The real meaning of Christmas? Capitalism! December 18, 2025 The message of Christmas – as Dickens and the Muppets knew – is that sharing wealth, rather than hording it brings both prosperity and joy to the world, writes James Price As we approach Christmas, capitalism is wont to come in for some criticism. Several classic Christmas movies, like Miracle on 34th Street and It’s [...]
Why your next marketing crisis is going to be self-inflicted December 16, 2025 Most 2026 plans ignore marketing’s geopolitical exposure, the aggressive monetization of platforms, and the erosion of trust, requiring leaders to shift from chasing reach and automation to strategic discipline, internal alignment, and building direct customer relationships, says Paul Armstrong Most 2026 marketing plans are already built on assumptions that no longer hold, not because the [...]
How Formula 1 is reengineering car branding December 14, 2025 It’s an old adage, but one particularly true for automotive brands, that where you show up as a brand really matters. Staples for car marketing are high-quality environments such as cinema, peak TV, eye-catching billboards and the like. Especially for cars – a category in which long-range priming is key – these quality touchpoints shape [...]
Time to get relaxed about high executive pay December 10, 2025 This week Anglo American walked back on a plan that would have seen its chief executive handed a tasty bonus for the completion of its merger with Teck after investor backlash. Shareholders may have had well-reasoned objections to a scheme that would have dealt boss Duncan Wanblad an award amounting to almost two-thirds of his [...]
How Natwest, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC fired up the FTSE 100 in 2025 December 9, 2025 If 2025 was supposed to be the year of the AI bubble, nobody told Britain’s banking giants. Amidst the noise of the US tech boom, the UK’s FTSE 100 banking heavyweights, Natwest, Lloyds, Barclays, and HSBC, have staged a formidable, if understated, rally. Lloyds delivered an astonishing 75.8 per cent gain, while Barclays surged 65 [...]
Best cars 2025: Our brilliant and bonkers highlights of the year December 5, 2025 These are difficult times to be a car company. Cheap Chinese imports, costly US tariffs and the UK Government’s muddled approach to policymaking have all slowed sales and impacted the bottom line. And that’s before you factor in cyber attacks, semiconductor shortages, the cost of living crisis and the reluctance of many motorists to embrace [...]
London has world’s second-best tech sector December 4, 2025 London boasts the second-most vibrant tech sector in the world, according to a closely-watched study which found Zurich had leapfrogged San Francisco and Singapore to top the rankings. Britain’s capital nudged up one place in Z/Yen’s Smart Centres Index into second place in the biannual study that assesses cities’ ability to create, develop and deploy [...]
Powervault: London Mayor-backed Tesla battery rival collapses December 3, 2025 Battery storage firm Powervault, which had been tipped to become the UK rival to Tesla, has collapsed into administration, City AM can reveal. The London-based company, which had been backed by the Mayor of London’s Greater London Investment Fund as well as the British Business Bank, has appointed administrators Menzies to oversee its wind-down, according [...]
UMA Launches from Europe to Shape the Global Future of Physical AI December 1, 2025 UMA (Universal Mechanical Assistant), a new robotics intelligence company founded by former leaders from Tesla, Google DeepMind, Nvidia and Hugging Face, launches today with a clear goal: to bring advanced AI into the physical world and build humanoid robots ready for real work, in real environments, at scale. UMA’s founders were instrumental in shaping the [...]
Santander: UK businesses shift away from China as tensions flare November 18, 2025 UK businesses are moving away from China as risks mount amid flaring geopolitical tensions. Over half of firms are taking steps to bring their supply chains closer to home, with one in five having already relocated their network closer to the UK. The moves come amid questions over China’s dominance in the supply chain, with [...]