In recent years, good restaurants have become even more focused on service, making sure their front of house staff know everything about how a particular dish has been put together.Read
To return to my refrain, pretty much monthly, since the financial collapse started: the issue is not deficits, certainly not sovereign debt; the issue is not currency, neither the euro nor the drachma.Read
“Reality” television is one of life’s more bizarre contradictions. What could be more unreal than forcing a group of unknown wannabes to live in a strange house for weeks at a time or filming an interchangeable bunch of nobodies being abused by Alan Sugar?Read
Q. My husband and I split up three years ago and he signed our house over to me because at the time there was no equity in it. While this was going through he was declared bankrupt for a debt of £1800.Read
The Greek crisis has drifted in and out of the headlines for months, it seems, and would appear to be no nearer a lasting solution than it was throughout the whole of 2011.Read
Over the course of the last two months, I have visited some 15 exhibitions staged at the NEC, Birmingham, to my mind, the nation’s finest shop window, talking to stand managers about the state of their businesses.Read
The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee has stood firm in the face of intense pressure to continue with its hopelessly ineffective policy of quantitative easing by doing precisely nothing.Read
With the starting gun set to be fired in less than 80 days for the beginning of the London Olympics, it’s vital that businesses are fully prepared in terms of how they will organise their workforce, cope with holiday requests and deal with suspicious sickness absences.Read
A stock that has been in the media recently has been the US technology giant, Apple. It seems it is taking over our lives with most of us owning technology made by them or influenced by them in some way. They seem to make us want one of their products even without any specific need.Read
At a time when media organisations and politicians were both looking to reverse popularity declines, it is ironic that they find themselves side by side facing the firing squad at Leveson.Read
A plethora of city analysts, commentators and government ministers are busy making out that the UK economy is doing much better than the recent GDP figures showing the UK back in double dip recession (of course none of the ‘recession deniers’ forecast the double dip and all back the government’s austerity drive). Read
This week our nation is experiencing a strike by thousands of workers in the National Health Service plus Ministry of Defence civilian staff and civil servants. The inconvenience which will be costly to strikers and to those affected, is unlikely to achieve anything.Read
With the eurozone economy once again plunged into turmoil and stockmarkets going south, it seems that investors large and small are trying to avoid risk at all costs. At the same time, returns on cash and government bonds are minimal and not necessarily the safe haven they have traditionally been.Read
George Osborne’s announcement that Sunday trading laws are to be relaxed during the Olympics has just been through the House of Lords for a second reading.Read
Last week’s figures, which surprisingly confirmed that this country is in recession, tend to support the view that this is going to be a very tough year, especially for manufacturers and producers.Read
