John McDonnell’s Marxist ideas for financing would be a disastrous experiment March 31, 2019 While the Brexit process pushes the British constitution to its limits, the Labour party continues to develop and promote policy proposals that, if implemented, would make the UK’s torturous departure from the European Union look like a modest tweak to our political operating system. While all of Westminster focuses on the near collapse of functioning [...]
Midnight crisis: EU leaders offer two new Brexit delay deadlines March 22, 2019 European leaders debated late into last night in a bid to avert a no-deal Brexit on 29 March, with negotiators agreeing to give Theresa May one last shot at getting her deal through parliament. Read more: Editor’s Notes: A dose of rational optimism blew away the fog of Brexit The Prime Minister travelled to Brussels [...]
Trump says Federal Aviation Administration will ground Boeing 737-Max 8 planes over safety concerns March 13, 2019 US President Donald Trump has pushed through an "emergency order" to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "to ground all 737 Max 8 and the 737 Max 9, and planes associated with that line," after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed and killed 157 people. The FAA – and Trump by association – had both come under pressure [...]
Unlimited Group snaps up consultancy Model Citizens March 11, 2019 Digital marketing giant Unlimited Group has snapped up consultancy Model Citizens as it looks to boost its data analytics offering. The acquisition, believed to be worth several million pounds over the next four years, is Unlimited’s second takeover in the last year and marks its focus on data-driven marketing communications. Model Citizens, which was launched [...]
Mark Kleinman: Aviva’s missed deadline ensures brickbats February 15, 2019 Viva Aviva? For such a stalwart of blue-chip boardrooms, Sir Adrian Montague suddenly can’t put a foot right. Four years after taking over the chairmanship of Aviva when John McFarlane scuttled off to Barclays, he’s ended up in a rather large pickle of his own making. Sacking Mark Wilson as the insurer’s chief executive last [...]
Former Linklaters partner sent to jail over sexual assault at Oktoberfest party in Munich February 6, 2019 A former Linklaters partner who was charged with sexual assault will go to jail after he lost an appeal against his sentence. Thomas Elser, a former tax partner in the magic circle firm’s Munich office, was sentenced to three years and three months in prison by a Munich court in February last year. On Tuesday [...]
Editor’s Notes: Why we cannot take no-deal off the table February 1, 2019 There has been no shortage of ludicrous Brexiter outbursts lately as they see their project imperilled by political reality. One Tory backbencher railed against the CEO of Airbus (who had warned against a no-deal Brexit) on the grounds that he is German. He even invoked the Second World War to make a point about not [...]
Mark Kleinman: Flybe might struggle for take-off without investors on board January 25, 2019 Talk about a crash landing. The outrage of Flybe’s largest shareholder about the terms of its £2.2m takeover, articulated in a legal letter to the airline’s board last week, is at face value perfectly understandable. On the full pre-flight checklist-worth of complaints from Hosking Partners, the most incendiary may be Flybe’s decision last year to [...]
Editor’s Notes: It’s easy to see why Gillette’s latest ad was not the Best A Man Can Get January 18, 2019 The "father of advertising” David Ogilvy once said “I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information”. Were he around today he would have to concede that the current industry takes a different view. Today’s advertising campaigns are meant to be shared, reviewed and discussed whether they [...]
Mark Kleinman’s big predictions for the Square Mile in 2019 January 11, 2019 Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP exit, Unilever’s HQ U-turn, Melrose’s swoop for GKN: 2018 was a year full of surprises in the City. And while forecasting might be a fool’s errand, here are 10 predictions for the year ahead. •Theresa May will decisively lose next week’s “meaningful vote” on Brexit: that’s not a punt that will [...]
