The ugly truth: Business rates are bad for the beauty industry February 3, 2026 Salons are grappling with the simultaneous rise of the National Living Wage, increased Employer National Insurance contributions, and skyrocketing utility costs. They should be given the same consideration as pubs, says Victoria Brownlie The British high street is often described as the heartbeat of our communities, and for years, the hair and beauty sector has [...]
GB Snowsport chief: City execs should sponsor Winter Olympics athletes, and go skiing with them February 2, 2026 “If you know our British world champions, put up your hands,” GB Snowsport chief executive Vicky Gosling said at the organisation’s annual corporate bash last year. No one raised their hands. “And it’s really sad,” she tells City AM, “because [despite] no snow and mountain ranges, we have unbelievable talent.” Team GB head to the [...]
‘Well done Petey’: Epstein advised Mandelson on $6m Deutsche Bank role February 2, 2026 Peter Mandelson sought advice from convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein on a possible job offer worth up to $6m from Deutsche Bank as part of a joint campaign to land the former business secretary lucrative roles in finance after Labour lost the 2010 election, newly released emails show. According to messages published by the US Department [...]
GDP set to soften in 2026 as tax hikes bite February 2, 2026 The UK is set for another year of soggy growth, according to new forecasts from EY, with the government’s tax hikes and ongoing worries about a global trade war hamstringing momentum. The Big Four firm predicted that GDP would rise 0.9 per cent in 2026, slower than the 1.4 per cent recorded last year, as [...]
Amazon and Alphabet’s AI spending faces billion-dollar litmus test February 2, 2026 Investors will get a clearer read this week on whether Big Tech’s vast AI spending is turning into real returns, as Alphabet and Amazon report earnings amid heightened market sensitivity to cloud growth, margins and costs. Both tech giants sit at the centre of the AI boom, but recent volatility in US tech stocks has [...]
Salons could ‘pull down shutters for good’ as business rates bite February 2, 2026 The British Beauty Council has urged the government to extend support on business rates to hair and beauty salons, or watch firms up and down the country “pull down their shutters for good”. Victoria Brownlie, chief policy and sustainability officer at the British Beauty Council, warned that the profitability of beauty salons has been “hollowed [...]
Chair of elite law firm Paul Weiss made personal requests to Jeffrey Epstein February 2, 2026 The chairman of one of the most prominent law firms in America, Paul Weiss, was included in the US Department of Justice’s latest round of bombshell revelations in relation to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. One of the US’s leading litigators and corporate advisers, Brad Karp has been Paul Weiss’s chairman since 2008. Paul Weiss is [...]
The City is leading the charge against fraud February 2, 2026 Fraud now accounting for 44 per cent of all UK crime, but the City is fighting back, says Chris Hayward Last week marked a generational milestone for policing – and one we must get right. In publishing her long-awaited White Paper, home secretary Shabana Mahmood set out a blueprint to modernise policing in England and [...]
FICO UK Credit Card Market Report: November 2025 January 30, 2026 Pre-Christmas spending remained below 2024 figures, but balances rose as payments fell to the lowest level since 2021
How seriously should we take Anthropic founder’s ‘civilisational threat’ essay? January 29, 2026 “Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it’s deeply unclear whether we can handle it” – that’s the warning from one of the most powerful men in artificial intelligence – so, is he right? If you don’t have plans for the weekend you could do worse than to sit down and read [...]