The rise in popularity of recipe boxes is just the beginning of a revolution in food-prep convenience. Here’s what’s next December 20, 2018 Humans love to cook, ever since a caveman accidentally roasted his own forearm on a bonfire and reckoned it smelled kind of delicious. From there it was a short jump to cooking meat that wasn’t attached to our arms. Soon ancient humans were experimenting by throwing bigger and bigger animals on to the flames. Mice [...]
SFO director Lisa Osofsky wants agency to crack down on ‘corporate big boys’ December 18, 2018 The director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has said she wants the agency to be able to go after the "corporate big boys" who typically evade prosecution for economic crime and fraud. Ex-FBI lawyer turned SFO director Lisa Osofsky told the Justice Select Committee that senior individuals within large corporate organisations were not being [...]
Food waste will be next year’s moral crisis, just as single-use plastic was this year December 18, 2018 In these turbulent times, there was one villain who stood out in 2018. Plastered all over our TV screens, phones, and newspapers, this particular offender was everywhere. It is destructive, toxic, and impossible to get rid of. I am of course talking about single-use plastic. That said, the response to this growing threat has been [...]
Could the UK be on the brink of a US-style class action explosion? December 16, 2018 The Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Tesco, Google and Mastercard. These are just a handful of the household names that have been targeted in group action lawsuits in the UK with billions of pounds at stake. The UK, unlike the US or Australia, does not have a long history of class action-style lawsuits, [...]
Carrot or stick? For Aldi and Lidl, equal pay goes hand in hand with commercial success December 13, 2018 Kevin the Carrot, who once again features in Aldi’s Christmas advert, is proving a bigger hit with shoppers than even Elton John, star of the John Lewis ad. Soft-toy versions of the animated vegetable sold out at 4am on the day of release in some areas and have reportedly provoked fights among customers desperate to [...]
Sainsbury’s share price under pressure as it asks for more time on Asda merger probe December 12, 2018 Sainsbury’s has seen its share price tumble five per cent so far today, after it joined Asda in appealing to the courts for more time to argue its case over a planned £15bn merger between the two supermarkets. Both grocers said this morning that they have lodged a request to review the timetable and process of [...]
Mixed bag for Britain’s grocers as market cools despite record Christmas spending forecasts December 11, 2018 Shoppers have been taking fewer trips to the supermarket in recent weeks after a bumper summer of demand, according to new data that suggests Britain's grocery sector has slowed to its lowest rate of growth in more than a year. Despite projections that spending this Christmas will break UK records, the supermarket sector grew at two [...]
O2 restores 3G and 4G services after Ericsson software issue led to day-long data outage for 32m customers December 7, 2018 O2's network has been fully restored after a data outage affecting up to 32m customers lasted the entirety of Thursday. Problems were first reported at around 5.30am yesterday, with O2 customers saying they could not use 3G or 4G data. The error also took down Giffgaff, Sky's mobile services, Lycamobile and Tesco Mobile, which all rely on [...]
Tesco fraud fiasco leaves new SFO boss with serious questions to answer December 6, 2018 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has had more ups and downs than Thomas Cook’s share price. When it scores a big success, like the near £500m deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Rolls-Royce, it gets cheered to the rafters, while failures such as the Tchenguiz brothers debacle sees it dubbed the Serious Farce Office by critics. [...]
Serious Fraud Office trial against Tesco executives collapses December 6, 2018 The Serious Fraud Office’s case against two senior former Tesco’s executive has collapsed because of insufficient evidence. At Southwark Crown Court this morning Judge Sir John Royce instructed the jury to acquit both defendants, former UK managing director Chris Bush and ex-UK food commercial director John Scouler. The pair had both been charged with one [...]