Is Britain ready for war? December 6, 2024 The government’s decision to scrap a number of defence capabilities has left our military’s ability to deploy in an emergency in serious doubt, says William Freer Last month, the Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey, announced a suite of military capabilities to be cut to redirect a portion of the defence budget. The assets [...]
City of London approves plans for new skyscraper near Walkie Talkie December 6, 2024 The City of London has approved plans to build a “landmark” 36-storey tower near Liverpool Street. The proposals for the £500m tower, located at 60 Gracechurch Street, were first put forward in April by the UK property developer behind The Shard, Sellar, and Japanese developer Obayashi. The developers had said the construction will start in [...]
Revolut, Interactive Investor and Abcam: Britain’s venture capital success stories December 6, 2024 This week, Revolut made headlines when it emerged that early investors in the fintech had been offered an opportunity to cash out with returns of up to 400 times their initial investment. The news arrived in the same week venture capital trusts celebrated their 30th anniversary of backing British startups. Revolut used crowdfunding rather than [...]
Purton sees a Champion in Johannes Brahms December 6, 2024 TRUSTING horses not to repeat recent disappointing performances, can be a quick road to the ‘poor house’ but there is every reason to be believe YOUNG CHAMPION is ready to bounce back to form in the Highland Reel Handicap (10.00am) over seven furlongs. An expensive purchase from Johnny Murtagh’s stable, after winning at Leopardstown last [...]
Show football’s 3pm blackout the red card and women’s game will benefit December 6, 2024 While men’s football works out whether to scrap the 3pm blackout, women’s matches offer a perfect test case, argues Anna Reynolds. Imagine being barred from watching your favourite TV programme at a certain time of the day. That’s the current situation in football, where games scheduled for Saturday at 3pm are restricted from being broadcast [...]
Ian King quits Business Live and will leave Sky News in Spring December 6, 2024 Presenter Ian King has quit Business Live and will leave Sky News early next year, it has been announced. King has been with the news channel for ten years and has “agreed to contribute analysis and reporting” to Sky News’ website over the coming months ahead of his departure. The move comes after City AM [...]
O’Brien’s Luxembourg aiming to sign off in style with Hong Kong Vase victory December 6, 2024 AIDAN O’Brien is hoping that Luxembourg can bow out in style in the £2.4 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase, a race that has proved the most fruitful opportunity at Sha Tin so far for the Master of Ballydoyle, having won the one-and-a-half-mile contest three times in the past. The five-year-old son of Camelot joins [...]
Planning reforms have had ‘profound and hugely positive impact’, Berkeley says December 6, 2024 FTSE 100 house builder Berkeley said it was on track to meet its profit targets in 2025 as it announced a new investment strategy to help capitalise on the government’s planning reforms. The government has committed to building 1.5m new homes over the course of the parliament. To meet its target, ministers are consulting on [...]
Aviva set for £3.6bn Direct Line takeover December 6, 2024 Direct Line is set to agree to a £3.6bn takeover by its bigger rival Aviva, after the FTSE 100 firm returned with a sweetened bid for the company today. In a joint statement to the market this morning, the two firms said they had struck the outlines of a deal in which Aviva will pay [...]
Can English clubs mount an Investec Champions Cup charge? December 6, 2024 If you were to list the last five English appearances in an Investec Champions Cup final you’d find Exeter there once and Saracens the other four times. Before that it was Northampton Saints in 2011 and before that London Wasps and Leicester Tigers in 2007. But if you were to ask me to predict which [...]