Becoming Mr Matchmaker: Venntro founder Ross Williams talks going mobile, nature v nurture, and ginger dating August 16, 2015 A week today, Ross Williams will be a married man. “Oh, I’m not stressed, nervous, anxious, oh no,” he laughs. But Williams shouldn’t worry – after all, he’s got a wife and mother-in-law-to-be who are “absolutely fantastic” organisers, and his relationship was founded on a very firm footing: he and his fiancée met on an [...]
I spy a tired espionage caper with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. August 14, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★☆☆☆ Guy Richie’s big screen adaptation of the 60s spy show has been in development for over 20 years, with everyone from George Clooney to Quentin Tarantino linked with the project. It hasn’t been worth the wait. The story takes place at the height of the Cold War, focusing on a secret [...]
Why I left the City to found a business – Investec Comment August 2, 2015 What makes a barrister, with a comfortable salary and a promising career, leave her job and risk everything by starting her own company? It’s a question – or a version of it – that many in the City with an entrepreneurial spirit will have asked themselves. I won’t pretend that it wasn’t a big decision [...]
Enlace could be the best bet on a trappy looking final day July 30, 2015 LOOKING at the rest of Saturday’s card and you need to dig out the hatpin to find the winner of the Stewards’ Cup (3.45pm). Trainer Roger Charlton knows how to land this valuable six furlong handicap, having won it in the past with Patavellian and Genki, and his HUNTSMANS CLOSE may well still be ahead [...]
Fifa corruption crisis: Sepp Blatter and co added to organised crime exhibition at Las Vegas Mob Museum alongside Al Capone and John Gotti July 29, 2015 Fifa is being added as a subject at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas' International Organized Crime exhibit. Read more: Fifa boss Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize, says Russian President Vladimir Putin Football's scandal-hit governing body will join gangsters Al Capone and John Gotti as subjects in America's National Museum of Organized Crime and [...]
Universities are on the frontline in the UK’s battle against Islamic extremism July 21, 2015 Mohammed Emwazi, Michael Adebolajo, Seifeddine Rezgui – by all accounts quiet, unassuming individuals until they became ISIL’s celebrity executioner, Lee Rigby’s murderer, and author of the Tunisian massacre respectively. Insofar as any common thread binds this grim trio and all too many other recent terrorists, it is not poverty, deprivation or social isolation, but their [...]
George Osborne aims to curry favour in the Square Mile with Martin Wheatley dismissal July 19, 2015 As the chancellor who introduced the banking levy back in 2011, George Osborne is not as popular in the City as he could be. But last week it looked like he may be trying to work his way back into bankers’ good books. On Friday, Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority [...]
Apple Pay in the UK: Like not laughing at a Michael Mcintyre gag, resistance is futile July 16, 2015 When Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook revealed its physical wallet-replacement service last September, I recall a tut and an eye roll at yet another Apple product announcement. A form of contactless payment, re-marketed as a physical wallet-replacement service, would be with us this summer. Where's the innovation in that? In many ways Apple [...]
7/7 London bombing survivor Gill Hicks: 10 years has gone in the blink of an eye but I’ll never go back on the Tube July 7, 2015 Gill Hicks hasn't been on the Tube for 10 years to the day. By the time you're reading this, it could be to the minute. Because Hicks was one of hundreds of people for whom, at 8:50am on 7 July 2005, life changed forever. On that morning she didn't take her usual route to [...]
July Budget 2015: Chancellor George Osborne plans to crack down on non-doms July 3, 2015 George Osborne wants to clamp down on non-doms in his July Budget, a move which could raise £5bn by cutting tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. Read more: Non-doms pay £6bn in income tax and Labour's ban could damage the UK's ability to attract entrepreneurs In a political statement suggesting the rich will shoulder some of [...]