An energy crisis is looming – but ministers are distracted by Brexit
Transfixed as you were by Westminster chaos, did you also spot the news that Hitachi is about to cancel or…
Why Macron is happy to leave Renault’s chief shivering in his Tokyo cell
In France after New Year, the only gilets jaunes I spotted were a rather dejected bunch near an autoroute exit.…
A seven-year winter or a pleasant 2019? Your guess is as good as mine
A friend reminds me that she sold her house last summer because I warned her 18 months ago that Brexit…
All I want for Christmas is a City time machine
Are smartphones fuelling a pandemic of youthful anxiety and depression? That’s the question parents will wrestle with this Christmas as…
Who’s really to blame for the Crossrail fiasco?
There’s been a strong sense of pre-Christmas turkeys coming home to roost in this week’s news, as stories I’ve written…
How a betting business saved Stoke-on-Trent
I wrote last week of my fear that we’ll never ‘take back control of our fish’, as Brexiteers ardently wish,…
Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn was a tall nail. But was he really a bent one?
The arrest of Carlos Ghosn and the move to oust him as chairman of Nissan in Japan has stunned the…
Anyone seen Jeff Bezos? I’m here to talk to him about tax
Los Angeles/Seattle US stocks briefly rallied after the midterm results as markets looked favourably on a divided Congress and the…
History will judge UK ministers harshly for the Irish backstop
We may or may not hear news soon of a settlement of the Irish border issue that will allow Brexit…
Has Philip Hammond saved the high street? No – but every little helps
How much did Philip Hammond’s giveaway Budget help dying town centres? Not enough, say campaigners, but let’s give the Chancellor…
Can Hammond’s Budget make business feel better about Brexit?
‘Uncertainty is draining investment from the UK, with Brexit having a negative impact on eight in ten businesses,’ says Carolyn…
Why I’m boycotting ‘Davos in the Desert’
The current stock-market correction has been steaming down the track since August and I claim no wisdom for having predicted…
Unilever’s botched plan to quit London leaves it open to hostile bids
Unilever’s abandonment of plans to scrap its Anglo-Dutch corporate structure and leave London is a huge embarrassment for chief executive…
If the Tories are ‘the party of business’, the PM should listen – before it’s too late
‘Let me say it, loud and clear: the Conservative party is, and always will be, the party of business,’ declared…
McDonnell’s one-term mission to turn Britain into the new Venezuela
The least convincing thing said by Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell at the Labour party conference in Liverpool was ‘I…
Jaguar’s boss isn’t scaremongering. The UK car industry is in big trouble
‘I’m afraid I think he’s making it up,’ was the retort of Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin on Monday’s Today…
Ten years after Lehman’s fall, how close is the next crash?
Our cinema is showing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and I’m reminded of a remark attributed to Mark Twain,…
Why can’t Britain hang on to its best new companies?
Costa, in my opinion, sells a decent cup of coffee. It employs polite youngsters who seem happy in their work.…
The record bull run must end soon. So is it time for a return to gold?
All good things must come to an end, including summer holidays and bull markets. The bull run in US shares…
Decent broadband is a public right. Get on and kick BT, minister
As I set to compiling your email responses into our ‘broadband dossier’ to send to BT chairman Jan du Plessis,…
Give Mike Ashley a peerage if he can revive House of Fraser
This column has consistently stood up for Mike Ashley, even when the lonesome billionaire’s notions of corporate governance at Sports…
It’s time to accept that companies such as Amazon are beyond shame
‘There has to be a level playing field so that… Amazon cannot undercut domestic booksellers by using the tax advantage…
What’s bad for slick estate agents like Foxtons is good for working Londoners
Those twice-weekly sales emails from Foxtons that the recent GDPR clean-up has failed to stop have lately been spattered with…
Full-fibre broadband by 2033? I wish I could believe you, minister
I bought BT’s offer of an upgrade to ‘superfast’ broadband because the standard service seemed to be deteriorating just as…
An amoral money world needs ethical campaigners more than ever
When I first visited Canary Wharf in the early 1990s, I was struck by a set of black-and-white posters in…
