Babcock shares sink as one-off costs torpedo defence giant’s profits May 22, 2019 Babcock shares fell nine per cent this morning as the defence giant revealed profits fell by nearly one-half last year amid a “challenging” market environment. The company, which employs 35,000 people and is a major contractor to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Royal Navy, army and RAF, was hit by £161m of exceptional costs throughout [...]
Bovis Homes shares climb as it signals progress on shareholder returns May 22, 2019 Shares in housebuilder Bovis Homes opened higher this morning after it issued an upbeat trading statement ahead of its annual general meeting today. Read more: Housebuilder Bovis's profits reach record high as it keeps customers happy The company said it has seen its average private sales rate rise 17 per cent over the first five months [...]
Marks & Spencer shares fall as profits decimated amid restructuring efforts May 22, 2019 Profit before tax at retailer Marks & Spencer fell nearly ten per cent in the last financial year, it said today as it announced plans to close 85 stores. The figures M&S said profit before tax for the year to 31 March was £532.2m, down 9.9 per cent from £580.9m the previous year. Revenue fell [...]
DEBATE: After this week’s incident with Nigel Farage, is ‘milkshaking’ an acceptable form of protest? May 22, 2019 After this week’s incident with Nigel Farage, is ‘milkshaking’ an acceptable form of protest? Eleanor Penny, writer and editor at Novara Media, says YES. The milkshake protest meme began when group of far-right goons harangued a Muslim teenager, who defended himself with a milkshake. They pounced on him and beat him up. This public intimidation [...]
The extremist Green party is trying to overthrow capitalism May 22, 2019 The Green Party is doing well. It gained nearly 200 council seats in the recent local elections and is hoping for a strong showing in the European ones this week. Publicity over school children going “on strike” to protest about climate change has helped. With politicians competing to fawn over the truants, the Green Party [...]
Malevolent superintelligence? That’s science fiction, not reality May 22, 2019 In Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL 9000 was an all-knowing robot that decided to destroy a spacecraft and its crew. Naturally enough, the crew didn’t care for this. The film was an important crossover moment from science fiction to science fact. Many who saw HAL came to believe that there are indeed such computers [...]
Puzzled over Australia’s shock election result? Economics can help explain May 22, 2019 The surprise of the week was the re-election of the centre-right Coalition government in the Australian General Election. The Labor opposition had led every major opinion poll for the past two years. But Scott Morrison of the Coalition is still Prime Minister – and it is his Labor opponent who is resigning as leader. Economists, regardless [...]
How to cope with the confusion around social care costs May 22, 2019 Distracted by the ongoing Brexit crisis, the government appears to have shoved the not-so-small issue of social care to one side. With a growing elderly population (by 2046, a quarter of the UK population will be aged 65 or over), and proportionately fewer taxpayers able to prop them up, the rising cost of social care [...]
London’s status as headquarter hub threatened by immigration rules, report warns May 22, 2019 London’s status as a leading global destination for multinational headquarters could be under threat from new immigration laws and Brexit chaos, a new report has warned. Research carried out by think tank Centre for London showed the capital is the top-ranked destination globally for foreign direct investment into headquarters, attracting 591 projects between 2003 and [...]
City Moves for 22 May – Who’s switching jobs at Neuro-Insight, Cushman & Wakefield and Airship? May 21, 2019 Today's City Moves include Neuro-Insight, Cushman & Wakefield and Airship. Neuro-Insight Neuro-Insight, a neuromarketing and neuroanalytics company that uses unique brain-imaging technology to measure how the brain responds to communications, has promoted Shazia Ginai to the role of UK chief executive. She will replace the current UK chief executive, Heather Andrew as she steps down [...]