Kingfisher: B&Q owner sales dragged down by weakness in overseas brands Retail B&Q owner Kingfisher saw the success of its UK brands dragged down by struggles overseas, as sales in France and Poland took a dip. The FTSE 100 firm suffered falling sales in its French Castorama (-2.2 per cent) and Brico Depot (-2.3 per cent) brands and in Poland (-1.1 per cent), while sales grew by [...]
Psst… This is how to ski Les 3 Vallées without the crowds Life&Style Les 3 Vallées is the world’s biggest ski area with 600km of runs plus oodles of off piste areas. With over 4.5m visitors per year, amongst them a huge number of Brits, this trip was about staying away from the crowds both on and off the slopes. British skiers will likely be familiar with Val [...]
With not much else to offer, Reeves pitches ‘stable’ UK to Davos elite Politics The Canadian PM and former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, told an audience at Davos yesterday that “the old order is not coming back,” and that “there’s been a rupture in the world.” He said the structures we took for granted have been replaced by “a system of intensifying great power rivalry [...]
Starmer slams Trump’s UK tariff threat over Greenland January 18, 2026 Keir Starmer has joined European leaders in condemning Donald Trump’s plan to impose sweeping tariffs on the UK and several Nato allies. The prime minister has warned the move risks damaging transatlantic trade and collective security. The US president said goods exported from the UK to the US would face a 10 per cent tariff [...]
High glamour and high solitude in Les Trois Vallées January 6, 2026 From Asian-inspired glamour to Savoie savoir-faire, there’s no one way to ski Les Trois Vallées, writes Carys Sharkey As a skiing destination, Courchevel hardly needs an introduction. It is one of France’s most prestigious resorts and boasts the largest interconnected ski area in the world in the form of the Les Trois Vallées, linking Méribel [...]
IMF sounds alarm on soaring sovereign debt October 15, 2025 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged governments to bear down on profligate spending after it found government debt was on course to reach 100 per cent of global GDP within the next five years. In its latest Fiscal Monitor report, the world’s preeminent financial institution sounded the alarm on developed and developing nations’ over-reliance [...]
What would a far-right leader in France mean for Europe? October 14, 2025 Despite growing economic strains and political turbulence in both countries, a potential alignment between Germany’s centre-right Chancellor Friedrich Merz and a far-right French president could temporarily steady Europe’s core — but deep fiscal and ideological divides between Paris and Berlin still threaten the long-term stability of the European Union and its single currency, says David [...]
‘Storm of volatility’ carries gold past $4,000 per ounce October 8, 2025 A flurry of political drama across several major economies has stoked already existing fears around ballooning sovereign debt to fuel gold’s rise this year, market strategists have said, after the precious metal shot past $4,000 per troy ounce for the first time in its history on Wednesday. Analysts said the ongoing political impasses in France [...]
French borrowing costs surge as political crisis deepens October 6, 2025 French assets suffered at the hands of a brutal sell-off on Monday, after the country’s latest prime minister resigned just a month into the role, exacerbating an already grave political crisis. French stocks tumbled across the board while government borrowing costs climbed sharply to their highest since 2011, after newly appointed prime minister Sebastien Lecornu [...]
UK second most at risk from debt crisis of all major economies September 29, 2025 The UK is the second most likely major economy to face a debt crisis in the next two years, a fresh survey of financial professionals has found, as investors remain unconvinced by the country’s growth prospects and efforts to keep a lid on spending. According to a Deutsche Bank poll released on Monday, France is [...]