Business
John DeLorean: man of mystery – and full-blown psychopath
DeLorean: Back from the Future was one of those documentaries — for me at least — that takes a story…
Business rebirth is always possible – with the right help
The online fashion retailer Boohoo is buying Debenhams without its stores and staff, confirming the demise of the high street.…
‘Inessential’ workers have helped keep the country afloat
A common sight across Britain these past ten months has been those rainbow flags fluttering in urban and village streets:…
My stamp duty solution for the Chancellor
On the Wednesday in early July when Rishi Sunak announced a temporary increase from £125,000 to £500,000 in the stamp…
Will video-calling kill bureaucracy?
Having grown up in a family business, my earliest exposure to corporate life was often baffling. I remember the first…
Save me from the cult of instant intimacy
On the cult of instant intimacy
Covid has become the go-to excuse for shoddy service
Covid has become a get-out clause for shoddy service
Never mind the numbers – the boardroom gender battle has barely begun
It’s the way the world’s going, but still it looks quite impressive that the number of women directors of FTSE100…
Britain needs to rediscover failure if it wants to prosper
Britain needs to rediscover trial and error, serendipity and speed
Neil Woodford could do the washing-up at my fantasy Christmas lunch
It’s the season for kindness and conviviality. In that spirit — and recognising that business, like personal life, rarely follows…
Business is the only area of human activity where you get paid to change your mind
In 1891, a 29-year-old man moved from Philadelphia to Chicago intending to start a business. With $32 to his name,…
What I learned from piercing ears at Claire’s Accessories
I was 17, studying for my A-levels in Great Yarmouth. Looking to defy my parents’ instruction to get a part-time…
UK business investment has nosedived – what’s to blame?
Business investment in the UK declined in all four quarters of 2018 to complete a year-on-year dive of 2.4 per cent,…
Watch out comrade: big business is turning communist
Is it me, or is business becoming a teeny-weeny bit Stalinist? Common features include 1) Paranoia about political ideology; 2)…
Running a bank’s tough. That’s no reason to start handing capital back
A mixed bag of annual results from the big banks. RBS, still 73 per cent owned by the taxpayer, recorded…
iAddicts
For many years The Spectator employed a television reviewer who did not own a colour television. Now they have decided…
The City still leads the financial world but faces a fight on all fronts
Should we place faith in a survey, conducted in June but published this week, that says London is still the…
Hollande equals Thatcher? If only
Have you ever tried discussing the merits of gun control with a Texan, or of deregulated labour markets with a…
Why it makes sense to buy your banker lunch
We recently moved -offices from Canary Wharf to Blackfriars bridge. When you move after a long time in one place,…
The chief executives who volunteer for pay cuts
Boss cuts The chief executive of the Co-operative Group, Richard Pennycock, asked for a pay cut, saying his job had…
Why Ratan Tata is still Britain’s greatest inward investor
If asked to pick the UK’s inward investor of the century so far I would, without hesitation, name Ratan Tata,…
Don’t believe the recession hype – or this commodities boom
All in all, this is an odd moment for an outburst of high spirits: not from me — I’m as…
The City’s real players may be voting ‘out’ in the EU referendum
‘The City is in no doubt that staying in Europe is the only way ahead,’ declared Mark Boleat for the…
The bears are here to stay – but we’ll survive
Like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, we’ve just been savaged by a bear but we’ll probably survive. Leading UK-listed stocks…
How contactless cards will change the world (much more than you think)
I am one of those annoying, mildly claustrophobic people who sit at the end of a row in cinemas. There…
