Advertising boss Johnny Hornby, CEO of The & Partnership, cancels yacht party saying it would be “inappropriate” after sexism scandal April 11, 2018 This year hasn’t all been plain sailing for advertising boss Johnny Hornby, a fact which he recognised as he revealed he would not be hosting his annual yacht party at the Cannes Lions festival this year. The chief executive of advertising firm The & Partnership said hosting the party would be “inappropriate” in the wake [...]
Death of the deposit: A new type of rental model is emerging, but could it be the next PPI scandal in the making? April 10, 2018 Most renters will be familiar with the drama that surrounds deposits. The average deposit in London is an eye-watering £1,765, according to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. But saving up hundreds of pounds is only half of the battle. Recouping all of your cash at the end of your tenancy is often a huge headache, and [...]
Is Sadiq Khan letting London down as mayor? April 9, 2018 Is Sadiq Khan letting London down as mayor? Shaun Bailey, a Conservative London Assembly member who sits on the Environment Committee, says YES. All too often over recent weeks, the public have woken up to tragic headlines. News of yet another stabbing victim is an almost daily occurrence, and it is reported that, on some [...]
Facebook’s Icarus needs to come down to earth before it’s too late April 9, 2018 Mark Zuckerberg is facing his Icarus moment. The tale of the boy who flew too close to the sun would make uncomfortable reading for the Facebook founder. “Move fast and break things” was the mantra that made Zuckerberg such a totem of sky-high success. But lax privacy controls and the leaking of the information of [...]
Liuwa Plains in northwest Zambia is one of the most remote safari parks in the world, here’s what we found there April 6, 2018 Linda Evangelista infamously said that she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000. And after 11 hours travelling along Zambian roads, I’d have quoted a similar price to get back in a 4×4. But the prospect of a cheetah sighting was dangled in front of me, and that was enough to sweeten the [...]
Millennials are killing the TV licence April 6, 2018 Millennials are constantly being accused of “killing” things. Not people, thankfully, but the auto industry, lunch, marriage. Here’s another for the ever-growing list: in between never owning a home, avocados on rye, and leeching off my parents, somehow I find time to not watch the BBC. An Ipsos MORI poll for the Beeb warns that [...]
Back to school: We must teach AI to have a moral compass April 6, 2018 In the UK, it’s mandated that 13 of the first 18 years of a young person’s life are spent in some sort of education. We invest very heavily in teaching children what they need to know to be functioning and productive members of society: our doctors, our teachers, our data scientists of the future. Artificial [...]
The government’s pride over the Companies House saga completely misses the point | City A.M. April 5, 2018 As headlines go, this one – “Famous names falsely registered as directors at Companies House” – is hardly up there as the most striking. The article told how businessman Kevin Brewer became the first person to be successfully prosecuted for false filings with the Companies House platform. It disclosed how in 2013 he incorporated John [...]
Why I’m sick of bad press releases from lazy PRs who have never read me or this newspaper April 3, 2018 On 1 April, I published a column on the City A.M. website. Check it out: it’s a spoof of a press release. You may think it’s hyperbole. It isn’t. It’s the kind of effortful rubbish that I receive every day. In the past, when some grotesquely bad press release hit my inbox, I would mock [...]
Social entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and Microsoft Stores’ head named UK change-makers by London Tech Week April 3, 2018 Some of the most influential names on London’s tech scene have named their people to watch for 2018, in sectors spanning from autonomous vehicles to healthtech. The ambassadors of London Tech Week – who include Eileen Burbidge, a partner at Monzo backer Passion Capital and member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group, Sarah Wood, [...]