Dido’s white flag: Harding to step down as head of NHS Improvement August 9, 2021 Baroness Dido Harding will step down from her role as head of NHS Improvement in October, health authorities have confirmed. The Tory peer, who also led the government’s Test and Trace programme until April this year, has held the role since October 2017. She had applied to become the new chief executive of NHS England [...]
EV charging firm Myenergi ‘mulling £500m London listing’ August 5, 2021 Energy tech firm Myenergi is reportedly making plans for a London float that could value the company at up to £500m amid a surge in interest in “green” solutions. The company, which is best known for its Zappi electric car home charging system, is backed by Sir Terry Leahy, the former Tesco boss. A spokesman [...]
Bringing these wines will make you the perfect dinner party guest August 3, 2021 “Freedom Day” has come and gone and invitations to dinner parties, garden gatherings and long luncheons have come flooding in. It is the “done thing” to bring a bottle for your dinner party host but this can be tricky when you have no idea what is on the menu. If you cannot pair the wine [...]
Aldi increases drivers’ pay amid labour shortages August 1, 2021 Aldi has moved to increase the pay of its drivers in a bid to overcome labour shortages and ensure its supermarkets shelves are not empty. A multitude of factors – including Brexit, high training costs and the pandemic – have led to a shortage of lorry drivers in the UK, threatening supply chains. The Sunday [...]
Pret A Manger mulls expanding into coffee vending machines in move to diversify July 29, 2021 Pret A Manger is set to expand into coffee vending machines. The sandwich chain is joining the trend, according to the Financial Times, to widen its product offering through automated dispensers as the sector suffers from the drop in commuters and staff shortages. Earlier this month, the company’s application to trademark the name “Pret Express” [...]
Tesco Bank pulls plug on all personal current accounts July 28, 2021 Tesco Bank is to close all of its personal current accounts at the end of November after it found that the vast majority of its customers were not using it for their main account. Customers will soon receive a message asking them to withdraw all their money from the accounts before 30 November, and change [...]
Thousands of websites including Amazon, UPS, HSBC, BA, Airbnb and HBO hit in major global outage July 22, 2021 A major server outage brought down thousands of websites across the UK, US and around the world, including HSBC, Barclays, American Express, Delta Airlines, Tesco Bank, alongside the PlayStation Network, Airbnb and Waitrose, as well as ITV and TSB. British Airways was also down. A message on the BA website read: “Service Unavailable – DNS [...]
The world’s most refreshing summer drinks, from Ribena to Rooh Afza July 22, 2021 What do you drink in heatwaves? A lightly chilled Bardolino or an easy-drinking Beaujolais? Cider? Coconut water? Homemade elderflower cordial? Iced mint tea? Robinson’s Barley Water? Sachets of healthy, re-hydrating Dioralyte? For me it has to be Ribena. Dr Vernon Charley, a scientist at Long Ashton Agriculture and Horticulture Research Station near Bristol, invented “Ribena” [...]
Pingdemic: Government urged to expand self-isolation exemption list July 22, 2021 MPs and industry leaders have called on the government to include supermarket staff, lorry drivers and other essential workers on the self-isolation exemption list to prevent supply chains from buckling under the weight of the “pingdemic”. Shelves across the UK have been depleted this week as a result of workers at each stage of the [...]
Freedom Day: Where do I need to wear a face mask from today? July 19, 2021 Across England, the final remaining coronavirus restrictions have been lifted. From today, people are no longer required by law to wear masks. The government has said, however, that people will still be expected to wear face masks in certain situations while some businesses, travel operators and local politicians have said that masks will still be [...]