The Times 20 November 2017
Supermarkets have been criticised for using a responsible-fishing scheme that allegedly certified boats with crews on very low wages who lived on vessels that were unfit for habitation all year round. Seafish, a quango which aims to raise standards in the seafood industry, claims that its Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) certifies “high standards of crew welfare”.
The Times 15 November 2017
Migrant workers on Scottish fishing boats are doing dangerously long hours in unsafe working conditions, according to a seafarers’ charity. Scottish fishing vessels are routinely using workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) as cheap labour due to a legal loophole that leaves them vulnerable to exploitation, the charity says.
The Times 25 September 2017
When is a craft beer not a craft beer? It is a question troubling some drinkers after large multinational drinks companies started to buy up their favourite craft breweries. Carlsberg’s acquisition of London Fields brewery, for example, followed AB Inbev scooping up Camden Town and a series of other acquisitions that have left the remaining independent brewers cautious about their future.
The Times 4 September 2017
Carrie Weekes owns a top hat but, in the three years she has been an undertaker, hasn’t been asked to wear it. She has, however, arranged one ceremony for a young man on a football pitch.
The Times 7 August 2017
Working for a family-owned business can be infuriating, particularly if the boss installs his woefully unprepared son as managing director. When that happened to Edmund Potter in the late 1960s, he decided to set up on his own and do things differently. In 1971, he launched Delta-T Devices, a maker of scientific instruments, which became a co-operative when it was large enough to qualify in 1980.
The Times 6 June 2017
It was called a $143 billion flop, but Kraft Heinz’s failed attempt to buy Unilever was a classic tale of the pressures that modern companies face. Unilever under Paul Polman has become the model of a “good” company: only two years into the job as chief executive, he launched a sustainable living plan, an attempt to halve Unilever’s environmental impact. His efforts have been applauded by NGOs and activist groups, but the question was always whether investors would give him the time to prove that responsible capitalism made good business sense.
The Times 23 May 2017
Why are British workers less productive? It is a question that keeps economists awake at night. The financial crisis hit productivity around the world. France and Germany have recovered well but workers in Britain take an average of five days to produce what their peers in France, Germany and the US do in four. This matters.
The Times 10 October 2016
If you search for an energy deal on a price comparison website, the chances are several unfamiliar names will crop up. Long-dominated by British Gas, E.ON, EDF, SSE, ScottishPower and Npower, there has been a flood of entrants to the market, with 14 new suppliers in the past year. Down from 99 per cent in 2012, the so-called Big Six still have an 85 per cent share of the market, but they are haemorrhaging customers at a rate of 120,000 a month.
The Times 2 September 2015
Minecraft, loom bands and YouTube stars were the three big topics in British children’s publishing last year — enough, you might think, to make Beatrix Potter turn in her grave.
The Times 25 August 2015
From Joy Division to the Happy Mondays by way of the Haçienda, Manchester is known for its groundbreaking bands and the hedonistic nightlife they spawned. Now the city is hoping to lift its cultural offer to a higher plane with The Factory, a new arts centre that will host events from traditional theatre to whizz-bang immersive experiences, such as the 3D virtual reality planetarium slated for Manchester’s International Festival in 2017.
by