Words Dept.: category

Crain’s this week has a nice story about “council and quango chiefs” spending “hundreds of thousands of pounds” of public money travelling by first class train. The editor’s comment bemoans the first-class gravy train and free gin and tonic for fat cats. It’s a nice story that’s bound to cause a justified outbreak of tutting among the Manchester accountants [...]

I can’t help but find the whole situation with Man City and Kaka deeply amusing, especially following today’s foot-stamping session from City chief executive Garry Cook. As a Liverpool fan, I’ve never had any particular grudge against City. In fact, the air of genial nuttiness that seems to surround the club and its fans is [...]

It’s now more than seven months since Channel 4 pulled The Devil Wears Primark, an Alexa Chung-fronted documentary (no, really) which was supposed to have examined Primark’s use of sweat shops. The C4 website says: The advertised transmission of The Devil Wears Primark on Sunday 1 June 2008 was postponed. We plan to show the [...]

It’s a month to go until the result of the referendum on the Transport Innovation Fund and peak-time congestion charging in Greater Manchester – and the debate is moderately warm! Stockport council, led by Liberal Democrat Dave Goddard, is opposed to the TIF bid and has been a target of particular attention from the Yes [...]

I felt disappointed this morning when I woke up and heard a panel of enthusiasts spouting off about the best way to cook roast potatoes and no mention of the imminent collapse of the global financial markets. I’ve become accustomed to talk of plunging share prices, billion-dollar bail-outs and Chancellor’s statements of a weekday morning. As such, the subsequent focus upon Powys [...]

Michael Howard, the former Conservative leader now making a living as a Count Dracula impersonator, has waded into the Peston debate, demanding an investigation into how the BBC’s business editor found out about banks requesting a financial bail-out from the government. I sense some political momentum gathering behind this, having seen Michael Portillo honking on [...]

I may have created the impression the other day that I think Robert Peston is a tosser. This wasn’t my intention at all because, notwithstanding his numerous presentational faux pas, I actually deeply admire his ability to get up the noses of the Daily Mail (“Does this man have too much power?”), various bloggers and, [...]

God love BBC business editor Robert Peston, whose broad range of bizarre vocal ticks brings a light touch to news of even the most dire financial crisis. His willingness to experiment with the boundaries of word and syllable emphasis within a given sentence never ceases to amuse. You sit there waiting for it to die [...]

Yet another Manchester-based business news website/e-mail service has spasmed into life this month, prompting the question: Is there really enough business news to go round? I’ve been a business journalist in Manchester for four years this month, covering the North West for a national magazine. During that time, the North West Enquirer came, ran out [...]

The proposed Manchester congestion charge and the £3bn Transport Innovation Fund that the city is bidding for has created a turf war between two rival business lobbying groups in which few people - other than the odd business hack - seem to be interested. For those who may have missed it, one group, called United City (geddit?), is in favour of the TIF funding [...]