Meet Steve. He's 42, a semi-retired geezer and full-time car mechanic. Married with two children he can barely afford, he isn't getting around the five-a-side football field as often or with as much grace as once he did, but don't you dare tell him he hasn't still got it... more
London law firm that produced Margaret Mountford — one of Britain’s best known women solicitors and Alan Sugar’s former aide on The Apprentice — has fallen to the bottom of the City’s equality league table... more
The boss of one quango tells City Spy of how he had to face furious attacks from his upset employees when his organisation’s name was leaked among 200 such bodies to be cut... more
There was once a laughable suggestion that Alan Sugar could run for London Mayor. Surely there is no chance of the star of TV’s The Apprentice and Gordon Brown’s recently ennobled business adviser, taking to the hustings — given that he keeps firing off solicitors’ letters to anyone who has the temerity to criticise him... more
London's hedge fund community may have had a torrid time last year but at least its favoured charity, Arki Busson's ARK (or absolute return for kids), has shown the way in moneymaking. In the year to August 2008, its income rose from £32.7 million to £40.2 million. Furthermore, hedge fund turmoil is not expected to affect the levels of pledges. ARK acknowledges that "the level of outstanding donor pledges is considered to be one of the charity's key risks" but that all funding pledges "due for payment have been received to date." So hats off to the generous hedgies and let's hope that spirit continues.... more
No one doubts Sir Alan Sugar produces good television, but there's never been a government appointment that has prompted such ridicule — and not a little discomfort... more
Gordon Ramsay is not the only high-profile celebrity chef having a hard time of it. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the old Etonian contemporary of David Cameron, is not exactly flush with cash.... more
What a shower. If they were in the City, they wouldn't last a second. I write, of course, of the Labour hierarchy that, for the time being at least, is nominally in charge of this country ... more
Sir Alan Sugar declared that being Mayor of London would be a “walk in the park” after a poll showed he was the voters’ choice to beat Boris Johnson... more
BT raced up the FTSE 100 winner’s board today on talk that it is planning an all-out attack on its pensions deficit by issuing a multi-billion-pound bond... more
The man who quit the new series of The Apprentice hours before meeting Sir Alan Sugar said he was scared of being "whipped silly" in the boardroom... more
EVEN the publicity picture of the contestants with their "me, me, me" poses, pinstripe suits and stilettos, against a backdrop of Canary Wharf, says it all. The Apprentice, the fifth series of which was launched yesterday but screens next week, is suddenly looking very dated indeed. ... more
A Tanzanian beauty queen, an award-winning restaurateur and an ex-professional footballer are among the new batch of aspiring tycoons hoping to land a job with Sir Alan Sugar... more
Occasionally, a story comes along that obliges you to do a double-take. One such was the report yesterday that Sir Alan Sugar is being lined up by Labour insiders for the London mayoral race in four years' time... more
Sir Alan Sugar’s Apprentice TV sidekicks are set to be thrust into the limelight – on Strictly Come Dancing. Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford have been approached to appear in the sixth series, to be aired on the BBC in the autumn.... more
Morning:
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