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Why Centrica is right to restore its dividend
‘What’s worse, they’re paying the profits to shareholders,’ said a grey-haired woman ahead of me in the Co-op queue. ‘Bloody…
How to save Royal Mail
The government’s ‘cost-of-living tsar’, Just Eat co-founder David Buttress, was appointed last month as a Canutian gesture against the inflation…
Sack Heathrow’s boss? No, put him on the front line
Airports are on my mind, since I’ve just stepped off an on-time early-morning flight from East Midlands to Bergerac –…
My Tory leadership race fantasy game
‘Black swan’ theory, developed by the writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, refers to unexpected events that have extreme consequences but are…
Is our card-only culture fuelling inflation?
Is anything anywhere getting noticeably better – economically speaking – or at least less bad? Are commodities and manufactured goods…
How to save Oxford Street – and your high street
Oxford Street is ‘a dinosaur district destined for extinction’, says Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Machin – whose plan to…
The rail strikes could be the end of the line for Boris
Here I go again, in my occasional role as your intrepid transport correspondent. Last week I reported on airport chaos,…
How Michael O’Leary can stop the flying blame game
Stock markets are tumbling, but given the tide of economic news, that’s hardly surprising. The S&P 500 index dived into…
Who dares ask how far Brexit is to blame for UK inflation?
After the Jubilee dream of a lovely lost Britain, back to reality with a face-slap: the reality of the £8…
Who’s to blame for the air travel crisis?
I sincerely hope you’re not reading this on a holiday flight that’s sitting on the tarmac with no indication as…
Is the Elizabeth line worth the cost?
It’s 8.16 on Tuesday morning and I’m actually writing this on a moving Elizabeth line train. Moving in the sense…
How far will house prices fall?
‘Forecasting is a mug’s game’ is a truism attributed to everyone from fantasy author Douglas Adams to former Bank of…
Could Haldane have helped save us from inflation?
Would Andy Haldane, the economist who left the Bank of England to run the Royal Society of Arts, have made…
No, BP’s profit hasn’t boosted Starmer’s windfall-tax call
BP’s ‘underlying’ first-quarter profit of $6.2 billion, compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2021, was a direct…
The one thing Netflix could do to keep me subscribing
Anecdotes and statistics should never be confused, but let’s do just that to build a composite picture of today’s UK…
Why Elon Musk should forget Twitter and stick to Tesla
I spent Easter agonising over whether to throw the considerable weight of this column behind Elon Musk’s maverick $43 billion…
Who can put the toothpaste of inflation back in its tube?
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s food price index rose 13 per cent last month to stand a third higher…
Why Channel 4 shouldn’t be privatised
Enough of stagflation forecasts, each more frightening than the last. Enough – for now – of energy policy sermons, as…
How men’s pants predict economic crashes
Should you happen to spot me these days lurking outside a Calvin Klein boutique, notebook in hand, I assure you…
The moral of P&O: too many strategic assets are in foreign hands
P & O once stood for ‘Peninsular and Oriental’, with pleasant connotations of sailings to Cadiz and Constantinople – but…
Biden is right: the crypto world needs to be controlled
President Biden’s executive order ‘Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets’ won praise on all sides, an unfamiliar experience for one…
Is fracking the answer to the energy crisis?
I’ll approach the hot topic of a ban on Russian oil by way of personal anecdote: I’ve never been a…
At least BP and Shell tried to teach Russia true capitalism
BP will offload the 20 per cent stake in Rosneft, the Kremlin-controlled energy giant, that is the residue of 25…
Pipeline politics: what happens if Putin cuts off Europe’s gas?
The price of Brent Crude oil was hovering at $100 a barrel as Germany halted approval of the controversial Nord…
Bad news, Governor: the wage-rise spiral is already raging
I’ve had the opportunity recently to take part in wage-rise discussions for several small entities in which I’m involved. The…
