Boris Johnson avoids talking tennis by pulling on his sparring gloves July 24, 2014 It looks like the “will he, won’t he” tennis match between Boris Johnson and the Chernukhins (the Russian couple who paid £160,000 at a fundraiser to play BoJo and David Cameron) will go ahead, after Boris said he was going to get in training for it yesterday. Now we think we know how he’s getting [...]
Update: Blackmailer hacks ECB website, steals email addresses and contact details July 24, 2014 The European Central Bank (ECB) has had its website hacked, with sensitive personal information including email addresses and contact data stolen. The ECB received an anonymous call on Monday night requesting money in return for the stolen data. The bank didn't say how much the blackmailer asked for, but did say that it refused to [...]
Mark Carney’s marathon metaphor moment: Sports back but it’s just not cricket July 23, 2014 We’ve learnt over the past year, in a similar vein to his predecessor, Mark Carney doesn’t need a sporting event to make a sporting reference in his official orations. But yesterday the Bank of England governor had more reason than any other time – as he spoke in Glasgow at the start of the Commonwealth [...]
Putin has exposed a chilling truth about the West: It no longer exists July 22, 2014 Somehow Europe’s leaders have managed to undershoot even my subterranean expectations. Ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting yesterday to plan a common response to the Malaysia Airlines atrocity, leaks made it all too clear that this whole process would not amount to much. But the results – even for the EU – are almost comically [...]
Failure to cut deficit poses challenge to Treasury as George Osborne struggles to meet fiscal targets July 22, 2014 The economic recovery is still failing to cut the government’s huge budget deficit, with analysts yesterday suggesting that chancellor George Osborne might not be on course to reach his own fiscal targets. The UK borrowed £11.37bn excluding one-off interventions in June, barely less than in the same month last year. In June 2013, public borrowing [...]
Tesco to splash £11m on Dave Lewis and Philip Clarke rescue operation July 21, 2014 Tesco will spend more than £1.8m on its new chief executive Dave Lewis but up to £9.6m on departing boss Philip Clarke as the supermarket puts its faith in the industry outsider to turn its sales around. Clarke’s shock departure and his replacement with Unilever’s president of personal care, who will start in October, comes [...]
Dave Lewis: Tesco banks on first outsider in its 95-year history. Will he make a difference? July 21, 2014 Tesco’ incoming boss Dave Lewis will have no easy task on his hands when he takes the reins at the UK’s biggest retailer and the world’s third largest chain in October. But while he lacks the Tesco genes that Philip Clarke had from spending 39 years at the grocer, Lewis makes up for it in [...]
Are tougher sanctions the best way to tackle Putin’s Russia? July 21, 2014 Timothy Ash, head of emerging market research (ex Africa) at Standard Bank, says Yes. Sanctions have already had an effect, by preventing a broader Russian incursion into Ukraine. Russia did not expect them, and the measures made it bide time to assess their impact. Crucially, this gave the new Ukrainian government time to regroup, and [...]
Dave Lewis: Tesco share prices jumps as investors bet on new CEO’s strong Unilever record July 21, 2014 Investors have been reassured by the appointment of Dave Lewis as Tesco's new top dog. Despite a profit warning, Tesco's shares sprang up by as much as three per cent as markets opened. Part of that can be explained by the coming departure of CEO Philip Clarke. While he will continue to serve in his [...]
Fresh sanctions expected as West blames Putin’s Russia for MH17 crash July 21, 2014 Western governments yesterday warned that a more severe round of sanctions could be imposed against the Russian government, with heads of state increasingly blaming Moscow for supplying the missile which brought down a Malaysian airlines jet last week. Foreign secretary Philip Hammond, who has held the post for less than a week, said yesterday that [...]