British Gas strikes back on today as ongoing talks falter February 19, 2021 Around 7,000 British Gas engineers will be on strike for four days until 23 February, protesting the company’s “fire and hire” plan as ongoing talks between the GMB union and Centrica’s British gas falter. This is the second out of three lots of planned four day strikes, beginning on 12 February, 19 February and 26 [...]
Northern Ireland extends lockdown to 1 April February 19, 2021 The Stormont Executive has agreed to extend Northern Ireland’s lockdown to 1 April. Some restrictions will be lifted however, with a phased reopening of schools. Children in primary school will be allowed to go back to school on 8 March. They will then return to remote learning on 22 March to allow the return of [...]
Priti Patel criticizes ‘dreadful’ Black Lives Matter protests February 12, 2021 UK home secretary Priti Patel said she did not support the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, calling the protests “dreadful” in an interview with LBC this morning. When asked whether she would “take the knee”, Patel said: “No, I would not, I would not have at the time either. There are other ways in which people [...]
Universities tell students to stay away until September February 12, 2021 St Andrews has become the latest UK university to announce all teaching will remain online until September, following announcements made by the University of Edinburg and the London School of Economics. This means thousands of students will spend almost the entire academic year learning online. Education secretary Gavin Williamson is expected to lay out plans [...]
Exclusive: Britain’s 10,000 law firms largely spared from pandemic onslaught February 12, 2021 Despite the pandemic, the number of law firms has remained steady, with 10,080 currently registered in the UK, according to new research. The number of firms is down only 2 per cent compared to last year, as 10,278 firms were registered in December 2019, according to accountancy and business advisory firm Hazlewoods. Though many firms’ [...]
Peloton deliveries disrupted by Brexit and port delays February 5, 2021 Peloton’s stock of treadmills and bikes has been badly hit by Brexit and global shipping congestion, leading to severe delays, according to company CEO John Foley. On Peloton’s website, some items can take eight to ten weeks to be delivered, higher than the four to six week delivery windows earlier this year. The company has [...]
UK’s gambling black market has doubled since 2018: PwC February 5, 2021 The number of British consumers gambling on unlicensed websites has doubled in the last three years, according to a new study by PwC. The report found a steep rise in customers using offshore websites, despite these platforms being less visible on Google and with little evidence of growing public awareness of black market brands. PwC [...]
Barclays CEO on the future of the City: ‘Forget Frankfurt and Paris’ February 5, 2021 Jes Staley, the CEO of Barclays, has said the UK financial services industry should focus on competing with the US and Asia, rather than the EU. Staley reportedly said that although jobs that would have been created in the Square Mile may have been moved to the EU, Brexit has given one of the UK’s [...]
Cadbury returns to Birmingham in post-Brexit production shift February 5, 2021 The owner of Cadbury, Mondelez International, is planning to shift more Dairy Milk production back to its historic Bournville factory in Birmingham. The company announced a £15m investment at the Birmingham site, and from 2022 125m more Dairy Milk bars are to be manufactured there. Mondelez’ UK managing director Louise Stigant said Bournville is still [...]
EU securities watchdog calls for stricter regulation on greenwashing January 29, 2021 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said today EU rules are needed to regulate ratings on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of companies to avoid investors being deceived by “greenwashing”. Asset managers use ESG ratings to make “green” environmentally conscious investment decisions. Greenwashing refers to inaccurate claims that investments are sustainable and [...]