Thrills, spills and Brazil: We’re in for vintage 2014 January 5, 2014 Sports editor Frank Dalleres looks forward to a World Cup, Commonwealth Games, Winter Olympics and much more FOOTBALLWorld Cup, 12 June – 13 JulyGold and green, questionable samba references, sweltering temperatures: this year is all about the World Cup in the Beautiful Game’s spiritual home, Brazil. The hosts, Argentina, Germany and Spain are the favourites, [...]
Aukett snaps up rival architects’ firm for £1.6m December 19, 2013 AIM-LISTED architectural firm Aukett Fitzroy Robinson (AFR) has snapped up the European arm of American rival Swanke Hayden Connell (SHCE) for £1.6m, in a further sign of returning confidence in the market. The new company will be called Aukett Swanke and is expected to generate £16m in annual sales, employing 340 staff across eight countries. [...]
Two Doctors play very distinct villains December 19, 2013 THEATREAMERICAN PSYCHOAlmeida Theatre | By Steve DinneenFive Stars MATT Smith looks nothing like how I imagine Patrick Bateman, the axe-wielding investment banker at the heart of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel American Psycho. In fact, he doesn’t really look like any other human being apart, perhaps, from the guy who posed for the Easter Island statues. [...]
London’s west end tops list of pricey offices December 18, 2013 LONDON’S west end has unseated Hong Kong Central as the world’s most expensive office market, regaining the top spot it lost three years ago. The cost of renting an office in the west end has shot up by 14.3 per cent in the past year to $259.36 per square feet, driven by a squeeze in [...]
Capital One Cup: Maiga inflicts debut disaster on Sherwood December 18, 2013 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 vs WEST HAM UNITED 2 INTERIM Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood admits he is the dark over his future after his tenure started in disaster last night with a Capital One Cup defeat at home to London rivals West Ham. Spurs led until 11 minutes from time, through a ferocious volley from striker [...]
Debenhams demands a little help from its suppliers (again) December 17, 2013 SUPPLIERS to Debenhams got a nasty shock yesterday when the retail giant wrote to them asking for a contribution to the group’s recent investment programme. It’s not the first time they have been asked for extra support. Earlier this year they were asked to extend payment terms from 90 to 120 days. In the latest [...]
Letters to the Editor – 18/12 – Airport capacity, End of teaching, Best of Twitter December 17, 2013 Airport capacity [Re: Boris Island misses out on new runway shortlist, yesterday] An airport at the Thames Estuary is the most logical option, and it is disappointing that the proposal was excluded from the Davies Commission’s shortlist yesterday. We need to accept that the alternatives present too many complications. The political and environmental obstacles to Heathrow [...]
The £30m man: London clubs count cost of Villas-Boas December 16, 2013 FOOTBALL manager Andre Villas-Boas cost Tottenham and Chelsea a combined outlay of close to £30m in less than two-and-a-half years in England. The Portuguese’s 17-month tenure at Spurs ended yesterday when he was sacked, just hours after losing 5-0 to Liverpool in the Premier League club’s worst home defeat for 16 years. Villas-Boas is thought [...]
Online retailers take £10bn in a bumper November December 16, 2013 ONLINE retailers took over £10bn of sales in November, a new monthly record that raises further fears that high street retailers have been left behind in the key Christmas trading period. Online retail sales jumped by 30 per cent in November compared with the previous month – the highest monthly increase in 10 years. This [...]
The neo-Malthusian perma-bears will be proved wrong again December 9, 2013 THERE is a view, rather fashionable in economics at the moment, that the Western economies are facing long-term stagnation. The reason cited by the pessimists is that – in their view – technological innovation and progress have ground to a halt. The argument generally goes something like this: the real, massive innovations – plumbing, the [...]