City financier Edi Truell agrees to fund £500,000 to company to solve Irish border problem December 17, 2018 The question of the Irish border appears to have eluded many of our politicians, but one City financier has come up with his own solution. Edi Truell, co-founder of private equity and venture capital firm Disruptive Capital Finance, has said he is willing to stump up £500,000 to pay for a high-tech system for the Irish [...]
Jeremy Corbyn calls for vote of no confidence in Theresa May December 17, 2018 Jeremy Corbyn has called for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May, but pulled back from trying to force a general election. After an afternoon of confusion, the Labour leader announced he wanted a Commons vote because of the way May had handled the vote on her Brexit deal. The Prime Minister cancelled a [...]
Trump attacks Federal Reserve again in row over interest rates hike December 17, 2018 President Donald Trump has continued his spat with America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, ahead of its interest rates announcement this week. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year on Wednesday, a decision Trump today called “incredible” on Twitter. “It is incredible that with a very strong dollar [...]
UK banks could be tested for climate change resilience from next year, according to Bank of England governor Mark Carney December 17, 2018 UK bank stress tests could include resilience to the impact of climate change from next year, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said. Carney said he was weighing up whether the risks and opportunities of climate change should included in the test, which is known as the exploratory scenario, the Financial Times reported. Banking stress [...]
Halo Top ice cream defrosted from the startup doldrums to become a retail success December 17, 2018 Junk food is, rightly, under assault. This year, we’ve seen the introduction of a sugar tax on soft drinks, and last month London mayor Sadiq Khan announced a ban on junk food advertising on the capital’s public transportation network. This comes after tougher TV advertising rules introduced last year, which meant that ads for food [...]
Productivity lessons from the procrastinator Prime Minister December 17, 2018 Can we assume, given that you’re reading this section of the paper, that you are currently delaying doing something you really ought to be focusing on? I don’t mean to lecture you. I myself currently have an Oliver Spencer tab or two open on my browser. I spent most of last Wednesday Googling the viability [...]
Asos shares nosedive after it warns on bleak pre-Christmas trading December 17, 2018 Shares in Asos fell more than 35 per cent this morning after it warned of a “significant deterioration” in its pre-Christmas trading. The online retailer reported sales growth of 14 per cent in the three months to the end of November. But the company said it had seen the “weakest growth in online clothing sales [...]
Exclusive: Aberdeen Standard backs controversial £1bn bid for Crossrail fleet December 17, 2018 Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) is backing a controversial £971m bid to acquire a fleet of 70 Elizabeth Line trains from Transport for London (TfL), City A.M. can reveal. The asset management giant is stumping up £147m in equity investment to Rock Rail, a rolling stock infrastructure company that finances new trains, with funding proposed from [...]
The new Brexit Wars episode is out: May the force be with you December 17, 2018 Maybe it’s just me, but the Stormtroopers in the new Star Wars movies never seem to have the same menace as the old ones. Last week, Jacob Rees-Mogg and his colleagues in the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) of the Conservative party looked like they believed that they had gone old-school – Empire Strikes Back. [...]
Will Tony Blair help or hinder the campaign for a second referendum? December 16, 2018 Of the four living former Prime Ministers, three are united in vocal and (to a varying degree) active opposition to current government policy. John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have taken very different approaches to life after Downing Street but what unites them now is support for a second referendum. Major has called for [...]