Future: Go Compare owner announces share buyback May 16, 2025 Future has reported a robust set of half year results, with profits and margins holding firm despite a three per cent drop in revenue. In the six months to 31 March, the London-headquatered media platform posted adjusted operating profit of £100.7m, down five per cent from the same period last year. Profitability remained resilient with [...]
Tourist tax: Lisa Nandy says Labour may ‘explore’ restoring VAT free shopping April 16, 2025 Lisa Nandy has said the government “could explore” restoring VAT free shopping after hearing “very loud and clear” the calls from the industry to scrap the so-called tourist tax. The culture, media and sport secretary told Elle UK magazine that fashion was in the “soul of the nation” and ministers recognised its “centrality” to the [...]
How the modern world is changing grave stone design forever April 10, 2025 Death is the only thing surer than taxes. But how we’re remembered is a strange and sometimes controversial business. Ralph Jones meets the people rewriting the rules, one grave stone at a time Stonemason Neil Luxton once agreed to use comic sans on a grave. Once was enough – he has refused ever since. Luxton, [...]
Life on the edge: A deep dive into the crazy world of Margate April 10, 2025 Five years ago, some dilapidated public urinals in a park in Margate were sold at auction by the council to a private bidder for £11,000. The shabby little structure is barely visible from the path, a graffitied block hidden behind shrubs with weeds winding through the roof and floor. The original glazed urinals are exposed [...]
It takes a village: Do we need to rethink our attitude to old age? April 10, 2025 We’re living for longer than ever but the boom in the elderly population is a social and political time-bomb. Could ‘later life’ communities like Auriens be the answer to the old age crisis, asks Steve Dinneen I enter a grand lobby, all lofty ceilings, marquetry floors and art deco fittings. An effusive concierge in a natty [...]
The White Lotus Season 3 finale sucked: Here’s why April 8, 2025 The White Lotus Season 3 is over. In this spoiler-heavy take, Steve Dinneen laments an ending that went awry. The final episode of The White Lotus Season 3 pulled off the dubious trick of ending with both a bang and a whimper. It’s been a rollercoaster: the season opened to a fairly tepid reaction – [...]
The Last Supper: Gordon Warnecke on the perfect jerk chicken April 7, 2025 Star of 1980s movie My Beautiful Laundrette, Gordon Warnecke tells us what he would eat for his last meal on earth My mum wasn’t a very good cook. My first memories of food are of her making quite traditional British stuff. She came over from Guyana in South America, where she was the youngest of five siblings – [...]
I found my private pictures on a foot fetish website… And a theatre celeb’s April 7, 2025 Playwright Naomi Westerman found her private photos on a foot fetish website. Then she found pictures of the most powerful man in theatre… I have no idea how a celebrity foot fetish website found my personal Instagram. Somehow a bunch of random snapshots in which I happen to be shoeless did it for some people. Not [...]
Olivier Awards winner Layton Williams on life after Titanique: ‘I want to be a Strictly Come Dancing judge!’ April 7, 2025 Olivier Awards 2025 winner Layton Williams tells City AM The Magazine about the ridiculousness of being nominated for playing a lump of ice, how he can’t slay everyday now he’s 30, and his hopes to return to Strictly Come Dancing, but this time on the judging panel “I would hope the 20 years I’ve been [...]
Is real-life Severance here? Inside the offices microchipping employees April 4, 2025 Is real life Severance already here? Anna Moloney talks to the companies using human microchips in the pursuit of productivity.