The JKR in the pack: talking Muppets, charisma and helping out the little guy with Jones Knowles Ritchie November 21, 2016 Despite the overwhelming urge to break into my best Kermit the Frog impression, I resist, as I enter JKR’s office space in Camden. Tucked in next to the Regent’s Canal, the building is the former site of Muppets creator Jim Henson’s “Creature Shop,” where he spent years bringing his TV puppets to life, like a kindly [...]
From idea to IPO in three years: Purplebricks founder Michael Bruce November 21, 2016 "Every time you mention the word ‘estate agent,’ everyone gets a little bit of a smile on their face and an inner feeling of unhappiness,” says Michael Bruce, chief executive at Purplebricks, the online estate agency that has turned the industry on its head in a little over four years. Bruce has traversed the world [...]
Flip-flopgate: Has Havaianas just pulled off the best Black Friday marketing ploy? November 21, 2016 It's happening again. Everyone remembers The Dress – was it blue and black? Was it white and gold? (It was definitely white and gold.) Now it's flip-flops. Debate is raging online over the colour of these sandals: What colour are these flip-flops? Some think they're white and gold. Others think they're black and blue. Sounds familiar, doesn't [...]
Now Stephen Crabb has joined the backlash against the “triple lock” on state pensions November 21, 2016 Former work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb has joined the growing calls for the government to drop its policy to uprate state pension payments. Under plans first introduced under the Tory Lib Dem coalition, the government currently links payments to average earnings, the consumer price index or 2.5 per cent, with payments increasing by whichever [...]
Here’s how many graduates are moving to London November 21, 2016 We know that London is a big draw for the best graduates – but just how many are moving to the big city after university? A study from think tank Centre for Cities has drilled into the issue. Here are three things we learned from the report's analysis of graduate migration: 1. Over a fifth [...]
Theresa May vows UK will offer lowest corporation tax in the G20 November 21, 2016 Prime Minister Theresa May will today commit her government to charging the lowest rate of corporation tax in any of the world's 20 largest economies. The government has already promised to commit the charge from 20 per cent to 17 per cent by 2020, but will go further in her speech at the CBI later [...]
Morrisons has cut petrol prices below £1 a litre for the first time since the Brexit vote – sort of November 21, 2016 It seems supermarkets are already getting carried away by Black Friday: today Morrisons said it was cutting petrol prices to below £1 a litre for the first time since the Brexit vote. Well, sort of. The supermarket said it's reducing the price of unleaded to 99.9p at 333 forecourts from today. But there is a [...]
Lloyds said to be frontrunner in bidding for Bank of America’s £7bn-valued MBNA November 21, 2016 Lloyds Banking Group is thought to be the frontrunner for Bank of America’s £7bn-valued UK credit card business. The UK lender is reported to have edged ahead of US private equity group Cerberus in the bidding for MBNA’s British credit card operation. For Lloyds, it would mark the first acquisition since it was bailed out by [...]
Two thirds of chickens sold in supermarkets are infected with E.coli November 21, 2016 Scientists have found that two thirds of chickens in UK supermarkets are contaminated with E.coli. The study from Public Health England and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) claimed that 78 per cent of chickens sold in high streets in England contained an antibiotic-resistant E.coli strain. This figure dropped to 53 per [...]
Ofcom outlines rules for its mobile 4G spectrum auction November 21, 2016 Communications watchdog Ofcom has ruled that BT/EE will not be allowed to participate in one of its upcoming auctions for mobile broadband airwaves. The regulator has set out its rules for next year's auction of 190 MHz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz bands – representing more than three-quarters of the 4G [...]