Any other business
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…
Data breaches show we’re only three clicks away from anarchy
An IT glitch afflicting BP petrol stations for three hours last Sunday evening might not sound like headline news. A…
Enjoy your feelgood summer while you can – there may be trouble ahead
I’ve been on a mini-tour, full of echoes and warnings. First, to the Grange Festival in Hampshire, where we might…
Carmakers are an undeniable voice in the Brexit debate
The voice of business has been all but silent in the Brexit debate ever since former Marks & Spencer boss…
For Pester of TSB, like Patterson of BT, the only way is exit
Should he stay or should he go — or will he already have gone by the time you read this?…
Let’s hope for a better, demerged, RBS when it’s back in private hands
At last the government has restarted the process of selling its stake in Royal Bank of Scotland. A first £2…
WH Smith, Britain’s worst high-street retailer, is ripe for disruption
I’m not in the least surprised to learn that WH Smith has been voted Britain’s worst high-street retailer in a…
Why Mark Carney’s successor is likely to be woman
If Ben Broadbent’s Daily Telegraph interview last week was the launch of a bid for the governorship of the Bank…
We might be plunging towards Brexit chaos – but at least everyone has jobs
It’s heartening to see an authentic British entrepreneur heading this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, the industrial-ist Jim Ratcliffe, who…
It was a hot weekend for takeover deals – and cycling
The bank holiday turned out to be a hot one, not least in the takeover arena. First, Shire Pharmaceutical accepted…
TSB’s new owners should have seen this computer catastrophe coming
The systems breakdown at TSB is not (yet) the worst UK bank computer cock-up of all time: that prize is…
