Business
The dark side of Black Friday
How is it possible that we’re still reading headlines about the £4 billion fundraising from the Gulf that saved Barclays…
What does the City really think of the Chancellor?
Regular invitations to Mansion House banquets petered out after I asked a shifty-looking waiter for a glass of champagne and…
My run-in with Greta Thunderpants
The anger management counsellor stormed through the door and shouted at me to turn the heating up. Hello to you…
Is No. 10 coming for game shooting next?
I confess I was lunching at L’Escargot in Greek Street as Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget. My excuse was that…
Still hunting for a Trump trade? Gold may have further to rise
Anyone hunting for a ‘Trump trade’ at this late stage has probably missed the US election bus. If you bought…
The rise of anti-Elonism
You can tell a lot about a country by who it admires. I was pleasantly surprised some years ago to…
Goodbye to Old King Coal
So farewell, Ratcliffe-on-Soar: the UK’s last coal-fired power station shut down on Monday, having burned five million tonnes of coal…
How to find out what organisations are saying about you
Every time I have a protracted ding-dong with a big organisation, I put in a request under data protection law…
How many summers do you have left?
If the new government’s ‘pensions review’ takes forward last year’s ‘Mansion House reforms’ – credited to chancellor Jeremy Hunt but…
Bury the Canaletto, now
I’m not on the guest list for the Duke of Westminster’s wedding, but I wish him luck anyway. Mind you,…
How to quit like the Japanese
Tokyo For many, the idea of quitting a job they hate, of walking into their boss’s office and telling him…
The truth about ‘boardroom diversity’
We all know that increasing the diversity of your boardroom increases the success of your company because politicians, business leaders…
The lesson of Looney: every board should prepare for scandal
Bernard Looney, the fallen BP chief, always had a certain swagger about him. I’ve no idea whether he was unsafe…
The UK’s treatment of Activision shows it is closed for business
It was, admittedly, not quite as thrilling as an action sequence from Call of Duty. Even so, the statement put…
The corporatisation of kindness
In those moments when I most fear that the West is on the skids, I find it helps to make…
Water isn’t working
Who’s to blame for the shortages?
Market mischief and bad politicsmean business is never dull
Enough of stagflation forecasts, each more frightening than the last. Enough – for now – of energy policy sermons, as…
Monopoly rules
Here’s a useful tip. Go to the Royal Mail websiteand you can ask your postman to collect letters or parcels…
Scorn at Unilever’s GSK bid highlights the perils of ‘purpose’
‘Tell me we’re winning the media battle!’ I imagine Unilever boss Alan Jope barking at his team on Tuesday, following…
