Fuller’s toasts return to profit amid ‘fragile’ consumer confidence June 9, 2022 Pub chain Fuller’s is back in the black after posting an adjusted profit before tax of £7.2m, as the licensed trade recovers from the pandemic. In results for the year to 26 March, the pub operator saw profit back in growth after posting a £48.7m loss in 2021, when Covid lockdowns enforced the closure of [...]
Ed Warner: Team sportspeople like Gareth Bale are held to double standards over loyalty June 9, 2022 Commentary stat of last weekend for me was that Gareth Bale has spent more time on a football pitch for Wales this season than for Real Madrid. Having run down his lucrative contract with the Spanish club, Bale is now a free agent – the footballing equivalent of the golfers signing up for this week’s [...]
The new landlord in town: John Lewis to build homes on two London Waitrose sites June 9, 2022 John Lewis is preparing to pitch itself to Londoners as an affable landlord, revealing plans for two rental developments at Waitrose sites in the city. The retailer set out early plans to for build to rent developments in Bromley and West Ealing in London, as well as a vacant John Lewis warehouse in Reading. The [...]
The UK must lead a united front ready to tame the alarming global food crisis June 9, 2022 On Monday, the Russian ambassador walked out of a UN meeting after Charles Michel, the European Council president, accused Moscow of using food supplies as “a stealth missile against developing countries”. Michel was referring to the situation in Ukraine’s port of Odessa, where tons of wheat have been left to rot in containers because of [...]
Street votes will worsen our already archaic planning system instead of cutting red tape June 9, 2022 A central pillar of the government’s Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which had its second reading yesterday, is Michael Gove’s plan to provide neighbours with the agency to prevent planning applications. This may, on the surface, seem like a good idea, and it will probably win his party some votes – but it is a [...]
Looming environmental report on SpaceX’s Starship could be a ‘pain point’ June 9, 2022 Elon Musk’s Starship dreams could be extinguished before the mega-rocket has even left the ground, as US regulators assess its potential environmental damage. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to publish its assessment on Monday. The report, a year in the making, has been pushed back several times since December, with delays bleeding into [...]
Marx and Smith would – for once – agree on the danger of monopolies in sports like golf June 9, 2022 From today until Saturday, the Centurion Club near St Albans in Hertfordshire will be the rather unlikely host of an attempted revolution in the game of golf. LIV Golf is a Saudi-backed attempt to disrupt the existing PGA and European Tours by tempting players with huge prize money -$255m in its first season alone – [...]
Growth warning should inject some urgency into Tories’ economic plans June 9, 2022 PERHAPS it was the fact that Boris Johnson was so close to losing his own that has converted him to the cause of expanding home ownership. Either way, he’s a welcome addition to the cause to – in the words of the popular twitter meme – build some bloody houses. The question is whether, scarred [...]
Letters: Action, not words June 9, 2022 [Re: Watchdog bans Tesco Plant Chef ads over ‘misleading’ claims, yesterday] Tesco is the latest in a line of household name organisations being criticised for their environmental claims. Many businesses overlook the real business and legal implications that greenwashing can have. Sustainability is a deeply complicated area, and it isn’t purely reputational. Businesses are eager [...]
Richard Branson’s right hand man: Mastering rail is ‘harder than space’ June 8, 2022 Mastering rail is “harder than space”, according to one space veteran, formerly Richard Branson’s right-hand man in the making of Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit. As Britain prepares to launch satellites from its own soil for the first time this summer, unions are set to bring the country’s rail network to a standstill in later this month. Speaking on [...]
