To Canary Wharf, along with Express Group boss Richard Desmond, who swept up in his Roller, with impressively muscled driver, to pay tribute to Reg Ward, the recently deceased founder of modern Docklands... more
Change is afoot in the world of PR. A wave of high-ranking staff at various corporate public relations agencies are getting itchy feet and quitting to launch their own firms... more
The advertising industry gave a good send-off to Hamish Pringle, departing director-general of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, with a party at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster last night - complete with tubes of Pringles crisps, of course... more
Hurry, hurry: Barclays is paying 7% interest. That's a fair whack above the average 0.5% banks are paying out to savings customers, and even more generous than NS&I's new inflation-beating savings certificate. Oh, but hang on...... more
You've got to love Terra Firma boss Guy Hands' legal evidence of brown-nosing from Citigroup bankers as they allegedly persuaded him to overpay for their client, record label EMI... more
PR Week magazine has unveiled its Power Book of the most influential public relations practitioners, based partly on the opinions of “20 senior professional journalists”, and there are a few surprises... more
Gulf Keystone, the AIM-listed Kurdistan explorer made a major discovery in Northern Iraq last month and saw its shares hit the stratosphere — rising from 9p to 90p in a little under three weeks... ... more
A giant-sized welcome is in order to Bruce Wasserstein, the Lazards chief and legendary New York banker who is leading the Kraft takeover bid for Cadbury... more
What do government ministers do with their time? It's a moot question, given the state the country is in, but some clue comes from the exchange of emails between the recently departed communications minister Lord Carter and his former employer, Brunswick ... more
Banking: An executive at City public relations firm Brunswick has been caught up in an embarrassing insider trading case after her husband passed on confidential tips about takeovers... more
As Stephen Hester settles into the Fred the Shred memorial chair at Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarters (is he going to keep the palace outside Edinburgh?), the new broom is doubtless in receipt of advice from all quarters... more
THERE are some pertinent questions to be asked about energy prices and it is to the benefit of consumers that the Prime Minister is asking them. Gordon Brown has pointed out that while gas and electricity prices rose to take account of the increased price of oil, there have been no corresponding cuts in fuel bills as the price of oil comes down. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has met the six big energy retailers to tell them that the Government wants prices to fall. Meanwhile, the former head of Energywatch, Allan Asher, has said that consumers' annual bills of £1,200 could be reduced by up to a third if there were reforms to the wholesale market and greater competition between suppliers. He has a point: at a time when official inflation figures are just over five per cent, some suppliers have increased gas prices by a third.... more
The Tories are in the ascendancy and gaining influence. Already the key figures in Westminster and beyond are thinking about the post-Brown generation.... more
As the Prime Minister's September 'relaunch' flops, we reveal today how internal wars in No 10 are adding to Mr Brown's problems and could lead to another very embarrassing exit... more
There may be a three-way split at the Bank of England over what to do with interest rates, with some arguing for a cut, others a rise, and the rest no change at all. ... more
Afternoon:
8°c
