City reacts with shock to Labour’s plans to part-nationalise BT November 14, 2019 The City reacted with shock tonight to Labour’s plans to part-nationalise FTSE 100 giant BT and promise free full-fibre broadband for every UK household. Labour unveiled the new £20bn policy late last night and said it would pay for its plan by levying a tax on tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook. Chief [...]
Tories deserve to win the economic battle November 14, 2019 The Conservatives have taken a fair bit of stick for their claim that “the cost of Corbyn” would come in at £1.2 trillion. Independent fact-checkers have dismissed the methodology and pointed out that it’s difficult for the Tories to cost Labour’s manifesto commitments when the manifesto hasn’t been published. Still, the £1.2 trillion figure isn’t [...]
Christmas adverts 2019: John Lewis unveils Excitable Edgar campaign November 14, 2019 John Lewis has unveiled its highly anticipated Christmas advert this morning, telling the story of a little girl and her accident-prone dragon Excitable Edgar. In the two minute 30 second clip, which marks the department store’s first joint Christmas marketing campaign with Waitrose, viewers see Edgar accidentally derail Christmas festivities with his fire breathing tendencies. [...]
Our Westminster politicians must pay heed to the Union November 14, 2019 Pollsters at election time are a funny breed. Like Father Christmas, they drop nuggets of data into the hands of grateful journalists and analysts hoping to make sense of what is going on around them, trying to drown out the noise of election campaigns and listen to what really matters. Yet the most interesting — [...]
Tencent profit falls as Alibaba threat and economic woes weigh November 13, 2019 Chinese tech giant Tencent has posted a sharp drop in profit for the third quarter as rival Alibaba gears up for its Hong Kong listing. The gaming and social media firm reported net profit of 20.4bn yuan (£2.3bn), down 13 per cent on the same period last year. Read more: Blockchain startup Everledger raises $20m [...]
Ocean Outdoor grows revenue amid Rugby World Cup boost November 13, 2019 Ocean Outdoor has posted a double-digit rise in revenue for the third quarter after securing an exclusive deal with ITV to broadcast Rugby World Cup matches. The out-of-home advertising firm pulled in revenue of £29m over the period, up 12 per cent on last year. Read more: Ocean Outdoor snaps up Swedish ad firm Visual [...]
Today’s apologists for socialism still won’t acknowledge the lessons of the Berlin Wall November 13, 2019 The media has been awash over the past week with stories about the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. My favourite vignette concerns a couple living in East Berlin who were delighted to have a telephone installed in their apartment only weeks before the Wall came down. They had been on the [...]
World of athletics in uproar and unionising after IAAF decides to cut major events from Diamond League meetings November 12, 2019 Athletics is not in a happy place at the moment. Having spent the past few months reeling from criticism for staging this year’s World Championships in Qatar and the still-unfolding scandal that is Nike’s Oregon Project, the sport ran headlong into yet another obstacle last week. While not as serious as issues like migrant workers’ [...]
Newsquest outbids Reach in race for local publisher JPI Media November 12, 2019 Regional publisher Newsquest is said to have tabled a surprise bid for i newspaper owner JPI Media, threatening to derail the takeover efforts of rival Reach. Newsquest, which owns a string of titles including the Oxford Mail and Brighton’s Argus, is now thought to be the frontrunner in the bidding war, the Guardian reported, citing [...]
Wales face a battle to qualify for Euro 2020 but will be boosted by Gareth Bale’s and Aaron Ramsey’s return to fitness November 12, 2019 As the final weekend of qualifying matches approaches, Wales’s place at Euro 2020 remains in the balance. Fourth in Group E, the 2016 semi-finalists are four points off second-placed Hungary albeit with a game in hand. They face the Hungarians in the final round of qualifiers next Tuesday where, should Wales first beat Azerbaijan on [...]