Casa’s fortune Written in the stars with Purton in the saddle May 20, 2025 REGULAR viewers of Hong Kong racing will need no reminding how unlucky Thesis was when last seen at Happy Valley a fortnight ago. The winner of the 2022 Britannia Handicap at Royal Ascot suffered a desperate journey over the course and distance and was caught three-wide for the majority of the contest but still went [...]
Joy ready to Spring into action for Fownes May 13, 2025 RACING at Happy Valley in Hong Kong returns for another exciting nine-race card on Wednesday, with a small but selective field lining up for the feature Class Two Choi Hung Handicap (1.10pm) over the extended mile. The in-form partnership of trainer David Hayes and jockey Zac Purton aboard Soleil Fighter will probably dominate the betting, [...]
Why shrimp deserve compassion too May 6, 2025 They may be ugly and unappealing, but shrimp – farmed in vast quantities in squalid conditions – deserve ethical consideration, says Phoebe Arslanagic-Little I can buy a box of supermarket eggs for 15p an egg. Instead, I have a crate of eggs couriered to me, once a month, from a farm in Lancashire called Oakstream [...]
In memory of Richard Vines, a sage and a gentleman May 6, 2025 My friend Richard Vines, chief restaurant critic of Bloomberg for 25 years, passed away this week. A champion of both genius chefs and restaurateurs, he was a wonderful man who I admired hugely. Over the last few days, I have been reminded of some magnificent City lunches with Richard; at Kym’s by Andrew Wong, after [...]
Everstar looks to hold Solid chance for Tsui at the Valley April 29, 2025 IT HAS not been easy for bettors at Happy Valley in the last couple of weeks, with only a couple of winning favourites obliging in 18 races. If favourite backers are looking for some respite on the midweek Valley card, they should be forewarned. Racing takes place on the tricky C+3 track, where the width [...]
Welcome to the shape-shifting world of big tech taxes April 29, 2025 Axing the Digital Services Tax may be the price Britain pays for a trade deal with the US, but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the back of tech taxes, says Tim Sarson Just a few days ago, Rachel Reeves was strolling in, to paraphrase Flanders and Swan, the geopolitical zoo that is Washington DC, attempting [...]
Bankrupt, rat-infested Birmingham shows why local government matters April 23, 2025 With local elections across much of England, it’s time we took regional accountability much more seriously, says Simon Clarke Next Thursday, there are local elections across much of England. For many people, these events will pass them by entirely. For others, they will be purely an opportunity to send a message about national politics: it [...]
‘It’s existential’: Unpacking a looming tax scarier than the National Insurance hike April 13, 2025 For William Fugard, chief executive and co-founder of Gusto Organic, headaches caused by issues beyond his control are an occupational hazard. The terms on which the UK decided to leave the European Union meant that – in 2019 – the cost of exporting a pallet of his firm’s premium soft drinks went from £70 to [...]
Cabinet Office to shed 2,100 jobs as government shrinks civil service April 10, 2025 The Cabinet Office will lose almost a third of its staff as Labour seeks to shrink the civil service, the government has announced. Around 1,200 jobs will go through redundancies and leavers not being replaced under plans unveiled to civil servants on Thursday, with another 900 transferred to other departments. The 2,100 job cuts represent [...]
Stats body aims to publish key jobs data in late 2026 April 10, 2025 The UK’s official statistics body has set a target of November 2026 for the reform of its flagship Labour Force Survey (LFS), which monitors the UK jobs market. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been dogged by several troubles in data gathering, prompting criticism from the Bank of England as well as an intervention [...]