EPISODE 40: BEER, BUSINESS AND BIRCH-THEM-ALL December 12, 2011 Birchenall only looked about 70. That means he can’t have been more than – what?” Quickly I do the maths. Surely not. “That means he can’t have been more than about 45 when we were at school,” I say to Nick, incredulously. “I know. Scary,” replies Nick. “I’m sure Birch-Them-All looked about a hundred back [...]
Alyn Williams’ debut sparkles December 12, 2011 Alyn Williams at The Westbury 37 Conduit Street W1S 2YF Tel: 020 8283 5036 FOOD ***** SERVICE ***** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £65 Alyn Williams, who was head chef at Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley for four years, was sick of being the bridesmaid. You could tell – he’s been wearing white [...]
Stuck for wine this Xmas? Try a Madeira my dear December 12, 2011 HEAD SOMMELIER AND MANAGER OF LUTYENS RESTAURANT In the great age of exploration, Portuguese sailors would fill the holds of their ships with the wines of Madeira and sail to the New World. Like many wines of the era, destined for export, they were fortified – grape spirit was added to improve their stability and [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS December 12, 2011 KRUG TOASTS HAPPINESS WITH EXHIBITION Krug today launches its Happiness exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts, in which it asked celebrities to “create their own version of happiness” and donate it to the exhibition. David Bailey, Vivienne Westwood and Tony Blair are among those to have contributed to the exhibition, which will raise money [...]
Time Warner offers €1bn for Endemol December 12, 2011 Time Warner has offered 1 billion euros (£847m) in cash to buy television production company Endemol, maker of Big Brother, which is trying to restructure about 2 billion euros of debt, an Endemol spokesman said on Monday. The spokesman said Endemol believed it had a future as an independent company and was no more likely [...]
S&P heaps more pressure on Eurozone December 12, 2011 Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s put more pressure on the Eurozone, with its chief economist saying time was running out for the currency bloc to resolve its debt problems and that it might need another financial shock to get it moving. Jean-Michel Six, chief economist of the agency that shocked financial markets last week by [...]
Banks stocks fall as FSA calls for tighter regulation December 12, 2011 The FTSE 100 was pegged back by miners and banks in early trading as the Eurozone continued the struggle to dig itself out of the sovereign debt crisis Domestically the decision by the Government to shun a Eurozone agreement on closer fiscal ties was sinking in with cracks appearing in the coalition over the move. [...]
Pearson sells FTSE stake to LSE for £450m December 12, 2011 British publishing group Pearson is to sell its 50 per cent stake in the FTSE International group to the London Stock Exchange for £450m as part of its drive to focus on news and analysis and away from data. The LSE said it would fund the deal from existing resources and said it would enable [...]
RBS dragged down by poor management says FSA December 12, 2011 Royal Bank of Scotland gambled with its purchase of Dutch bank ABN Amro and was dragged to the brink of collapse three years ago by poor management decisions and flawed regulation and supervision, a report said on Monday. The long awaited report by Britain’s Financial Services Authority, running to 452 pages, criticised former Chancellor and [...]
Lib Dem agony as voters back veto December 11, 2011 THE LIBERAL Democrats were in disarray yesterday with senior cabinet figures lashing out over David Cameron’s veto of a new EU treaty on Friday – but they stopped short of quitting as two polls showed public opinion firmly against them. The first post-veto polling showed that Cameron’s move is popular with voters: a Daily Mail [...]
