A big week for the man dubbed ‘Ted Heath with an Instagram account’

Image of the week: Sunak’s mixed message

Trotting out the usual lines about "hard-working families" and Brexit allegedly being a bonfire of red tape, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak took to the floor of the House of Commons for his spring statement on Wednesday, announcing a fuel duty cut, a higher threshold for national insurance contributions and a promise to cut the income tax rate in 2024. On the other hand, a planned healthcare levy and a rise in the rate of national insurance will be going ahead at a time when energy and food bills are soaring. This was Sunak essentially having "a disagreement with himself", concluded Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves. Sunak would like to think of himself as Thatcher's tax-slashing chancellor Nigel Lawson, Reeves said, but in overseeing the British economy during a 1970s-style cost of living crisis, he's more like "Ted Heath with an Instagram account".

In numbers: Let’s get physical

10.1%

Decline in revenue from physical music sales worldwide in 2019, according to figures from industry body IFPI.

4.7%

UK’s Rishi Sunak cuts fuel duty to soften cost-of-living hit

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Up to 20 new trade routes to continent in use after Brexit

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Why ‘shrinkflation’ means you are paying the same for less

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‘Green transition’ expected to buoy economic growth – EIB

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Decline in the physical music market in 2020, with revenues from CDs plunging almost 12 per cent.

16.1%

Rise in physical music revenues in 2021, the IFPI said this week, amid a post-lockdown retail recovery. Even CD sales climbed for the first time this century.

Getting to know: Peter Hebblethwaite

Almost a full week after P&O Ferries abruptly sacked 800 workers using a pre-recorded video message, with security heavies and cheaper replacements on standby, P&O chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite (51) was moved to issue an apology. "I want to say sorry to the people affected and their families for the impact it's had on them, and also to the 2,200 people who still work for P&O and will have been asked a lot of difficult questions about this," he said.

Alas, he followed this up by admitting there was “absolutely no doubt” the ferry operator had broken UK employment law by not consulting trade unions.

In the intervening week, the Daily Mail had duly given readers the lowdown on Hebblethwaite’s “plush Cotswold farmhouse worth more than £1.5 million” (€1.8 million), which is, incidentally, set on a six-acre site with stables and a heated swimming pool.

P&O is owned by Dubai-based DP World, a company controlled by the government of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, whose thoughts on the sackings remain unknown.

The list: Decacorns

Everybody knows by now that a unicorn, as well as being a horned mythical creature, is a privately owned start-up company with a valuation of at least $1 billion. But there’s also a name for the more elite group that reach a valuation of $10 billion. Here are five of the so-called decacorns.

1. Revolut: One of the best-known decacorns, "Revolut" is now freely used as a verb.

2. Getir: Turkish grocery delivery company Getir has just completed a financing round that values it at $11.8 billion. Dinner in a box is on them.

3. Klarna: The Swedish 'shop now, pay later' fintech company is flirting with an initial public offering (IPO) so might not be a decacorn for too much longer.

4. Grammarly: There’s money in online writing tools – just not, alas, in the act of writing.

5. Stripe. The Collison brothers' payments giant has been valued at $95 billion since March 2021, meaning it is not far short of joining the likes of ByteDance and SpaceX in the ranks of the hectacorns.