Flying high: 48-hour walkout by airport staff called off December 20, 2016 Strikes by airport staff which had been planned for 23 and 24 December have been called off. More than 1,500 workers at Swissport, including baggage handlers, cargo crew and check-in staff across 18 airports, had been due to start a 48-hour walkout on Friday in a row over pay. This has now been cancelled following successful [...]
Big firms can enhance social mobility in 2017 by committing to buy from social enterprises December 20, 2016 I suspect that, if you ask many in Britain what they want for Christmas this year, they might say “hope” or “change”. Reflecting back on 2016, the EU referendum showed that too many ordinary people haven’t felt the benefits of our strong economy and now find themselves on the margins of society. As the chairman [...]
Why Henrik Stenson and the Open made my golfing year: Sam Torrance’s 2016 review December 19, 2016 Player of the year At 40, Henrik Stenson had almost reached that stage of being the best player around without a Major when the Swede went and banished that tag by winning the Open at Royal Troon in such style. Rory McIlroy deserves a mention for his PGA Tour Championship-FedEx Cup double, but Stenson, who [...]
Airbnb’s UK tax bill comes under scrutiny December 19, 2016 Airbnb's tax bill has come under scrutiny after it paid £317,000 in UK tax, despite London being the third biggest city from which the company offers rental accommodation. The tech business' international HQ is based in Ireland, but its payments division – Airbnb Payments UK – is based in London. This part of Airbnb handles the rental payments between [...]
The manufacturing industry had some of the biggest job losses across the UK economy last year December 19, 2016 The UK manufacturing industry recorded some of the biggest job losses last year, impacted by international competition and technological advances. According to accountancy group UHY Hacker Young, the industry had some of the biggest job losses of all sectors across the UK economy. Out of 69 sectors measured for job creation, manufacturing made up three of [...]
Why we need more Alan Sugars: Government told to sweeten the deal to encourage businesses to take on apprentices December 18, 2016 The government is being urged to do more to encourage businesses to take on apprentices. A poll for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) found that 77 per cent of businesses do not currently employ an apprentice, never had and did not intend to in the future. Six per cent of the more [...]
Britain is still the best place to found a business in Europe – but entrepreneurs are nervous about Brexit December 16, 2016 The extraordinary growth in the number of companies founded in the UK since the financial crisis has been one of the standout economic success stories of the past decade. In a world of increasing competition for “enterprise hub” status, the UK is now one of the top global magnets for entrepreneurs. This is a hard [...]
Why Adam Silver and Sir Philip Craven are my sports leadership heroes of the last 12 months December 15, 2016 If politics entered a post-truth era in 2016, sport entered a post-trust era. So much of sport is about trust – from your teammates to the coaches and medical team to the administrators that govern the game. Slowly but surely trust has been seeping out of the sports we love, and 2016 was the climax of [...]
Love at the National Theatre: an important play about welfare in Britain that’s appropriately unenjoyable December 14, 2016 Love, at the National Theatre, is not the poverty porn that so often clutters the London stage, but a powerful indictment of the shocking state of social housing, social care, and social welfare in Britain today. Writer-director Alexander Zeldin presents a group of disparate people forced to live side-by-side in emergency housing, and the grinding [...]
Hedda Gabler at the National Theatre review: Ruth Wilson is deliciously neurotic in this stylish retelling of Ibsen’s classic play December 14, 2016 It’s astonishing to think this painfully raw, searingly relevant play was first performed 125 years ago. There are moments in this symbolism-heavy production directed by Ivo van Hove that could have crawled from the mind of that enfant terrible of the 1990s Sarah Kane. The world gets older; Ibsen stays the same age. It’s one [...]