Read more: [...]
British IT firm Micro Focus ups profit margin but revenue stalls July 9, 2019 Micro Focus saw revenue slip in the first half of its financial year, it said today, although earnings rose 1.8 per cent to $662.3m (£530.6m), boosted by a wider profit margin. The figures Adjusted revenue shrank 5.3 per cent year on year to $1.7bn (£1.3bn) in the six months to the end of April, the [...]
Eddie Stobart first half profits will be ‘at lower end’ of board expectations amid accounting error July 9, 2019 Haulage giant Eddie Stobart expects first half adjusted operating profit to come in at the low end of expectations, it said this morning. Shares fell 1.9 per cent this morning. The forecast follows a slowdown in some sectors and the firm’s decision to exit “a problematic contract” earlier this year. The firm said the shortfall [...]
Fifty years on from the first moon landing, it’s time to get ready for space tourism July 9, 2019 Next time someone asks if you are going anywhere nice on holiday, perhaps soon you can say Mars or Venus rather than Mallorca or Ibiza. It has been 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched Apollo 11 down on the moon, and now famous billionaires are backing different projects to make space a [...]
Would Nigel Farage be a good pick to be the next UK ambassador to the US? July 9, 2019 Would Nigel Farage be a good pick to be the next UK ambassador to the US? Benedict Spence, a freelance writer, says YES. Remove from the equation what you make of the politics of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, and your suspicions over their relationship. The fact that they have such a relationship would make [...]
Challenge the narrative that brands must sell out to succeed July 9, 2019 We live in a world where words continue to lose their meaning. Take “authentic”. It has been hijacked by brands trying to stand out from the crowd, when what they’re really selling is as authentic as chicken tikka masala is to Indian food. This wasn’t something I had given too much thought to until a [...]
Why don’t banks care about SMEs? July 9, 2019 For a service sector dealing almost solely with numbers and structured data, the world of small business lending could not be better suited to disruption by digital machines. But recently, Bank of England governor Mark Carney rightly pointed out that, despite small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) facing a £22bn funding gap, almost half don’t [...]
Climate catastrophising risks shutting down vital debate July 9, 2019 In April, the cry of climate catastrophe seized the political agenda. A trinity of David Attenborough documentaries, Greta Thunberg-inspired school strikes, and Extinction Rebellion protests took over both traditional and social media. It was the only subject driving the zombie government’s agenda forward when, Trump-like, environment secretary Michael Gove watched Blue Planet 2 and tweeted [...]
Electric vehicle projects to receive £40m in government funding July 9, 2019 The government is to inject nearly £40m into a number of transport projects to push ahead electric chargepoint infrastructure in the UK. Twelve engineering projects, including those that will create underground and wireless charging systems, will receive £37m between them to invest in improving electric vehicle infrastructure across the country. Read more: BMW to hit [...]
City Moves for 9 July – Who’s switching jobs? July 9, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes Baird, Glenhawk and Astarte Capital Partners. Baird Baird has announced that Simon Pearson and Justin Prichard (pictured) have joined its European investment banking group as managing directors, continuing the expansion of Baird’s global technology & services practice. The duo will focus on the technology, media and telecoms space, and will be [...]