After the government’s volte-face on the sugar tax, will marketeers be left with a crashing low? March 22, 2016 Should the announcement of a sugar tax in last week’s Budget have marketeers worried? It certainly represents a volte-face on the part of the government. In October, when the advisory group Public Health England (PHE) released a report recommending measures to tackle childhood obesity, including a sugar tax of 10 to 20 per cent, a [...]
Twitter 10-year birthday: A short history of Twitter and where is right now at 10 March 20, 2016 There have been uprisings (the Arab Spring), numerous faux pas (hello Ed Balls), and global events (World Cup anyone?) experienced together, but it was only 10 years ago when Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder and current chief executive, published the first ever tweet that changed the way we communicate – "Just setting up my Twttr". Since [...]
Six Nations 2016: Vindicated Eddie Jones hails his England captain Dylan Hartley as a “likeable rogue” after Grand Slam triumph March 20, 2016 England head coach Eddie Jones has hailed “likeable rogue” Dylan Hartley after his decision to appoint the controversial hooker captain was vindicated by a first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2003. Jones also used his first media appearance since Saturday’s title-clinching 31-21 win in France to predict that his own perfect start was just the [...]
Donald Trump can still be stopped – if Republican elites remember they’re conservatives March 18, 2016 Marco Rubio is gone; another campaign “suspended” after facing the full force of the Trump phenomenon. The senator must have known it wasn’t looking good in his home state of Florida. Appearing tired and dejected on camera just a few days before the primary this Tuesday, he then experienced a crushing, double-digit defeat (which not [...]
Oil prices: Global capital spending faces further squeeze after declining sharply in 2015 – S&P March 17, 2016 Global business spending on capital dropped sharply last year and could fall to 2006 levels by 2017, a major ratings agency said today. Spending on physical assets such as property and equipment – known as capital expenditure or simply capex – dropped 10 per cent last year, according to estimates from Standard and Poor’s. Most [...]
How China is pioneering alternative finance and P2P lending – an analysis of the first ever Asia-Pacific industry report March 16, 2016 The Asia-Pacific alternative finance market grew 323 per cent last year, to $102.8bn. China was responsible for 99 per cent of that, with four-fold growth to $101.7bn in 2015. Yesterday, the first regional report, Harnessing Potential, was released by Judge Business School and the University of Sydney. I spoke to co-author Bryan Zhang of the Cambridge [...]
Cheltenham Festival 2016: MK Dons midfielder Samir Carruthers and friends banned after being pictured urinating into pint glass March 16, 2016 Cheltenham Festival has banned a group of footballers from attending the event after MK Dons midfielder Samir Carruthers appeared to be pictured urinating into a glass. The Championship club has launched an internal investigation into the incident after pictures of former Arsenal and Aston Villa youth team player Carruthers were published on the front page of [...]
Budget 2016: Deficit poses a threat to Chancellor George Osborne’s ambitions March 16, 2016 "Education, education, education,” preached former Prime Minister Tony Blair, nearly two decades ago. The same sentiment, if not the same soundbite, will be borrowed today by a man who very much hopes to become a future inhabitant of Number 10. Alongside the usual fiscal tinkering, George Osborne will use the Budget to stress the importance [...]
Champions League: Why the final score is not the only metric of success for Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern and Juventus in the Champions League March 15, 2016 When the elite of Europe face off in the Champions League this week, fans and pundits are likely to judge a team's success purely in terms of the score and other common stats relating to performance. Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger's team building abilities will be exclusively discussed in terms of their squad's showings on [...]
Berlin car bomb, which killed one, thought to be linked to organised crime March 15, 2016 German police believe the car bomb that killed one man in the capital Berlin this morning was related to organised crime, local media is reporting. An explosive device planted inside a silver Volkswagen Passat caused the blast, which occurred at about 8am (7am GMT) in the western district of Charlottenburg. "The car exploded while driving and has [...]