Fiona Walsh

Fiona Walsh

Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardian newspaper in London.
Christopher Bailey stepping down as Burberry creative chief. Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
City reassured that Bailey’s exit from Burberry to take a year

London Briefing: Bookies wonder how tough will clampdown on betting terminals really be?

College Green branch in Dublin of Costa Coffee. Photograph: Frank Miller
Have we reached peak coffee?

London Briefing: Sales of Costa Coffee have ground to a halt after years of frothy growth

OECD secretary-general Ángel Gurría and Britain’s chancellor Philip Hammond: the Paris-based think tank was accused of being “a leading advocate of Brexit pessimism”. Photograph: Matt Dunham/PA Wire
Blitz spirit prevails as Brexiteers vow to keep calm and carry on

OECD report paints bleak picture for Britain but idea of second referendum is shot down

Royal Mint: the new pound coins are almost impossible to forge. Photograph: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
Round pounds roll on as UK retailers struggle to spot the difference

London Briefing: Tesco and Poundland to defy deadline for recall of 500m coins

Founded 50 years ago by the Swiss-Italian Mantegazza family, Monarch started with just two planes flying out of Luton airport. Photograph: Getty Images
London Briefing: collapse of Monarch leaves 110,000 stranded

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority steps in to bring them home

One of the possible reasons behind the nation’s growing good cheer is that the employment rate in the UK is at its highest level since comparable records began in 1971, while the unemployment rate is at its joint lowest since 1975. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA Wire
Amid the bad news, Britons find reasons to be cheerful

London Briefing: Despite Brexit and falling pound, Britain’s happiness index is going up

Ineos ceo Jim Ratcliffe, worth £6 billion. Photograph: Ineos/PA
Ratcliffe announces plans to revive much-loved Defender

London Briefing: Ineos founder says ‘Projekt Grenadier’ can fill Land Rover gap

Run on the Rock: when queues of panicked savers formed outside Northern Rock branches in 2007 it was the first run on a British bank since the collapse of Overend & Gurney, in 1866. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
Ten years after the Northern Rock run, have the crash’s lessons been heeded?

London Briefing: The UK banking system is an ‘accident waiting to happen’

Timothy Bell, Dr Liam Fox MP and guest attend a Bell Pottinger Summer Party Photograph: Getty
Clients desert scandal hit PR firm, Bell Pottinger

London Briefing: Revelations of role in South African elections ruin top firm’s reputation

Arnold Schwarzenegger: the Terminator actor’s bizarre PPI ad could be one of the worst of the year
He said he’d be back: Schwarzenegger fronts PPI compensation campaign

London Briefing: UK consumers have two years to claim against mis-selling banks

Peter Crook, who has quit as Provident Financial’s chief executive, warned of heavy losses following a period of “substantial under-performance”. Photograph: Provident Financial/PA Wire
Provident Financial slump hits like a blast from the past

So do we have another Northern Rock on our hands? Probably not

Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport protest outside Kings Cross station on Tuesday. Commuters are facing an increase in rail fares by 3.6 per cent next year. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
British commuters hit with rail fares hike to add to their misery

London Briefing: News sparked angry reactions from rail unions and consumer groups

Spain remains by far the most popular destination for British holidaymakers.
Spain still the favourite holiday spot for British tourists

London Briefing: Figures show Ireland in eighth place while Turkey and Belgium out of favour

British Gas offices in Staines: the looming 12.5 per cent increase is almost five times the rate of inflation. Photograph: Toby Melville
British Gas incurs wrath of customers with price hike

London Briefing: website error alerts of price jump and Bank of England warns on debt

Marks & Spencer chief executive Steve Rowe, who is under pressure from the City following lacklustre sales. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
M&S chief under pressure following lacklustre results at UK retailer

Taylor report on UK gig economy fails to win support from unions or employers

The central bank is facing the first ever strike at its Threadneedle Street headquarters, with members of the Unite union scheduled to walk out for four days, from July 31st to August 3rd, in a dispute over pay. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
Hard times at Bank of England amid strike threat and rate rise talk

London Briefing: August could be cruellest month with walkout at Threadneedle Street

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England. Photograph: Alan Betson
Bank of England to apply the brakes on consumer lending

London Briefing: Debt is rocketing so Carney wants banks and borrowers to rein it in

A Barclays branch being renovated in London, June 20th, 2017. Four of the most senior former executives at Barclays - and Barclays itself - have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud in relation to the 2008 credit crunch fund-raising that allowed the bank to avoid having to succumb to a government bailout. Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
Barclays bankers facing fraud charges were among best paid

London Briefing: Dramatic action follows five-year inquiry into credit crunch fund-raising

British inflation soared close to a four-year high in May. Photograph: AFP
The Tory beating at the polls? Blame the economy

London Briefing: Cost of living in Britain at four-year high and earnings are down

Passengers queuing at Heathrow Airport after British Airways cancelled all flights from Gatwick and Heathrow. Photograph: Emily Wilson/PA
British Airways’ explanations for IT failures far from convincing

Plus: ‘Fred the Shred’ to avoid court appearance over RBS stewardship

British Airways passengers endured three day of delays following a IT meltdown. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
British Airways adopts brace position over IT failures

London Briefing: Chief executive Alex Cruz’s handling of crisis made situation worse

Bank of England governor Mark Carney: “I will drink the martini and order another two.” Photograph: Frank Augstein/PA Wire
Carney neither shaken nor stirred by martinis email hoax

London Briefing: Bank of England governor closes down prankster as penny drops

The UK treasury’s remaining 0.25 per cent of Lloyds bank shares was offloaded through the market on Tuesday. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters
Lloyds bank ends long journey out of UK state ownership

London Letter: Treasury books profit of about €580 million on share sales

Britain’s prime minister Theresa May says that her price cap plan will save some 17 million customers up to £100 a year. But switching to a cheaper supplier typically offers far bigger savings. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
May’s pledge to cap energy prices could short-circuit

London Briefing: Prime minister’s bright idea likely to leave voters out of pocket

Jes Staley, CEO Barclays bank. Photograph: Reuters
Barclays boss Jess Staley faces City after whistleblower scandal

London Letter: Scourge of bankers Andrew Tyrie steps down after ‘exhilarating’ career

The next step: British prime minister Theresa May prepares to make her statement outside number 10 Downing Street, calling for a general election on June 8th. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Election win will clear the way for May’s Brexit vision

London Briefing: The British prime minister’s gamble could pay off nicely for the UK

The Barclays boss and the whistleblower

London Briefing: Punishment needed if Threadneedle Street codes to be enforced

A battle with a company with pockets as deep as Apple’s is a daunting prospect. Phtograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Future looks bleak for shrinking Imagination

London letter: Unless it can compromise with Apple, it may have to call in the lawyers

British annual inflation jumped in February to the highest level in almost three and a half years, driven by increasing fuel costs. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
British inflation surges to its highest level since September 2013

Treasury acknowledges families are increasingly worried about rising bills

Deputy governor of the Bank of England Charlotte Hogg: has admitted breaching guidelines. Photograph: PA
Charlotte Hogg takes ‘full responsibility’ for breach of bank’s code

Deputy governor of the Bank of England fails to declare her brother’s role at Barclays

Liz Truss: the lord chancellor’s shock ruling saw shares in insurance companies tumble. Photograph: PA
Insurers count the cost of rising injury payouts

London Briefing: Liz Truss’s shock ruling means personal injury payouts will rise

Royal Bank of Scotland: A plan to separate 300 branches from the bailed out bank’s network has proved almost impossible, largely because of technical difficulties with antiquated IT systems. Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
RBS takes step on road to bailout recovery by paying rivals £750m

Alternative to Brussels-imposed sell off of 300 branches starting to look cheap

Underlying profits at Rolls Royce tumbled by 49 per cent to £813 million but this was better than the City had expected. Photograph: Rolls-Royce/PA Wire
Sterling slump was more damaging to Rolls Royce than penalties

£4.6bn loss-making group maintains final dividend payment at last year’s 7.1p a share

British prime minister Theresa May: “Our broken housing market is one of the greatest barriers to progress.” Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
‘Is that it?’: Tories’ White Paper on housing gets ripped apart

London Briefing: Sajid Javid’s proposals acknowledge crisis but are short on new ideas

Traffic in Times Square during a massive power outage on August 14th, 2003. The blackout hit US and Canadian cities Thursday, closing nuclear power plants in Ohio and New York state, driving workers in New York City and Toronto into the streets, and shutting subways in blistering heat. Photograph: AP Photo/Gregory Bull
City ‘war games’ the ultimate cyber attack on east coast US

London Briefing: Insurers test industry’s ability to withstand cascading catastrophes

Gavin Patterson: The chief executive of the BT Group said he was disappointed by BT Italia’s falsified accounts, which he called a “very complex set of manipulations”. Photograph: EPA/Gian Ehrenzeller
BT revises up cost of Italian ‘accounting errors’

London Briefing: Shares already fallen before hole in BT Italia accounts rocketed from £145m to £530m

Rolls-Royce said it had undergone “a fundamental change” since the corruption was uncovered. Photograph: Paul Ellis/Reuters
Rolls-Royce shares climb following bribery case settlement

London Briefing: End to uncertainty cheers market, despite firm’s £671 million penalty

The leader of Britain’s Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn speaks at Paston Farm Centre, near Peterborough, January 10th. REUTERS/Toby Melville
London briefing: Corbyn calls for a maximum wage to curb fat-cat pay

Other measures to reduce inequality include bosses’ pay based on multiple of workers’ pay

Philip Green: One Labour MP wants parliament to bring in a “nuclear deterrent” to prevent the likes of Green from walking away from his pension responsibilities. Photograph: Reuters/Bobby Yip
Top Shop boss Philip Green isn’t ready to give up the good life

London Briefing: Exactly zero has been done since disgraced tycoon promised to ‘sort’ BHS pension mess

A customer uses an ATM machine outside Lloyds Bank in Camberwell, London. The cost of the deal could mean investors will miss out on any special dividends they might have expected. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire
Lloyds buys MBNA credit cards business for £1.9bn

Concerns raised over timing of bailed-out bank’s first major acquisition since crisis

Rail services across the Southern Rail franchise have been affected by a strike by the Aslef drivers union in a dispute over driver-only trains. Photograph: WILL OLIVER
London Briefing: Southern Rail strikes leave commuters derailed

Drivers’ union Aslef and the RMT protesting over plans to operate driver-only trains

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is putting forward plans to clamp down on firms selling contract for difference (CFD) products to retail customers. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Wire
London Briefing: Spread betting faces a tougher future

Financial Conduct Authority’s report shows 82% of customers lose money trading in CDFs

Martin Sorrell, head of WPP: last year his pay package was £70.4 million, paid in cash and shares, taking the total he has earned at the advertising group since 2009 to £190 million. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Sorrell nets extra £11m as crackdown on executive pay announced

WPP chief adds to €190m earnings as government publishes proposals for crackdown

Theresa May: “Just about managing” remark seen as patronising. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
London Briefing: ‘Jams’ concept proving sticky for Theresa May

Chancellor Philip Hammond will struggle to find sweeteners in his autumn statement

Bank of England governor Mark Carney giving evidence to the British parliament’s treasury committee in London on Tuesday. Photograph: Getty Images
London Briefing: Carney takes chance to get own back on MPs

Bank of England governor says politicians have to address gap between rich and poor

Marks & Spencer in Paris: the company is withdrawing from France, including its flagship store in the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
M&S bites bullet and withdraws from loss-making overseas stores

Company to shut flagship shop on the Champs-Elysées

Bank of England governor Mark Carney: grin on his face as he left 10 Downing Street on Monday “left little doubt, in his view at least, that he had the upper hand”. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
Carney sees off Brexiters but still has questions to answer

London Briefing: Critics claim win as Bank of England governor extends term by one year

An Airbus A380 preparing to land at Heathrow airport. The British government approved a third runway at the London airport on Tuesday, a decision that follows decades of debate. Photograph: AFP Photo/Justin Tallis
Business community on Heathrow expansion: ‘It’s about time’

Green light has been given for construction of third runway at London airport

London estate agency Jackson-Stops predicts that homes in the lowest-price bracket “will go the way of the black rhino” in the city this year. Photograph: PA
London Letter: Britain wakes up to realisation that price rises are inevitable

Quite what they thought would happen to cost of imports with pound worth a fifth less is something of a mystery

London Briefing: City sceptical about services firm’s Brexit excuse

Outsourcing group Mitie’s chief executive to leave weeks after issuing profit warning

IMF chief Christine Lagarde: “we have done our homework, and we haven’t found anything positive to say about a Brexit vote”
IMF alarmism mistaken but UK’s prospects not rosy

London Briefing: In May the IMF predicted a vote to leave the EU would precipitate a UK stock market crash

Mike Ashley: shocking disclosures saw him hauled before MPs to answer questions and sparked widespread public anger. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Wire
Sports Direct apology over regime at Shirebrook comes at 11th hour

Showdown with the beleaguered board of UK’s biggest sports retailer set to begin

SoftBank Group Corp chairman and chief executive Masayoshi Son. Photograph: Reuters
ARM shareholders to approve £24bn SoftBank takeover

Decisions on the business will now be made in Tokyo rather than Cambridge

City fund manager Neil Woodford abolished annual bonuses and will instead increase rates of basic pay and benefits for his employees. Photograph: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
Fund manager scrapping bonuses a step in right direction

London Briefing: Bigger City firms unlikely to follow Woodford example

Former BHS owner Sir Philip Green (left) and British MP Frank Field: Mr Field recently blasted the billionaire for the “evil” he had done in destroying the BHS business, its jobs and the pension scheme. Photograph: PA
London Briefing: nostalgia and accusations as BHS shuts doors

Philip Green under scrutiny as British Home Stores to cease trading by end of August

A man passes a Lloyds building in the City of London: bank boss Antonio Horta-Osorio’s trysts with a mistress on a company trip to Singapore hit the headlines. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Bonking overrides banking as investigation report published

As competition authority report into banking comes out so does news of bank boss’s tryst

The great escape: It took Andy from the Shawshank Redemption 20 years to break out. BoE’s Andy Haldane doesn’t have the same luxury of time
Shot at redemption: UK can’t risk long escape from downturn

Bank of England expected to act to cut rates rather than delay

There are fears that the ARM deal could be the first in a new wave of foreign takeovers as overseas buyers capitalise on the strength of their currencies against the battered pound. Photograph: ARM Holdings/PA Wire
Sale of ARM may be first of a wave of foreign takeovers of UK firms

Despite Theresa May’s enthusiasm, the sale of the chip designer hints at UK weakness

Britain’s central bank governor Mark Carney: “If we view something as the biggest risk to financial stability we have an obligation to parliament and to the people of the UK to make that clear,” he told the UK treasury committee. Photograph: PA Wire
London Briefing: Mark Carney’s Brexit hero period evaporates

UK central bank governor rebuts claims of ‘phoney forecasts’ in favour of Remain

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
‘Only adult in the room’ Carney puts markets on notice

Commercial property trading suspended amid Brexit vote jitters

Working on a Rolls-Royce engine: the company reaffirmed its commitment to the UK in the wake of the decision to exit the European Union, but warned that longer term assurances would depend on a post-Brexit deal. Photograph: Gary Marshall/Rolls-Royce/PA Wire
Bargain hunters mop up shares after Brexit carnage

Bosses of several leading firms issue statements to reassure investors

Two years ago, when the inquiry was launched amid widespread public anger over energy charges, MPs from all sides welcomed the probe. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Timing of UK energy report icing on cake for ‘Big Six’ suppliers

Claim energy providers overcharged customers by £1.7bn a year will likely be dropped

Sir Philip Green is expected to express regret over selling BHS to a former bankrupt with no retail experience when he faces MPs today. Photograph: Ian West/PA Wire
Sir Philip Green can expect tough day at Westminster hearing

Retailer backs down and will go before MPs to account for his actions over BHS

Mike Ashley: Said Sports Direct’s policy of docking 15 minutes pay if a worker was just one minute late for their shift was “unacceptable”. Photograph: Reuters
Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley queries own ability before MPs

Investors sure to be alarmed after tycoon makes astonishing Westminster admission

Austin Reed is to close its doors by the end of June after administrators failed to find a buyer for the business. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
London Briefing: High Street retailers continue to go out of fashion

Outfitters Austin Reed the latest famous name set to disappear

Bank of England governor Mark Carney: Prominent Vote Leave supporter, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg accused the governor of damaging the bank’s reputation by “taking sides” in the increasingly ill-tempered debate over Britain’s future in Europe. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Bank of England rebuked over Brexit assessment

Warning of ‘technical recession’ after exit from EU enraged Vote Leave camp

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, vocal in criticising City bonuses but may need to look closer to home. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Church of England under fire over Google stake

Company one of a large number of multinationals accused of tax avoidance

Marble Arch in London: BHS employees also projected images on Blackfriars Bridge and Wellington Arch as well as the 88-year-old company’s headquarters. Photograph: BHS/PA Wire
London Briefing: BHS workers attempt to throw light on collapse

Former owner of major retailer to attend Commons inquiry into £571m pension deficit

The average sum given by parents to their “generation rent” offspring is £17,500, or 7 per cent of purchase price
New ‘bank’ may be loving and kind, but it’s also driving up house prices

‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ will lend a €6.3bn this year, according to Legal & General

Sir Philip Green: There are calls to strip him of his knighthood unless he volunteers to help plug the £571m black hole in British Home Stores’ pension scheme. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
BHS staff left to founder as Green sails off in £100m super-yacht

Billionaire knight facing storm over appointment of administrators to retail group

Martin Sorrell: said he had spent more than three decades building WPP from a £1m company into one capitalised at £21bn
London briefing: Sorrell pay advertises sense of self-worth

Boss of advertising giant WPP gets his retaliation in early over £70m pay

Tesco: profits for the year are likely to come in at about £450 million – a huge turnaround on the £6.4 billion loss of the previous year. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Wire
London Briefing: Tesco returns to the black after gloomy year

Retailer expected to report first increase in quarterly sales in more than three years

Steve Rowe takes charge at M&S at a difficult time for the retail industry. Photogreaph: Toby Melville/Reuters
M&S’s new boss Steve Rowe has toughest job in retail

City keen to hear chief executive’s strategy to revive store’s core clothing business

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley in the picking warehouse during a tour of the Sports Direct headquarters in Shirebrook, Derbyshire. Ashley dismissed much of what has been written about the group as “stupid”
Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley opens up to media but investors fear he said too much

Mike Ashley defends company, attacks detractors but lets slip business woes

Mike Ashley: there have been revelations about onerous working conditions at Sports Direct’s huge warehouse in Derbyshire and the company’s widespread use of zero-hours contracts. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Wire
Will Mike Ashley of Sports Direct really take on Westminster?

The company boss is to appear before MPs to answer questions on working conditions

Artist’s impression of the how the proposed Hinkley Point C station: Former Électricité de France money man Thomas Piquemal’s fears over Hinkley Point – that it could threaten the future of the entire EDF group – are now widely shared. Photograph: EDF/PA
Meltdown at EDF over €23bn UK nuclear power plant

French utility’s Hinkley Point project described by analyst as ‘verging on insanity’

Mark Carney gives evidence to the Treasury Select Committee in the House of Commons, London. Photograph: PA Wire
Bank of England refuses to be drawn into Brexit speculation

Governor admits continued volatility for sterling likely as poll draws nearer

Model company: Hornby chief executive Richard Ames’s exit was greeted by a surge in the famous toy train company’s shares of almost 40 per cent. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Hornby toy firm in battle to stay on right track

Oil enthusiasm bubbles to the surface again as ‘Gatwick Gusher’ starts producing

Rolls-Royce’s new chief executive Warren East: He was forced to issue a profits warning on only his second day in the job and later in the year shocked the market when he admitted that he could not rule out another warning. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Rolls-Royce to outline plan for annual cost savings of £200m

Analysts fear new boss will not pay dividend until financial position improves

The Sainsbury’s-Argos combination will have some 25 million customers, operating a chain of about 2,000 stores. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Sainsbury’s buys Argos-owner Home Retail in search for growth

Meanwhile EasyJet founder takes on Aldi and Lidl with easyFoodstore in London

Tesco group chief executive Dave Lewis: uncovered scandal in his first few weeks in the job. Photograph: in the job Reuters
Tesco to avoid fines despite appalling behaviour revealed

London briefing: Abuses appeared to be ‘more prevalent towards the end of trading periods

Bank of England governor Mark Carney delivers a speech on the UK economy at the Queen Mary University in London on Tuesday. Mr Carney said that there would be no interest rate rise for now. Photograph: EPA
London Briefing: Bank of England ‘cries wolf’ on rates as growth falters

Bank governor Mark Carney’s speech has made rate hikes a distant prospect

The figures from Debenhams are all the more surprising given the lacklustre performance of rivals Next and Marks & Spencer. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
British retailers report unexpected growth over Christmas period

Debenhams and Morrisons defy the odds, while German discounters push on

Sainsbury’s has made a £1 billion bid approach for Home Retail Group, owner of the Argos and Homebase chains. While shares in its target soared by a third, Sainsbury’s went into reverse. Photograph: PA/PA Wire
Sainsbury’s interest in Argos and Homebase rattles markets

Supermarket’s lurch out of groceries sends it to arena of FTSE-fallers alongside Next

Mike Ashley (left, with Joe Kinnear) own Newcastle United Football Club as well as Sports Direct International. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Billionaire Ashley’s treatment of staff is under increasing scrutiny

Questionable working practices within Sports Direct International have caused a public outcry

Do the economics of a deal that would have created a business valued at more than £200 billion still add up?
London briefing: Is it worth it for Shell and BG to do a deal?

As the price of oil slides, investors are getting nervous about prospects

Shoppers on Oxford Street, London, on Black Friday: the overall value of goods sold, including contributions from new stores, was ahead by a lacklustre 0.7 per cent, well down on the 1.7 per cent average growth rate over the past 12 months. Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA Wire
London Briefing: Retail reality check in run-up to Christmas

Despite hype surrounding Black Friday, November sales down on the previous year

While Tuesday was Jes Staley’s first official day in the office at Barclays , the veteran American investment banker is understood to have arrived at the bank some weeks ago
London Briefing: Barclays shares up on more good news

Barclays passes ‘stress tests’ in better style than had been expected

Radical restructuring will be required to restore Rolls Royce plc to its former glory, said new boss Warren East.
London Briefing: Rolls-Royce chief must quickly clear ‘accounting fog’

Warren East warns radical restructuring required to restore Rolls to former glory

Bank of England regulators will publish a 500-page report into what went wrong at HBOS. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
HBOS report will make painful reading for regulators and former bank chiefs

Nobody will face fines for wrongdoing as statute of limitations has expired

People walk past a shopfront on in London advertising Black Friday discounts last year. Originating in the US, Black Friday is becoming an increasingly popular shopping day in the UK. (Photograph: Rob Stothard/Getty Images)
Tempers fray in British broadband battle

Vodafone boss launches bitter attack on BT and Deutsche Telekom

Last year’s spectacular, a two-minute ad featuring Monty the Penguin, cost the retailer some £7 million to make, but the media frenzy surrounding it generated millions more pounds of free publicity. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
Festive ads get under way as retailers fight for revenue

Chains spare no expense in wooing customers in the lucrative gift market

Lords give Osborne a drubbing as shaken economy is stirred by the Bond effect

Results for the third quarter showed an unexpectedly sharp slow down in growth

Chinese President Xi Jinping and China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip view a display of Chinese items from the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. Photograph: Getty Images
Steely comments as Chinese president’s state visit coincides with British job losses

Beijing’s dumping of cheap steel on the market is linked to the latest layoffs

James “Jes” Staley: is a Wall Street veteran, having spent more than 30 years at JP Morgan Chase. Photograph: Bloomberg
London Briefing: Barclays set to turn clock back in top post

Fiona Walsh: Bank looks set to hire another US investment banker, James “Jes” Staley, as chief executive

UK chancellor George Osborne has described the sale ofLloyds Banking Group as “the biggest privatisation in over 20 years”. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire
Lloyds sale a safe bet, for Osborne at least

Hyped privatisation will secure votes of thousands of grateful investors

Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg: he repeatedly insisted Glencore had no need of restructuring but, after shares more than halved this year, he unveiled a debt-reduction and cash-raising plan a few weeks ago. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters/Files TPX
Battle rages in City after Glencore’s dramatic fall

Close eye on analysts as mining group’s shares suffer 30% collapse at start of week

RSA boss Stephen Hester was widely tipped as a potential new boss for Barclays before the reversal. Photograph: Bloomberg
RSA shares fall 20% after Zurich U-turn on takeover

Stephen Hester misses out on £8.5m bonus

Customers shop at a Primark store on Oxford Street in London. After Thursday’s opening in Boston the company will open another store in Philadelphia before Christmas and a further half dozen or so are planned next year. Photograph: Reuters
Can Primark succeed where a host of other overseas retailers have failed?

Cut-price fashion chain’s success in a notoriously treacherous market America is not assured but if anyone can do it the Dublin-ba(...)

AGA is at the centre of a takeover tussle after revealing US electronic appliances giant Whirlpool was considering a bid to rival Middleby’s £129 million offer. Photograph: PA
London Briefing: Aga saga heats up as Whirlpool emerges as rival for Middleby

News of potential takeover battle sent shares surging by another 11 per cent

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