Retail sales drop for fifth month in a row October 22, 2021 UK retail sales dropped in September for the fifth consecutive month but have bounced back from the pandemic, It marked the longest continuous stretch since records began in 1996, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales volumes dropped by 0.2 per cent last month, following a 0.6 per cent [...]
JD Sports acquires Cosmos and moves into the Greek market October 22, 2021 JD Sports has acquired 80 per cent of Greek sport retailer Cosmos to expand its presence in Europe with a foothold in the Greek market. “This is another exciting acquisition for JD that further expands our presence in Europe,” said JD Sports’ executive chairman Peter Cowgill. “We welcome the highly experienced and knowledgeable Tsiknakis Family [...]
City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile today? October 22, 2021 City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every morning. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Seraphim Space Manager of London-listed Seraphim Space Investment Trust, Seraphim Space has poached Virgin Management’s former Investment Director. Joining the firm immediately, Andre Ronsoehr has been appointed to help build out Seraphim’s space investment portfolio. While at [...]
Editorial: Beware our drift into a high-tax economy October 22, 2021 Over the past few years, Emmanuel Macron and other French leaders have gone to great lengths to tempt international businesses across the channel onto French soil. This has verged from the sublime (investment dinners at Versailles) to the ridiculous (adverts from ‘The Normandy Times’ in British papers looking for ‘hot entrepreneurs… allergic to post-Brexit tariffs). [...]
Britain’s foreign policy rests on a new incarnation of the ‘Anglosphere’ October 22, 2021 Exactly twenty years ago I was one of a very small group of people to formulate the concept of the Anglosphere in international relations. It found that seven out of 10 of the world’s freest economies were former colonies of an eighth. For better or for worse, Bahrain, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, [...]
Siri showed us how much we want speech recognition to work – and how bad it can be October 22, 2021 Ten years ago Apple launched Siri. It was described as a “humble virtual assistant”, using natural language processing to interpret and action voice commands. It was seen as a major step forward for speech and voice recognition, with one analyst describing it as “a powerful harbinger of the future use of mobile devices – not [...]
Hiring ex-convicts to fill shortages could fight prejudice in the workforce October 22, 2021 Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab delighted us with some rare wisdom yesterday. To fill in the pressing labour shortages that have been dominating the news agenda recently, Raab suggested employing ex-convicts. The haulage and food factory sectors are only some of the industries affected by shortages that could welcome ex-offenders as part of their workforce. [...]
Britain to slide down tax rankings after hikes, warns Thatcherite think tank October 22, 2021 Britain risks falling behind its international rivals if it imposes a more punitive tax regime. The combination of the new health and social care levy, hiking corporation tax and withdrawing the super-deduction will push the UK down to 30th out of 37 rich nations for tax competitiveness, research by the Thatcherite think tank the Centre [...]
Cascade of ‘cheerless’ economic news weighs on consumer confidence October 22, 2021 A cascade of “cheerless” news about the health of the UK economy has caused consumer confidence to plummet. Severe petrol and food shortages, compounded by soaring energy costs and wider inflationary pressures has engineered a cost of living crisis in the UK and stalled the economic recovery. As a result, consumer confidence slid to minus [...]
Letters: Sadiq Khan is right – London deserves better October 22, 2021 [Re: London mayor Sadiq Khan will use Cop26 to vouch for cities like London, October 20] I read with interest the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will use the upcoming Cop26 summit to vouch for cities like London to have greater powers and funding. This is a welcome step to ensure we make real progress [...]
