Business

The Pratts sold the rights to Cluedo for £5,000 in 1953, before the global success of the game, but Anthony was always philosophical about his decision and the secure future that it ensured for his family.

£5k was a significant sum. My parents bought their first house a couple of years later than that for £3,000. That’s now worth (it’s in the village of Strete, near Dartmouth, and is on the coast directly with it’s own stairway down to a private beach – private in the sense that you can’t get there at anything but low tide without using that staircase) £1.5 m or so. Sometimes turns upon AirBnB. Yes, I know houses were relatively cheaper back then. But another way to put it, £5k was three or four years middle class income. And 50 years what they paid National Service squaddies at the time.

Sure, sure, Cluedo became a massive hit. But £5k wasn’t nothing.

The Argentinian steak restaurant Gaucho is slashing the share of the service charge its waiters receive, using some of the funds to bump up the pay package of head office workers.

A letter to workers seen by the Guardian says that from 1 October existing waiters would receive between 25.45% and 29.4% of the service charge collected at tables they have served, depending on length of service, down from 37% previously – already a reduction from 45% early last year. Bar staff will get 17% of the service charge, down from 20%.

Newly employed waiters will receive just 17%, according to a letter from Gaucho’s troncmaster – a specialist hired to manage the distribution of the service charge.

Over the decades I’ve hated, hated, serice charges as against tipes. That deep rage fired by experiences as a waiter, of course. The moment there becomes centralised allocation then it’s always, but always, back office and management that get a cut and the waiters get screwed.

You know, just as with politics, government and money more generally….

A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests.

Robby Starbuck, 36, of Nashville, was appointed in August as an adviser by Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms – in an August lawsuit settlement
…..
Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said: “It is appalling that Robby Starbuck was given a hand in Meta operations in any capacity. He peddles lies and pushes extremism, and it is hard to believe any of this will help make their platforms safer or better.

Eric Bloem, vice-president of corporate citizenship at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said: “People should be able to find safe, welcoming communities online. Robby Starbuck pushes a dangerous anti-LGBTQ agenda, spreading disinformation and denying the very existence of transgender people.”

There are only going to be so many places getting paid for the grift. How appalling that one of those getting paid is not one of us.

That about covers it.

Venture Global started producing LNG from a facility in Louisiana in January 2022, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring amid a global scramble to replace Russian gas.

The American company had contracts to sell the LNG from the Calcasieu facility once it was fully operational to international buyers such as BP, Shell, Galp and Edison at much lower prices.

Venture Global did not declare the formal start of commercial operations until more than three years later in April 2025, however, enabling it to continue selling the LNG itself at higher spot prices in the market in the meantime.

Like those wind farms that haven’t picked up their CfD contracts given that market prices were higher than strike.

Tsk.

BP is seeking more than $1 billion in damages after a surprise arbitration victory against an American liquefied natural gas producer it accused of breaking supply contracts to cash in on high prices during the gas crisis.

Har har har.

That purchase of that company?

Aston Martin has blamed Donald Trump’s tariffs for a profit warning, as the carmaker urged the UK government to offer more “proactive support”.

This is what, 6th profit warning? 7th?

Jaguar Land Rover has been handed a £1.5 billion taxpayer-backed rescue to tide the business and its suppliers over until Christmas after a cyberattack halted production.

The actual mechanism:

Under Kyle’s scheme, his first big intervention since being appointed business secretary earlier this month, an export development guarantee will be provided by the government credit agency, UK Export Finance.

Very export finance, isn’t it. But then fools thrashing around will hold on to anything. Government always does have mission creep.

Jaguar Land Rover was ‘not insured’ for disastrous cyberattack
Hundreds of suppliers have begun laying off workers with more expected to follow as the carmaker’s payment systems are down

So, owned by Tata, the cpomputing done by Tata consulting? And so insurance is inhouse – why would we pay an outsider a premium?

Worked well, eh?

How we fell out of love with having the newest phone
The excitement around new iPhone releases has vanished and more people are opting for a second-hand or refurbished model

It goes through a ramp up phase, as people work out what can be done with it. New bells and whisltes keep appearing. Then, well, that’s that really. It’s developed. From now on it might become a bit more efficient each iteration, still be a Veblen Good, people will need new ones but not necessarily new versions. Second hand becomes wholly viable, last year’s model or three years back doesn’t do much different.

Cars, ‘planes, desktops, ‘phones, ovens, saucepans….happens to ’em all.

Amonth into his new job at the world’s largest renewable energy park in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch, Anawar Alam was planning his escape. Hired along with 17 others who had travelled with him to work on the construction of a solar project, Alam had hoped that the promised pay and perks would support his family back home on the farm in Bihar. But within two weeks he was having second thoughts.

“Nothing really prepared us for where we would be working or the fact that it was so far from the nearest village. The work was strenuous, the shifts were 12 hours, and we were living in makeshift tents,” says Alam.

“It was incredibly hot, and the contractor kept yelling at us for not working longer or harder, threatening us by saying that he would kill us and no one would even know we had disappeared. But the bigger problem was that he was not paying us on time or in full.”

You mean people treat migrant workers badly on a building site? And no whites, Europens or Arabs in sight either. This is all purely internal to India.

How can this be without any of the paler and therefore evil people?

The targets will be more demanding. Outcomes will be closely monitored. And coaching will be available to anyone who needs it, though the bottom 5pc of performers may be shipped out. It won’t quite be The Wolf of Wall Street transplanted to your local branch in Eastbourne or Solihull, but the Lloyds boss Charlie Nunn has resolved to bring some of the ruthless drive of the hedge funds and investment bankers to the staid world of high street banking.

The shite getting fired is ruthless, eh? Seems a little delicate. But then that’s about how employment law see,s to work these days. Sadly, also the attitude al all too many employees. What? Work?

Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother is scrambling to stave off bankruptcy over debts owed to a collapsed “Ponzi scheme”.

Kevin Maxwell has launched a last-ditch legal claim to prevent administrators of Fortress Capital Partners chasing him for almost £600,000.

Yeah, yeah, OK. But the lovely thing here?

Fortress promised investors returns of 18pc and attracted money from footballers and celebrities. The fund collapsed two years ago and administrators have since described it as having “all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme”.

Filings show that Mr Maxwell borrowed money from Fortress and owed £2.4m at the time of its collapse.

Mr Maxwell agreed to repay £1.25m over two years after administrators took control of the company. However, he has been accused of breaching the terms of this agreement by making only “sporadic” payments.

He was borrowing money from the spivs. I guess you have to move in the right circles to gain access to that sort of deal, right?

A jewellery boss who allegedly scammed investors out of £170m reportedly had his staff pose as customers to make his shops look busy to keep up the ruse.
In what could be the UK’s biggest diamond scam, Vashi Dominguez is also alleged to have had shop workers sit at work benches and pretend to be goldsmithing when business was faltering.
Investors claim that when the facade was exposed, they still hoped they could be bailed out by the £157m worth of diamonds they were told were held in stock.
However, the remaining gemstones were valued at just £100,000, a BBC Panorama investigation claims.
So far Mr Dominguez – described as the “Pied Piper” of the industry – is not being investigated by police.

A nightmare of ever expanding box-ticking that you can never escape alive!

Companies could be prosecuted and face unlimited fines if they fail to prevent fraud that their firm profits from under a corporate offence coming into force on Monday.

Under the new “failure to prevent fraud” law, large companies can be held criminally liable where an “employee, agent, subsidiary or other ‘associated person’” commits a fraud intending to benefit the organisation.

Examples could include dishonest sales practices, hiding important information from consumers or investors, or dishonest practices in financial markets. If a company is prosecuted it will have to prove to the court that it had reasonable anti-fraud measures in place.

The law will apply to large organisations that meet at least two of three criteria: having more than 250 employees, £36m turnover or £18m in total assets.

Every large business will now be eaten alive, from the inside, by the anti-fraud bureaucracy.

Well done everyone, well done.

It comes amid a wider strain on its balance sheet. In the accounts, Boohoo revealed its net assets collapsed to just £3.9m from £280m a year earlier.

Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, said it showed Boohoo had become “very constrained”. Last week, the company announced a £175m borrowing facility carrying an interest rate of 7.3pc above the Bank of England base rate.

That interest rate hurts…..over 11%, no?

Intel shares rise after US government takes 10% stake
The deal with the chipmaker comes after a meeting between President Trump and Lip-Bu Tan

Shit idea.

This is a cracking house in Portugal. 30 mins from the airport and all. Well within pharma industry budgets etc.

One problem. The main road runs right past the front door. Steep hill, buses, lorries, gear changes etc.

So, perhaps not then, eh?

Culture? Measuring a company’s culture?

A FTSE 250 property giant has hired lawyers to investigate claims about its company culture made by a whistleblower, The Telegraph can reveal.

Bosses at Great Portland Estates told staff late last week that a law firm had been called in to conduct an investigation into its culture after concerns were raised by a former employee of the West End-based property giant.

On Friday, executives held an all-company call to inform employees of the investigation amid concerns that the whistleblower was about to go public.

Concerns?

Sure, sure, if people are doing illegal things then stop them doing so. But “concerns” about “company culture” sounds like one of those things that can never be refuted. As with that leftie claim of something being “problematic”. So, you got a problem with it do you? Ho well, no thing will please everyone, right? Which isn’t what they expect the answer to be at all.

Her main salary – £18,000 – comes from being a full-time manager at an RSPCA charity shop in her home town of Rugby.

It’s a job that she loves – so much so she spends another day each week working at a different charity shop, Air Ambulance. This earns her £350 a month.

But what makes Ms Coombs stand out is the thousands she has earned from her side hustles.

She has made nearly £10,000 pre-tax in the past 18 months selling clothes on Vinted, Depop and eBay.

Clever.

Her side hustle started as an attempt to clear out unwanted clothes, but she soon realised that she had an eye for selling. Now, she buys from wholesales in bulk to sell on at a profit.

Mebbe. Mebbe not.

She sees the incoming at two charity ships, is able to select that which is posho and could be sold as such rather than going on the charity shop racks.

Now, of course, she could be doing what she says she’s doing. But I’d be doing what I’ve said. The difficulty with selling second hand posh clothes is gaining access to the stream of second hand posho to sell. Being in the sorting process for a charity shop or two is……

She wants to start saving more of her money for setting up a shop,

No, the correct business plan is to become a consultant to all the charity shops in town. Sort all the donations, take out what can be sold posho, split the uplift with the shops themselves.

Demand for concrete has fallen to its lowest level since 1963 in a serious blow to Labour’s hopes of building more houses.

Sales of ready-mixed concrete fell by 11.5pc in the three months to June against the previous three months, according to data from the Mineral Products Association (MPA), which represents producers.

Always be wary of these numbers plucked and pushed. On the other hand the economy is what people actually do, not what anyone thinks they should or are. So quite how much weight to put on this one number is, well, but interesting all hte same….

A finance worker sued for discrimination after he was “disappointed” to receive a £10,000 bonus in a year where he worked only 18 days.

Matthew Colliander-Smith had long Covid and was only able to work for 8 per cent of his usual hours in 2022, an employment tribunal heard.

After he received around £185,000 as an annual bonus the previous year, Mr Colliander-Smith, who was a partner at Veritas Asset Management, was “shocked” to receive a much smaller award following his time off sick.

He suggested he deserved an award closer to £100,000 because his illness made it much harder to do any work, and therefore his effort rather than output should be rewarded.

Veritas eventually agreed to increase that to £40,000 despite Mr Colliander-Smith having been unable to perform the vast majority of his duties.

After a dispute about returning to work which resulted in him having his partnership terminated, he then sued the finance firm for disability discrimination.

Good salesman tho’ getting that bonus upgraded. Gotta give ‘im that.