Skip to main content

Labour’s pro-business lullaby sends movers and shakers into a blissful sleep | John Crace

Toxic Tories have run themselves out as Starmer brings out the big hitters for a day at the Oval

It was the hottest gig in town. Within hours of the event being announced all the £1,000 a head tickets had gone. Thank God for those uncapped bonuses. Anyone who was anyone in the business world was here. Executives from Goldman Sachs, Google, Mastercard, HSBC and countless more besides. Not because they especially wanted to be there. More because they were desperate to not miss out on being there. There were FTSE 100 bosses in tears not to have made the cut.

This was an event like no other. Twenty-first century Britain at its most postmodern. Its most meta. For the importance lay not in what anyone might say, but in that it was happening at all. No one had come to hear anything of real interest. Or to be informed or entertained. That was very much not the point. Rather it was a celebration of a marriage. One that had started as an arrangement but had developed into love. And mutual trust. A day to luxuriate in one another. A wellness spa for the soul. And not a little self-congratulation.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/of0EYGs

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

England booed off after failing against Iceland once more in Euros warm-up

It was a long way from being the triumphant Euro 2024 send-off for Gareth Southgate and his England players at a sold-out and increasingly fretful Wembley. Never mind the result because it was not the main thing, however much it stirred memories of you-know-when against Iceland. It was the performance that raised the difficult questions, the worst one for quite some time and at exactly the wrong time. The home fans, thousands of whom made for the exits before the end, were forced to watch the second half – from about minute 55 onwards – through the gaps between their fingers. And it had not been great before that. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/4ndfQL0

Manchester City in title driving seat after cruising to win at Leeds

The title stare-off becomes steelier with each week. Elland Road was at its raucous best and a highly motivated Leeds played well enough to ensure Manchester City rarely neared full stride. Nevertheless the leaders mastered the situation, showing they can win via set pieces when means of higher aesthetic merit elude them. Rodri and Nathan Aké proved the point with goals in each half, garnished later by Gabriel Jesus’ sixth in three matches and a Fernandinho daisycutter, and Pep Guardiola’s delight at the outcome was obvious. This had been a possible banana skin, with the potential leveller of such a highly charged atmosphere; instead City cruise on and Leeds, who are in genuine danger of going down, must seek more viable routes to safety. This encounter had an edge from the outset. It needed to, because the heat had been turned up on both teams. City would have expected Liverpool to achieve what was necessary at Newcastle; Leeds might not have banked on Burnley’s turnaround at Watford...

Bins ‘overflowing’ in parts of England as Covid hits collections

Staff sickness in areas including London, Gloucestershire and Somerset leads to waste services being scaled back Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Bins across parts of England are reportedly “overflowing” with rubbish from the festive period due to Covid-related staff shortages. London, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Buckinghamshire are among the areas where councillors have warned that bin collections are being scaled back because of staff sickness. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qIHK0C