Lorde at Glastonbury 2025 review: enchanting secret set earmarks beginning of Lorde Summer June 27, 2025 Lorde at Glastonbury 2025 review: can Patchwork beat this? ★★★★ When Lorde is on stage, she adopts the kind of sultry pout that looks as if she’s thinking “f*ck you*. But this morning, the first full day of Glastonbury 2025 coincided with the launch of her new album Virgin, and behind the looks-could-kill poise, she [...]
Bumble: If Test cricket is dead, then why are the grounds full in the UK? June 27, 2025 David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd has hit out at those saying Test cricket is dying, pointing to the packed crowds UK stadiums enjoy week in, week out. It comes after England’s sensational victory over India at Headingley last week, and a full Lord’s for the World Test Championship fixture between Australia and South Africa. Limited tickets for [...]
Reeves may need larger fiscal buffer to ‘build credibility’ June 27, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves may need to make her headroom larger than £9.9bn in the autumn to restore credibility and fund policy U-turns, an economics think tank has warned, prompting warnings that “unpopular tax hikes” are coming down the line. Proposed welfare reforms saved the government £4.8bn at the Spring Statement in a last minute rush [...]
Bond markets calm despite government benefits u-turn June 27, 2025 The cost of government borrowing has stayed flat on Friday morning despite the Starmer administration’s costly benefits U-turn blowing a £3bn hole in the UK’s precarious public finances. Gilts – the name for UK government bonds – opened in a muted fashion across the curve. 10-year yields nudged down two basis points (bps) in early [...]
Is Labour changing its mind about the OBR? June 27, 2025 Labour is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the OBR as the reality sets in that no anount of forecasting can solve Britain’s spending problems, says Paul Ormerod How fashions change! Less than a year ago, Labour politicians were falling over themselves to praise the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Labour was elected on a promise of [...]
Starling Bank sets sights on US expansion June 26, 2025 Starling Bank has set its sights across the Atlantic for future growth prospects as the UK fintech eyes a US banking licence or entering the market through an acquisition. The neobank took a £223m hit to profit in 2024, down from £301m in the previous year and has since scouted endeavours overseas to boost its [...]
All you need to know about GMT watches – and why Patek is king June 26, 2025 On the website greenwichmeantime.com there is a page dedicated to time apps. Here you can create a list of different cities at the touch of a button, see the time in Chizhou, Sidoarjo or Scaggsville, USA concurrently and compared to your home time. You can check whether meetings in different time zones have been properly [...]
City regulators must work more constructively with businesses, experts say June 26, 2025 City regulators have been urged to work more constructively with businesses to ease compliance costs, experts have said amid plans for major regulatory reform by the government. Regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) were frequently too slow to respond to messages from businesses and were often deliberately [...]
Bailey watching labour market softening ‘very closely’ June 26, 2025 Andrew Bailey has said his Monetary Policy Committee are watching signals of a rapidly softening labour market “very closely” in the wake of several soft employment readings and stark warnings of a slowdown from the recruitment industry. The Governor of the Bank of England told the British Chambers of Commerce’s summit that sticky wage growth [...]
Jonathan Yeo on King Charles and collages made from porn June 26, 2025 Jonathan Yeo has painted them all, from super models to Presidents and our very own King. When he unveiled his vast portrait of Charles III last year, the monarch appeared, for a second, to recoil at the sight of the bright red canvas. The moment became a meme and the portrait was fervently discussed and [...]