Monday 5 December

LOST DECADE WORRY FOR UK ECONOMY

JACK BARNETT

THE UK risks another “lost decade of growth” unless the government takes action to strengthen companies’ confidence in the economy, the country’s top business group warned overnight.

Rishi Sunak must create an environment that incentivises business investment to avoid prolonging the UK’s growth malaise since the financial crisis, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

The alert has been sparked by the organisation’s latest set of economic forecasts revealing the UK is already in a recession that will last until the end of next year.

That long slump has shaved 1.4 percentage points off the CBI’s GDP projections and the group now thinks the economy will contract 0.4 per cent in 2023.

Creating a permanent successor to the 130 per cent investment relief scheme would lift growth out of the gutter

and help the economy bat away future supply shocks, the CBI said.

Separate figures from consultancy BDO last night show businesses agree with the CBI’s assessment. Nearly half of British firms are concerned about being unable to source materials due to supply chains breaking down.

Ramping up investment incentives could help businesses expand capital stock, limiting their exposure to international trade disruption. Stimulating investment improves an economy’s long-term health by increasing the amount of goods and services it

“Britain is in stagflation – with rocketing inflation, negative growth, falling productivity and business investment,” Tony Danker (left), director general of the lobby group, said.

Firms see potential growth opportunities but a lack of “reasons to believe” in the face

of headwinds is causing them to pause investing in 2023, he said. “Government can change this,” he added.

Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt last month heaped pressure on firms’ balance sheets by launching a near £6bn national insurance tax grab. They also confirmed the super deduction investment allowance will end next spring.

Under current fiscal policy, the CBI reckons business investment is on track to be nine per cent lower compared to its pre-Covid-19 crisis trend.

Unless Sunak and Hunt return to the dispatch box with policies to trigger an investment boom to reverse years of chronically poor productivity improvements, the UK economy will by the end of the CBI’s forecast period be 27 per cent smaller compared to its pre-financial crisis trend.

A Treasury spokesperson told City A.M.: “We have been honest that there are tough times ahead for the UK economy in the face of strong global headwinds, and we are not alone in that challenge.”

ENGLAND

In

end of a

Jude

Bukayo Saka made it three early on in the second half with a chip over Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.

The victory hands Gareth Southgate’s England a difficult last eight tie with current holders Les Bleus next weekend.

Currys gets spicy as chief exec hits out at ‘free ride’ Amazon over taxation

JACK BARNETT

AMAZON is enjoying a “free ride” paid for by UK retailers by using the country’s infrastructure while swerving taxes, the head of high street electronics retailer Currys said yesterday.

Currys boss Alex Baldock told the

BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show Amazon “appear[s] to play by different rules than those of us who actually pay some tax”.

The online retail giant has been accused of reducing its UK tax bills by sticking to a primarily digital footprint. It does pay tax on distribution warehouses.

Bricks-and-mortar retailers are more exposed to the UK tax system than digital players. Business rates are a tax on physical commercial spaces. Amazon’s warehouses are predominantly based in lower-value, out of town areas.

High street retailers have called on the government to tax online

marketplaces’ sales to help level the playing field, but plans for an online sales tax have been ditched.

Amazon said they were among the top 15 largest private sector taxpayers in the UK.

Baldock also confirmed reports that Currys has ditched Royal Mail for deliveries “for now” to avoid

strike-related disruption.

“Obviously our first responsibility is to the four in five UK households who want to get hold of their technology,” he said.

A Royal Mail spokesperson told City A.M. “industrial action [is] undermin[ing] the trust of our customers”.

MATT HARDY

will play defending champions France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday after a clinical Three Lions side overcame a stubborn Senegal outfit 3-0 last night at the Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar.

a nervy match against the current champions of Africa, England netted twice in the opening half before adding a third in the second period.

Jordan Henderson scored the opener against the run of play when the Liverpool midfielder got on the

superb

Bellingham ball before Harry Kane grabbed his first goal of the tournament. It came after a storming Bellingham run allowed Phil Foden to find the Tottenham frontman in space.

STANDING UP FOR THE CITY

Relying on public spirit isn’t enough –we must reward our MPs

IT PERHAPS says something about being an MP that Matt Hancock would rather spend three weeks eating various lessthan-pleasant parts of exotic Aussie animals than hang around in Westminster. He also felt that he could bring more light to his personal cause –screening for dyslexia in schools –by going on the telly than he could from the backbenches. Hancock, as far as we know, is going to stick around in SW1 for a little longer, but

THE CITY VIEW

many of his colleagues are ready to leave. This weekend we saw Sajid Javid announce he was stepping down at the next election, the most high profile of a sea of Conservative MPs who have had enough of the green benches. It should concern

Britain that its politicians no longer feel their public service can best be achieved in Parliament. Our MPs get a bad reputation, much of it a hangover from the excesses of the expenses scandal. Mostly that’s unfair –the vast majority are in it for the right reasons. The more interesting question is whether the current system is set up to get the right people. Perhaps it’s worth a thought experiment: would you pack in a secure job,

submit yourself to the vagaries of the electorate, attend countless Friday evening functions, be forced to defend your party’s most outlandish policies and dysfunctional individuals, for £85,000 a year? The answer for many in the City would be no, even before you include the inevitable and occasionally overthe-top scrutiny of the media; individuals like Javid, giving up careers in global finance to enter politics, will become rarer by the

year. It’s perhaps unpopular to say it but the fact is we need to be delivering a more attractive package if the next generation of MPs are going to be the leading lights of our generation. Relying on ‘public spirit’ is one thing, but the current set-up would put off all but the most ideological.

Westminster is in desperate need of the country’s brightest minds, and at the moment there remains all too little to attract the smartest problem solvers.

Christmas rail strikes set to go ahead as RMT rejects eight per cent pay offer

RAIL union the RMT last night rejected an eight per cent pay rise offer aimed at heading off strikes set to grip the country next week.

“We have rejected this offer as it does not meet any of our criteria for securing a settlement on long term job security, a decent pay rise and protecting working conditions,” RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said in a statement.

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which has been negotiating on behalf of the rail operators, yesterday urged the

union to take “the opportunity to call off planned industrial action and put this offer to its membership”.

The offer included a pay rise of eight per cent over the next two years with a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies until 2024.

A RDG spokesperson said it was a “fair and affordable offer in challenging times, providing a significant uplift in salary for staff”.

The offer also included reforms that train companies would need to implement in order to put the rail sector on a “sustainable long-term footing” with-

out the need for further rail strikes.

Revenues on the rail network are down post-pandemic as the number of passengers has yet to rebound to 100 per cent of 2019 levels.

Taxpayers contributed almost £2,000 each to subsidise the rail network during the pandemic to avoid job losses.

Hospitality firms in particular have been worried about the impact of strikes in the run-up to Christmas, with industrial action planned for 13-14 and 16-17 December set to cause havoc in what is traditionally a period of heavy foot traffic.

BUS BOSSES CALL FOR MORE CONGESTION CHARGE ZONES

Congestion charge zones urgently need to be widely implemented to meet climate change goals, ministers have been told. A £7 daily charge, imposed on motorists across parts of the country, is being proposed by bus operators.

FINANCIAL TIMES

LITHIUM

2023

PRODUCTION IN BRAZIL TO START IN

A Canadian company building a lithium mine in Brazil will begin commercial production of high-quality material for electric vehicle batteries next year, amid a supply shortage that has sent prices for the metal rocketing.

THE GUARDIAN SKY NEWS BOSS SET TO STEP DOWN AS CHANNEL LOOKS TO POST-TV FUTURE

Head of Sky News John Ryley is set to quit after 16 years in the job, as the news outlet faces up to long-term challenges in adapting to a posttelevision future.

CITY A.M. REPORTER

WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

HAVE YOUR ELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS The Bromley by Bow Centre donned its gladrags yesterday for its annual social care Christmas party supported by Investec

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

The

FTX collapse shows need for VC ‘correction’

CHARLIE CONCHIE

THE COLLAPSE of FTX has underscored a “distortion” in the venture capital market and the need for a correction across the industry, the boss of a global investment body has said.

Cate Ambrose, chief of the Global Private Capital Association, said the implosion of FTX, which at its peak boasted a $32bn (£26bn) valuation as a result of splashy bets by investors like Sequoia Capital and Softbank, had highlighted a lack of discipline among VC firms.

“When you look at what happened with FTX it is really breathtaking,” she told City A.M. in an interview.

“But I think that’s where I see the scale of the money available does create distortion, and when there’s zero per cent interest rates or an opportunity to resell, of course that distorts markets.”

She added that there was now a “necessary correction” in the industry as cheap cash dries up and “accountability” returns.

“When there’s so much money out there and so much speculation… irresponsible things get done,” she said.

A host of big name investors were forced to publicly write down their stakes in Sam Bankman-Fried’s firm just before it collapsed into bankruptcy on 11 November.

Storied VC investor Sequoia Capital wrote to its investors on 10 November saying it would write down its roughly $210m investment into the firm down to zero. Softbank and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan were forced to make similar announcements to their investors.

John Ray III, the new boss brought in to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings of FTX, has described the firm as suffering from an “unprecedented and complete failure of corporate

Questions have since been swirling in the industry over how FTX was able to part prolific investors from their cash. The former COO of Softbank admitted that he had succumbed to “fear of missing out” and had a lack of understanding of FTX.

Bankman-Fried admits to earlier meetings on Alameda finances

CHARLIE CONCHIE

SAM BANKMAN-FRIED has admitted he had more knowledge of the financial health of FTX’s sister trading Alameda Research than previously suggested, as the extent of the ties between the two collapsed firms emerges.

Bankman-Fried, who founded both the collapsed firms, said in

an interview with the Financial Times that he deliberately distanced himself from the trading and risk management processes of Alameda firm to avoid a conflict of interest.

However, the 30 year-old added that he was actually present in conversations earlier this year in which bosses discussed the extent of Alameda’s borrowing.

“I do remember that there were

some discussions around Alameda’s positions. I don’t remember numbers from those. I don’t remember numbers being said, I’m not sure they weren’t. I think Alameda did some recounting then, or some checking in on the health of its position,” he told the paper. He added that his sense of the meeting was something like “people taking stock post-crash”.

Whistleblower reports surge in 2022 following pandemic lull

LOUIS GOSS

WHISTLEBLOWER reports to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fell sharply during Covid-19, before starting to rise again as workers returned to offices in 2022, data obtained by fintech firm Funanga shows.

The FCA saw whistleblower reports begin to fall immediately following the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to depths 13 per cent below pre-Covid levels in 2021.

However, whistleblower reports filed to the FCA have begun to recover over the past year as workers have come back into offices, with a 54 per cent surge in anonymous reports in 2022.

The figures follow the launch of the FCA’s “In confidence, with confidence” campaign to encourage whistleblowing in the UK’s financial services sector.

An FCA spokesperson said: “Whistleblowing reports are a vital source of information for us, helping us to do our job.”

Ambrose said the collapse of FTX had been “breathtaking”

PWC IS seeking to bolster its top ranks by taking advantage of EY’s global split and poaching partners from its Big Four rivals. The hiring spree could see PwC take on up to 500 new partners over the next 18 months, according to reports in the Financial Times.

BIG FOUR HIRING WAR PwC hoping to capitalise on EY’s split by poaching partners

Gender pay gap ‘widest for women in their 50s’, reveals new research

ALAN JONES

THE GENDER pay gap remains at its widest for Britain’s oldest workers, new research suggests.

Rest Less, which offers advice to the over 50s, said there was a 24 per cent difference between the median gross annual pay of full-time working men and women aged in their 50s, rising to a gap of 26 per

cent for those over the age of 60.

Rest Less analysed pay data from the Office of National Statistics and found that in 2022, the biggest difference in full-time pay was between men and women in their 50s.

Women aged 50-59 earned an average salary of £30,603 which was £7,274 less than men in the same age group who earned an average salary of £37,877.

Rest Less compared 2022 data with the previous 10 years and found that while the national gender pay gap across all age groups has narrowed from 24 per cent in 2012 to 19 per cent in 2022 – it remains at its highest for those in their 50s and 60s.

Rest Less chief executive Stuart Lewis said the gap risked “devastating consequences” for women’s retirement provisions.

Zahawi ready to call in army over Christmas strikes

STEFAN BOSCIA

THE ARMY could be brought in to help with expected strike disruption over the Christmas period, Tory party chair Nadhim Zahawi has said.

Zahawi said that members of the army may have to start “driving ambulances” and work on the borders as NHS staff and Border Force officers prepare to start industrial action.

Many key sector workers – including in transport, health and freight – have voted for strike action over the December period as unions hold out for inflation-linked pay rises.

Members of the Royal College of Nurses will walk off the job for two days in December as they ask for a 17 per cent pay rise, while fresh rail strikes are set to also disrupt Christmas travel schedules.

Zahawi told Sky News that the government could bring in the army to break some of the strikes.

“We’ve got to try and

minimise disruption,” he said.

“We’re looking at the military, we’re looking at a specialist response force… surge capacity.”

The government is trying to convince striking workers to step back from the brink and continue negotiating with their employers.

Union bosses are arguing that their members cannot accept real-terms wage cuts – inflation is running at 10 per cent – after years of stagnant wage growth.

Zahawi warned of union pay claims turning into a 1970s-style wage-price spiral.

“If you chase inflation or above inflation, in some cases, pay, then you will embed inflation for longer and hurt the most vulnerable,”

“In fact, our message to the unions is to say, you know, this is not a time to strike.

“This is time to try and negotiate. In the absence of that, it’s important for the government. It’s the right and responsible thing to do, to have contingency plans in place.”

Diamond set for swoop on Credit Suisse investment banking arm

CHARLIE CONCHIE

FORMER chief of Barclays Bob Diamond is plotting a bid for part of the investment banking arm of beleaguered lender Credit Suisse, according to reports.

Diamond is eyeing an investment into the division via his firm Atlas Merchant Capital, according to Global Capital, as Credit Suisse prepares to spin out the arm as part of emergency turnaround efforts.

The bank is set to retain the majority stake in CS First Boston but is looking to raise external cash from investors.

“We will attract — and we have offers on the table — third-party capital into that franchise,” Credit Suisse chair Axel Lehmann said last week at the Financial Times.

Credit Suisse declined to comment on the news. City A.M. understands that there are no direct talks taking place between the two parties. Atlas did not respond to a comment request.

Diamond is said to be eyeing up an investment via his firm Atlas Merchant Capital

PA

Zahawi said it was not the time for strikes

Pubs and bars on track for 20 per cent loss on swelling energy costs

BARNETT

SWELLING energy bills have put UK pubs and brewers on course for an average 20 per cent loss following the end of government support after March, the sector’s representative group has warned today.

A report produced by consultancy Frontier Economics for the British Beer and Pub Association has laid bare the scale of damage elevated energy costs are inflicting on the UK’s drinking holes.

“Pubs and breweries will face major financial losses, make no profit and many will be forced to shut up shop if the energy bill relief scheme is not extended,” the report found.

At the moment, the government is partially footing businesses’ energy bills after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine jolted international gas and oil markets.

However, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt at last month’s Autumn Statement did not confirm if the subsidies

Tory MPs confirm who is standing at 2024 election

STEFAN BOSCIA

TODAY IS the deadline for Tory MPs to confirm if they will stand at the next election, with more expected to announce their exit from frontline politics over the next week.

A growing number of Conservative MPs have announced their intention to step down at the next election, which is expected by the end of 2024.

This has included Tory big beast Sajid Javid, as well as rising stars Dehenna Davison, William Wragg and Chloe Smith.

Thirteen Conservative MPs in total have announced they will not stand again, with rumours swirling in SW1 about who else will not nominate themselves for the next election by today’s deadline.

It comes after months of consistently poor polling, Labour leads the Conservatives by 20+ points in every poll, and after a traumatic few months for the party following the disastrous mini-budget.

The party has churned through two prime ministers and experienced 12

months of near constant psychodrama at Westminster.

There is also an expectation among many Tory MPs in marginal constituencies, especially those in the northern so-called Red Wall, that they are likely to lose their seats at the next election.

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove bucked the trend this weekend and told Times Radio that he intends to stand once again in his Surrey Heath constituency.

“I’m addicted to public service,” he said.

Boris Johnson has also told his local Tory party association that he will nominate himself again in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, according to the Telegraph.

However, there have been rumours that some of his former cabinet ministers who are now on the backbench may call time on their political careers. This includes MPs like Nadine Dorries, Matt Hancock and Geoffrey Cox.

Javid is to step down before 2024

German ambassador to the UK optimistic on NI protocol deal

STEFAN BOSCIA

ONE OF Germany’s top diplomats is “cautiously optimistic” about the prospect of a UK-EU deal on the postBrexit Northern Ireland Protocol, after a thawing in relations.

Miguel Berger, Germany’s ambassador to Britain, said there is now an “openness to engage” from Downing Street and that UK-EU relations had improved since Boris Johnson was ousted.

Both sides agree that checks on goods going from Great Britain to

Backlog soars as HMRC cracks down on fraudulent umbrella companies

LOUIS GOSS

THE BACKLOG of cases waiting to be heard in the UK’s tax tribunal has surged following an HMRC crackdown on “umbrella companies”.

The number of cases waiting to be heard has increased 84 per cent over the past year to heights of 46,000, government figures show.

The uptick follows HMRC’s warning that some umbrella companies are avoiding tax by disguising payments to workers as non-taxable loans, grants and annuities.

Umbrella companies act as intermediaries between temporary contractors and employers in processing workers’ pay and

providing payroll, tax and other backoffice services.

A third (34 per cent) of freelancers are employed through umbrella companies, according to Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed figures.

“Umbrella companies are firmly in the crosshair,” Steven Porter, a partner at Pinsent Masons warned.

Northern Ireland need to be reduced in the face of economic and political disruption.

Talks have been at a stalemate for more than one year, however the mood music from both camps is becoming increasingly positive.

Berger said there was a “landing zone for the Northern Ireland protocol’s implementation”.

Northern Ireland still follows the EU’s customs union and single market rules, unlike the rest of the UK, meaning there needs to be checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea.

would continue after March.

“This report demonstrates the unique position our sector finds itself in, vulnerable to cost inflation across the entirety of its supply chain and acutely conscious of declining consumer confidence and wanting to avoid increasing prices for struggling customers,” Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said.

Pubs, bars and breweries are energy intensive firms, meaning they are highly exposed to high gas prices.

Starmer backs down on plan to abolish Lords

STEFAN BOSCIA

SIR KEIR Starmer has appeared to back down on his plan to abolish the Lords as the Labour party today announces a new devolution plan. Starmer hinted to The Sunday Times that the recently leaked plan to abolish the House of Lords in the first term of a Labour government will be delayed.

Labour shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson yesterday told Times Radio “we are committed to delivering an elected second chamber”, however she would not commit on the timeline.

It comes as Starmer will today release Gordon Brown’s constitutional review for Labour, which was branded as “the biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people” by the party leader.

It is set to include recommendations to scrap the Lords, ban most second jobs for MPs and to hand over more transport power to the regions. There will also be a “regionally-oriented investment bank”, more devolved housing powers and more local government power over R&D spending.

“During the Brexit referendum I argued for remain, but I couldn’t disagree with the basic case that many leave voters made to me,” Starmer will say today. “They wanted democratic control over their lives”.

Miguel Berger said UK-EU relations had improved since Boris Johnson left office

The number of cases waiting to be heard in the tax tribunal has soared

JACK

Government energy bill support for businesses is set to end next spring

No change on way for OPEC+ oil production

MAHA EL DAHAN

OIL PRODUCING nations agreed to stick to oil output targets at a meeting yesterday as the oil markets struggle to assess the impact of a slowing Chinese economy on demand and a G7 price cap on Russian oil on supply.

The decision comes two days after the Group of Seven (G7) nations agreed a price cap on Russian oil.

OPEC+, which comprises the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, angered the United States and other Western nations in October when it agreed to cut output by two million barrels per day, about two per cent of world demand, from November until the end of 2023.

Washington accused the group and one of its leaders, Saudi Arabia, of siding with Russia despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

OPEC+ argued it had cut output because of a weaker economic outlook.

Oil prices have declined since October due to slower Chinese and global growth and higher interest rates, prompting market speculation the group could cut output again. O/R But yesterday the group of oil producers decided to keep the policy unchanged. Its key ministers will next meet on 1 February for a monitoring committee while a full meeting is scheduled for 3-4 June.

On Friday, G7 nations and Australia agreed on a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil in a move to deprive President Vladimir Putin of revenue while keeping Russian oil flowing to global markets.

Moscow said it would not sell its oil under the cap and was analysing how to respond.

Many analysts and OPEC ministers have said the price cap is confusing and probably inefficient as Moscow has been selling most of its oil to countries like China and India, which have refused to condemn the war.

Art dealer’s sale of aristocrat’s French painting wasn’t negligent, court says

LOUIS GOSS

AN ART dealer who advised a British aristocrat to sell an 18th century French masterpiece for a fraction of its actual worth did not act negligently, a court has ruled.

The court ruled in favour of Simon Dickinson after Countess Amanda Fielding sued the art dealer over claims he acted negligently in

advising her to sell Chardin’s Le Bénédicité for £1.15m in July 2014 –just months before it sold for $10.5m (£8.5m) in January 2015.

Following a meeting with Dickinson in 2014, she agreed to sell Le Bénédicité to Stockholm art dealer Verner Åmell for £1.15m, as a painting by “Chardin and Studio”.

A “deep clean” of the painting uncovered Chardin’s own signature

beneath a “film of grime” the following day.

The painting was then sold to French investment banker Michel David-Weill in return for $7.5m in cash and a painting by French artist Antoine Watteau.

An investigation found Dickinson had failed to x-ray the painting, failed to show an expert and failed to market the art piece to other buyers.

The painting, Chardin’s Le Bénédicité, sold for $10.5m in 2015

BACK ON Hong Kong billionaire could revive Thames development

A PROJECT to revive the waterside opposite London City Airport could yet go ahead after a Hong Kong billionaire indicated interest in taking over the failed scheme, according to reports in the Telegraph. A Beijing firm was awarded an almost £2bn contract by thenMayor Boris Johnson to develop the Royal Albert Docks, but the project died a death two years ago. Property developer Ivan Ko has reportedly suggested he may have an interest in restarting the mothballed project.

Linklaters cashes in on Royal Navy’s

£4.2bn deal to bolster warship fleet

Glasgow-based shipbuilding subsidiary.

in Glasgow is set to support 1,700 jobs over the coming decade.

MAGIC Circle law firm Linklaters is cashing in on the Royal Navy’s push to bolster its fleet of battleships with the purchase of five new frigates from British arms manufacturer BAE.

The City law firm is advising the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) as it pushes forwards with the purchase of five new battleships from BAE Systems for £4.2bn.

The deal will see the MoD buy five new Type 25 Frigates from BAE’s

The £4.2bn deal follows the UK government’s agreement with BAE to purchase three Type 26 Frigates for £3.7bn in 2017, meaning the UK will have a total of eight of the warships.

The new ships, which include the 6,900 tonne HMS Glasgow that entered the River Clyde on Saturday, are set to replace the Navy’s current fleet of Type 23 Frigates.

The UK government’s £4.2bn contract to build the five new ships

Eyes on Frasers as post-Ashley era continues

HENRY SAKER-CLARK

SPORTS Direct owner Frasers Group will be hoping to reveal continued strong sales momentum this week despite pressure on consumer spending.

Retailers have broadly suffered a tough 2022 as surging cost inflation and cost-of-living worries for shoppers have cut into profits.

However, the Mike Ashley firm has been one of few in the sector to see its shares lift over the past year after returning to bumper profits.

Frasers, which also owns the House of Fraser and Flannels brands, revealed a pre-tax profit of £344.8m for the year to April and is targeting another increase, to between £450m and £500m for the current financial year.

The company will reveal to shareholders how it is tracking against this guidance this Thursday when it unveils trading figures for the past six months.

The retailer has linked strong sales, which jumped over 30 per cent in the previous year, to its growth strategy under Michael Murray, the son-in-law of Mike Ashley who fully took over the reins at the start of the year.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Har-

greaves Lansdown, said the firm’s elevation strategy “appears to be in full flow” after a series of new openings and deals under the new leadership.

“Now that Mike Ashley is off the board, we are looking out for any changes to strategic direction from the current CEO, Michael Murray,” he said.

“Frasers are also looking to expand their digital presence.

“As part of this push, they’ve acquired Missguided and I Saw It First, and it will be interesting to see how well the integrations are going in this week’s half year results.”

The company also continued its acquisition streak last month with a deal to buy historic Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes.

Investment into stores following the pandemic, improved online service and marketing spend has also benefitted the firm’s core set of brands.

Analysts at Numis said Sports Direct has been a driver for growth as it looks likely to deliver an acceleration in organic revenue growth.

“The core Sports Direct banner is in good health, benefitting from improving access to product, more flagship stores and an enhanced online proposition,” they added.

The contract follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement of plans to invest in “building the next generation of British warships” at the G20 summit in Bali in November.

Sunak’s pledge came after the UK government scrapped plans to lift the UK’s defence spending to sums equivalent to three per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.

Insurers are undervaluing cars, FCA says

LOUIS GOSS

THE UK’s financial watchdog has warned insurers against undervaluing policyholders’ vehicles after seeing evidence of customers being offered payouts less than their cars are worth.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had seen evidence of customers who have had their cars written off being offered less than their vehicle’s fair market price.

It warned that in some cases, insurance companies are only increasing their offers after receiving customer complaints.

The FCA’s executive director of consumers and competition Sheldon Mills said: “People shouldn’t need to question whether they are being offered the right amount for their written off car or other goods that they need to replace.”

The watchdog warned it will take action against any firms found to have broken rules, including those offering policyholders less than market value payouts.

“'Insurance firms should offer settlements at the fair market value,” Mills said. “We are watching the behaviour of firms closely and will act quickly to stop firms and prevent harm to consumers where we see it.”

The FCA’s warning comes as inflationary pressures and global semiconductor shortages have caused used car prices to surge.

Manufacturers increasingly hit by hacking and cyber crime attacks

ALAN JONES

TWO IN five manufacturers have been a victim of cyber-crime over the last 12 months according to new research.

One in five of 150 companies surveyed by manufacturers organisation Make UK reported substantial financial loss as the

result of an attack, ranging from £50,000 to £250,000.

Virtually all respondents said cyber security measures were necessary for their company, while two thirds said their importance has increased in the last year.

Stephen Phipson, chief executive of Make UK, said: “Digitisation is

revolutionising modern manufacturing and becoming increasingly important to drive competitiveness and innovation.

“While cost remains the main barrier to companies installing cyber protection, the need to increase the use of the latest technology makes mounting a defence against cyber threats essential.”

PA

Frasers have acquired I Saw It First, The Studio and Gieves and Hawkes (top to bottom)

Hackers are an increasing fact of life for most businesses

LOUIS GOSS

The Royal Navy is bolstering its battleship fleet with five new frigates

LONDONTIME

Britain’s foremost protagonist of the nation’s sputtering resurgence in watchmaking has reached an earlierthan-expected milestone. Not only has it established a facility in Bedfordshire meeting the extreme engineering challenges of crafting wristwatch components to excruciating tolerances, but within two years of cutting the ribbon on ‘The Wing’ (Bremont’s co-founding brothers Nick and Giles English being passionate aviators as well as piloting watchmakers) commercialising its own (mostly) British-

LONDONTIME

Edited by Alex Doak

TITANIUM TITANIC

The Crown’ of Swiss watchmaking, Rolex is famously described as ‘glacial’ when it comes to evolving its line in ‘tool watches’ – function-forward timekeepers that nevertheless manage to be as pan-globally symbolic of status as a Mercedes car. So, the decade it’s taken for the prototype strapped to the outside of Hollywood director James Cameron’s Mariana Trench-plumbing vessel to emerge in production form – Rolex’s first-ever titanium model in series, named after 2012’s ‘Deepsea Challenge’ submersible – feels more white-water rapids than glacial.

If you have the cash for your own submersible fit for the darkest reach of the Pacific Ocean, equidistant between Japan and Papua New Guinea, another £21,850 gets you a watch that, sure enough, is good to 11,000 metres down, in or out of your bathyscaphe (or, depending on Cameron’s persuasion, doomed ocean liner). You might need to let out your jacket cuff however, given the case’s full fifty millimetres of inhouse-forged ‘RLX’ titanium. (Still 30% lighter than Cameron’s 2012 hitchhiker, mind).

Since the very start,

waterproofness has been a keystone of Rolex’s repute and a particular passion of founder Hans Wilsdorf, who started his business in London at the turn of the century. In 1926, his ‘Oyster’ case was unveiled – a hermetic construct in which top bezel ring, caseback and winding crown screwed down against the middle ring. For nearly a century, Rolex has developed ever more advanced systems – such as the Twinlock and Triplock crowns, and the Ringlock system – to keep its ‘chronometer’ mechanics high-precision and dry. Ironically enough, aided by everdeeper water pressures, serving to force the gasket seals tighter still.

Rolex is it beneath the waves; from 1953’s 100-metre Submariner –answering the needs of Jacques Cousteau’s newfound fanbase and the era’s newfangled hobby of ‘SCUBA’ – to 1967’s 610-metre SeaDweller fitted with a helium-release valve, designed around the needs of COMEX, or Compagnie Maritime d’Expertises’ elite divers, irked by their watches’ dial crystals popping off during decompression after days of pressurised ’saturation’ work.

But why should you care about the fact the Deepsea Challenge can now be bought on civvy street and worn

practicably thereof? Simple answer: how many bathyscaphes or hyperbaric chambers can you pick up in Westfield? More to the point, there are literally no other watches on the market that claim such extreme pubbragging rights. To test the waterproofness of each Deepsea Challenge, Rolex even worked in partnership with COMEX on a new, ultra-high-pressure tank capable of reproducing a test pressure equivalent to that exerted by water at a depth of 13,750 metres (45,112 feet).

While the experimental watch of 2012 was attached to the manipulator arm of James Cameron’s submersible, the Deepsea Challenge is designed to be worn on the wrist. The domed sapphire crystal, for instance, was slimmed down. The bracelet extension systems – Rolex’s super-slick ‘Glidelock’, plus ‘Fliplock’ extension link – allow the watch to be worn over a diving suit up to 7mm thick. Then switched back to pub mode, quicker than you can utter, “seriously, eleven Oscars?”

The Oyster Perpetual Deepsea Challenge in titanium is available now, £21,850, rolex.com

made self-winding mechanical ‘movement’.

The Henley brand’s next-gen’ ‘H1’ collection launched in the autumn with three models, each powered by the performance-engineered and in-house ‘ENG300’ movement, ticking to chronometer levels of precision: i.e. –4 to +6 seconds a day, however much turbulence you might experience. Entry to Bremont’s so-called Fury (pictured), Audley and sporty Supernova models (the latter modelled by friend of the brand,

Mark Strong in an affecting new campaign professing the importance of what you do with your time, rather than time itself) may seem steep at £5,995, but one visit to the brand’s gleaming new facility is all it takes to appreciate what it really takes to fashion the minuscule components of a mechanical wristwatch – let alone to bring such skillsets back to these shores, long after Switzerland’s post-war strides monopolised the neutral European over its American, British and French competitors.

Its multi-million, multi-axis milling

machines are more cutting-edge (pun intended) than most dotting the valleys of the Swiss Jura.

“It’s incredibly easy to underestimate the challenges if you want to own your IP, move up the food chain,” says co-founder Giles English, to the backdrop of a million-pound 11-axis CNC milling machine. "But it’s been our mission to bring watchmaking back to the UK from Day 1.”

Chocks away, chaps!

Those magnificent men at Bremont are flying with homegrown, highfalutin machinery to rival the Swiss

What’s ticking?

The Isle of Man is officially the indie-watchmaking scene’s record-breaking origin story, a fellow Briton finds itself in full voice, while Rolex’s frère from elsewhere, Tudor makes its everyman diving watch more everyday still

WATCH NEWS ALL-KILLER STOCKING FILLER

We had to invent a model both sporty and stylish in spirit, suitable for evening wear and for the daily activities of today’s man of taste.”

Back in 1970 this was a tough brief from Georges Golay, then-MD of storied Swiss maison Audemars Piguet, more in the business of crafting classical high complications. But Golay had sucked it up, taken the advice of his Italian distributor and put star designer Gérald Genta to the task of satisfying the era’s Riviera gadabouts. Genta’s iconic, octagonal Royal Oak is 50 years young this year, its fully integrated armour of hand-finished stainless steel encasing ultra-slim and ultra-refined selfwinding mechanics in barely altered guise.

COOL WATERS

As insulated from the thrusting edge of fashion as it might be, at least one of Switzerland’s exports is having something of a ‘woke’ awakening, in that the traditionally partisan men’s and ‘ladies’ halves of watch-brand catalogues are being reconsolidated as ’types’ rather than genders. That especially goes for diving watches – by their very nature pure function, never ‘butch’ or ‘gadgety’, nor ‘dainty’ or ‘dressy’. Given Tudor’s reign as modern protagonist par excellence of everything a SCUBA diver would want on their wrist in 2022, it’s

high time its Pelagos – cased in lightweight titanium, with scratchproof ceramic timing bezel ring and super-luminescent markings – dialled things down to a 39mm diameter of unisex versatility. And what a difference 2mm less in diameter makes, whether in wetsuit, lounge suit, bathing suit or indeed playsuit. Powered by Tudor’s Manufacture Calibre MT5400 informed by mothership Rolex’s expertise in COSCcertified mechanics, you get a whole lot of splash for your cash (£3,400 to be precise) all the way down to 200 metres.

It was a slow-burner, thanks to the startlingly disruptive looks, but laying your hands on one in 2022… well, let’s just say you’ve a better chance of securing a copy of Bill Prince’s magnificent new coffee-table book on all things Royal Oak (Assouline, £195, assouline.com) – the perfect Christmas gift for the watchnerd in your life, should you be lacking the £20,600 readies (let alone an ‘in’ with your local dealership). The former deputy editor of British GQ, Prince weaves an especially potent tale, which sheds light on new archival materials uncovered by Audemars Piguet’s Heritage department (deep-dives into AP’s experimentation with ancient ‘pantograph’ guilloché machines, in nailing the dial’s ’tapisserie’ barleycorn relief will send horolo-geeks into raptures). A lively narrative that parallels the evolution of the Royal Oak’s exposed, front-on screws and daring use of steel as luxury with the ensuing era of ‘industrial’, or ‘techno’ design and architecture.

Here’s hoping there’s room in Santa’s sack for all 296 pages, 39 centimetres and goodness-knows how many kilograms.

YES THEY CANADA

ike abovementioned Tudor, nononsense, democratically priced and reassuringly historic Swiss marque Oris can be trusted on value as well as… well, trustworthiness. Robustness and reliability baked in, thanks to Oris’s futureproof new Calibre 400 mechanics ticking inside, unswayed by the sort of turbulence and temperatures endured by Coulson’s pilots since 1960, skimming the wildfires of California, Australia and South America. All 1,000 editions of the Coulson Limited Edition (£3,400) feature a

fiery, gradient orange dial, clearly symbolising the perilous environments they rush into, but also offering a refreshing switch from the watch world’s ubiquitous radial gradient trend, to a cinematically horizontal dial fade. The biggest news however, is what Switzerland’s prestigious ETH Zürich university has done for Oris: a 3D-printed carbon fibre case, woven into aerospacegrade PEKK polymer to create an ultra-lightweight, extremely rigid material. Just 65 grammes all-in, ready for take-off.

A watch made solely by the two hands of one Londoner has smashed records

METHOD MAN

A watch made solely by the two hands of one Londoner has smashed records for any English-made timepiece

It’s official: the Isle of Man’s reclusive and notoriously bluff Dr George Daniels (1926–2011) is indeed the grandfather of watch collecting’s latter-day, highly exclusive ‘independent’ scene. Fetching more than CHF4 million on 5th November at Phillips’ Geneva auction house, his personal ‘Spring Case Tourbillon’ watch became history’s priciest-ever British-made wristwatch.

Not bad for a south-London boy raised in poverty, who first set out as a jobbing repairer in 1960, from a Victorian roll-top desk in a South Norwood flat. What’s more, given his vanishingly scant output of just 23 pocket- and 4 wristwatches, crafted at his own two hands – the unprecedented

‘Daniels

anything actually surfaces, of course.

However, Daniels left a broader, and arguably more significant legacy in the form of his frictionless ’co-axial’ escapement invention, widely regarded as the only true advancement in mechanical timekeeping for over 200 years; adopted by Omega since 1999. A Daniels watch might almost be impossible to find, whether you have the cash or not, but a trip to your local jeweller with £5,000 can get you a Danielsregulated Omega Seamaster with longer service intervals than anything else on the high street.

THIS CHIMING MAN

Britanno-Swiss upstart, Christopher Ward rings in the changes with another resonant rebel

Maidenhead’s stoically affordable, yet still defiantly Swiss-enabled watchmaker has dared to enter the revered horological auditorium, with a musical creation limited to just 300 pieces but priced at just £2,995. What enabled Christopher Ward’s so-called ‘Bel Canto’, without abandoning its value-based ideology, was lateral thinking on the part of master watchmaker Frank Stelzer. It occurred to Frank that the module piggybacking the mechanics of 2011’s C9 Harrison, adding a ‘jumping’ digital hours window

to the mix, could be adapted to strike a titanium gong circling the movement every hour, instead of nudging an hours disc round every hour, thus chimingout every passing hour with a “ding!”. Nonetheless, it elicited the not-insignificant addition of 50 new components into a fascinating, openly architectural movement, hammers viewable dial-side, which can be left in the “on” position to ring on each hour, or set to “off” from the same button at the 4 o’clock position. Sound as a few thousand pounds

Method’ of mastering all 34 crafts, solo, never matched since – hammer prices are set to skyrocket. When

Above left: Phillips' auctioneer extraordinaire Aurel Bacs drops his gavel on Daniels' (left) own hinged tourbillon-regulated wristwatch (above), made entirely himself in 1992

As we report earlier in this London Time, last month’s sale of a George Daniels’ wristwatch at Phillips in Geneva set much more than a record for a British watch – it set the latter-day genius of the Isle of Man’s reputation in stone, and set a new precedent for independent watchmaking as a whole.

Daniels arguably kickstarted the indie scene in the Seventies, against all odds given the era’s encroaching storm wrought by cheap electronic quartz technology. He defied the norm, solo, mastering all 34 crafts required to make a watch from the raw metal, when usually (and usually in Switzerland alone) the process would be spread across a localised cottage (or should that be chalet?) industry.

“It’s what he showed a single watchmaker could do, by his own hand,” elaborates Michael Clerizo, author of George Daniels: A Master Watchmaker & His Art. “It’s that he re-established the primacy of a mechanical watch at a time when even Patek Philippe were preparing to double down on quartz.

“And,” Clerizo concludes, “he proved there was still room for innovation.”

The principal newness being his coaxial escapement, now adopted wholesale by Omega of all titans. But independence itself was novelty enough to encourage a wave of plucky horological protagonists during the Eighties and Nineties, who cut their teeth in restoration at a time when collectors, in defiance of the cold quartz invasion, were turning back to the forgotten ways of timekeeping. A critical mass of wilfully anachronistic tyros that manifested in the ‘AHCI’ academy, co-founded by ex-Patek Philippe legend Svend Andersen who famously (slightly creepily) attested that, “Here you can touch the watchmaker who makes your watch.”

Restoration as a way in is crucial. A timewarped, one-to-one tutorship from the old masters themselves, across every discipline, whatever repair job you might unearth. Masters like the 18th century’s Parisian genius Abraham-Louis Breguet, in whom Daniels made an expert and image of himself, before embarking on his own canon of 23 masterpiece pocket watches. And as a result, inspiring a young François-Paul Journe.

Journe, unlike Daniels – yet very like Breguet – commercialised his own laser-focused, self-signed craft (to the tune of 1,000-or-so pieces a year, mind). But where to hunt down a shiny new example of his classical chronometry, characterised by golden mechanics and, dial-side, Steampunk-esque screwed-down subdial rings?

One word: Pragnell. A jeweller that

FANTASTIC INDIES… AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

The

calls another lone genius’s (Shakespeare’s) hometown home, but now expanded from Stratford-Upon-Avon down to Mayfair’s Mount Street.

The beauty of the indie scene is that it’s necessarily detached from the mainstream luxury watch world.

Which means anyone beholden to the excruciating hand-polish of a Philippe

WORDS BY LAURA MCCREDDIE-DOAK

ROGER DUBUIS EXCALIBUR

LIU WEI MONOTOURBILLON

One of China’s boldest artists, Liu Wei is renowned for creating supersculpture, drawings and paintings bursting with colour and architectural lines – spurred by the busy urbanity of his hometown Beijing. Just, as it happens, how Roger Dubuis’ ‘hyper horology’ interprets its pirouetting mechanics as kinetic micro-sculpture – a fusion of futurism and retro-industrial anachronism. Kismet, in other words; proven positive by the two visionaries’ dramatic collaboration, rendering three dial layers of handfilled stripes in colourful lacquer. Some in UV paint, some phosphorescent in SuperLuminova.

£POA, rogerdubuis.com

Dufour bevelled balance bridge is equally impressed by MB&F: totally farout imaginings of what a time machine could be rather than should be, at the behest of Swiss watchmaking’s most dashing disruptor, the titular Max Büsser (& his Friends).

Ex of Jaeger-LeCoultre – regularly cited as ‘Swiss watchmaking’s watch-

maker’ – Büsser’s boyish passion for all things biomorphic, Manga, sci-fi isn’t to say he’s disrespectful of the past. When asked of MB&F’s guiding philosophy, he doesn’t hesitate in citing his 18th and 19th forefathers.

“They were incredible innovators!” he enthuses. “By the Seventies, quartz technology rendered mechanical

timepieces totally obsolete, so nowadays they not only serve as testimony to our patrimony, they’re also works of art.

“At MB&F, we are deconstructing traditional horology to reconstruct it as 3D, kinetic sculpture.”

You’ll find these sculptures, seemingly beamed from the future, at number 155, Regent Street, where Watches of Switzerland’s flagship mothership of haute horlogerie has quite rightly opened an standalone MB&F boutique. Nowhere else in the UK.

As for George Daniels’ living legacy? It falls upon the great man’s only-ever apprentice, Roger Smith. Still on the Isle of Man, Smith and his tiny team and the entire (priceless) contents of the master’s workshop, which he inherited upon Daniels’ death in 2011, has taken it upon himself to single-

ZENITH DEFY EXTREME FELIPE PANTONE

The appropriately dubbed Felipe Pantone – the globally renowned Argentinian-Spanish optical artist based in Valencia and famed for his immersive, Bridget-Riley-esque spectral work – is forging quite the partnership with Zenith. For the historic watchmaker’s latest 100piece edition of its 1/100th second chronograph, the Defy Extreme’s monumental facets have been rendered as ‘radial hologram’ that appears only under the right light in a spellbinding way – all thanks to translucent blue YAS (yttrium aluminosilicate), a crystalline glass material comparable to synthetic sapphire.

£25,300, zenith-watches.com

handedly revive England’s particularly robust style of chronomtery, honed during the heyday of Clerkenwell’s workshops equipping Britannia’s mighty Navy.

“I wanted to take the qualities of a great English pocket watch and translate them to a wristwatch,” Smith says.

The one catch: he only makes 10 or so a year. One of which sold by auction on Britain’s pioneering fine-watch platform, ACollectedMan.com a fortnight ago for £660,000. Short of befriending Roger himself, we recommend you keep your eye on that site for anything else Smith – and by association, Dr Daniels – related. It’s horological history in the making.

PATEK PHILIPPE

AQUANAUT LUCE RAINBOW

Deep breath, readers: the Ref. 7968/300R-001 chronograph from Geneva’s legendary prima donna of fine watchmaking boasts a rainbow of preciousness consisting of 40 multicoloured sapphires (2.31ct) and 40 diamonds (2.05cts) on the bezel, 12 multicoloured sapphires (0.31ct) on each hour markers, 10 diamonds (0.36ct) on the fold-over clasp, and they’re all ‘invisibly’ set, resulting in what can only be called one of the most tastefully blinged-up rose-gold sports watches currently on the market. Given this is Patek Philippe, needless to mention how exquisite the self-winding stopwatch mechanics within happen to be.

£171,420, patek.com

MB&F's new 'shop in shop' at Watches of Switzerland's Regent Street emporium is a journey into the 21st century's most imaginative, far-out interpretation of trad' horology

Aramco subsidiary hopes to raise north of £1bn through public offering

SAUDI oil giant Aramco’s subsidiary Luberef expects to raise up to 4.95bn riyals (£1.07bn) from its initial public offering (IPO), it said, if it prices at the top of a range announced on Sunday.

Luberef will sell nearly 30 per cent of the company’s issued share capital, or 50.045m shares, at between 91 and 99 riyals each, the company said in a statement.

State-led IPO programmes in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai have

helped equity capital markets in the oil-rich Gulf, in sharp contrast to the United States and Europe, where global banks have been trimming headcount in a dealmaking drought.

Gulf issuers have raised about $16bn (£13bn) through such listings this year, accounting for about half of total IPO proceeds from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Refinitiv data shows.

Aramco owns 70 per cent of Luberef and Saudi investment bank Jadwa Investment the remaining 30

per cent.

Saudi Aramco’s record listing in late 2019, later boosted to total $29.4bn (£23.9bn) in proceeds, was the world’s largest IPO.

Aramco, which has raised billions from deals linked to its pipeline infrastructure, is also planning an IPO of its energy-trading business.

The kingdom’s privatisation programme is a cornerstone of its Vision 2030 economic agenda to wean the economy off oil, build new industries and create jobs.

Xi Jinping refusing to accept US jabs even as unrest across China increases

MICHAEL MARTINA

CHINESE leader Xi Jinping is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with Covid-19, and while recent protests there are not a threat to Communist Party rule, they could affect his personal standing, US director of National Intelligence Avril

Haines said over the weekend.

Although China’s daily Covid-19 cases are near all-time highs, some cities are taking steps to loosen testing and quarantine rules after Xi’s zeroCovid policy triggered a sharp economic slowdown and unrest.

Haines, speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California, said that despite the social

and economic impact of the virus, Xi “is unwilling to take a better vaccine from the West, and is instead relying on a vaccine in China that’s just not nearly as effective against Omicron.”

“Seeing protests and the response to it is countering the narrative that he likes to put forward, which is that China is so much more effective at government,” Haines said.

A NATIONWIDE rail strike in the US has been averted after US President Joe Biden signed legislation to impose a new contract on a dozen unions. Biden, who has enjoyed union support throughout his political career, said the move was required to avert “an economic catastrophe” and higher prices for ordinary Americans.

Protestors call for Iran strike to pile on pressure

CITY A.M. REPORTERS

PROTESTORS in Iran called for a three-day strike this week as they seek to maintain pressure on authorities over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

It comes as public prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri reportedly said the morality police had been shut on Saturday, though there was no confirmation of the closure from the Interior Ministry.

President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to visit Tehran University on Wednesday, celebrated in Iran as Student Day.

To coincide with Student Day, protesters are calling for strikes by merchants and a rally towards Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters. They have also called for three days of boycotting any economic activity starting today.

Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilisation have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest which has swept the country –some of the biggest antigovernment protests since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, including 64 minors.

However, Iran’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday the death toll was 200, according to the judiciary’s news agency Mizan.

Protestors took to Trafalgar Square over the weekend to demonstrate against continued crackdowns by the Islamic Republic government’s security forces

Chinese President Xi Jinping is in the most precarious position of his career

YOUSEF SABA

ALL ABOARD US government steps in to prevent freight and passenger rail strike

Reuters

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Household inflation expectations numbers top investors’ week

INVESTORS this week will be eyeing fresh data revealing how long households think high inflation will stick around in the UK for clues on the size of the Bank of England’s next interest rate rise.

Last week, London’s premier FTSE 100 index climbed nearly one per cent to 7,556.23 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, tumbled 0.93 per cent to 19,363.28 points.

Key economic data points released this week will provide further evidence on how badly the UK economy is faring amid high inflation.

New Bank of England numbers on Friday are expected to show Brits’ long term inflation expectations nudging higher to 3.3 per cent, driven by households betting slightly food and energy

prices could be here to stay.

The Bank is concerned the historic inflation surge this year, now running at a 41 year high of 11.1 per cent, will result in households and businesses raising their expectations for future price rises, sparking an inflationary feedback loop where workers demand higher wages and companies lift prices.

Sanjay Raja, senior economist at Deutsche Bank, reckons the Bank will opt for a 50 basis point rise at its next meeting on 15 December, lower than last month’s 75 basis point jump. Final composite PMIs out today could be revised down from an earlier estimate due to “households and businesses grappl[ing] with still rising inflation and rising debt servicing costs,” he added.

US producer inflation numbers on Friday will jolt Wall Street higher if they show further signs of costs easing.

Rising interest rates, a cost of living crisis and unemployment fears have sent a chill through the UK’s housing market, sparking an investor exodus from home builders. Analysts at brokers Peel Hunt reckon traders will take flight from sector bigwig Berkeley Group if its interim results this Friday show average purchase prices for its homes have fallen sharply.

INFLATION BETS

JACK BARNETT ECONOMICS AND

REPORTER

TOP BILLING Central bankers pay closer attention to where firms and consumers think inflation is headed, not spot inflation. This week, new Bank of England data on Friday is likely to show slightly higher price expectations are embedding into Brits’ psyches. More rate rises needed then.

MARKETS

EDITED BY ELENA SINISCALCO

Just Stop Oil protests pose a difficult quandary for the future of our police

YOU would need the patience of a saint, or a dyed-in-thewool eco-warrior, not to have been even slightly irritated by the recent activities of Just Stop Oil protestors. Whether it’s young people throwing soup over some of the world’s most valuable paintings or twenty-eight-year-old Indigo Rumbelow reduced to yelling at a television interviewer, these are committed dissenters who are willing to undergo a great deal to promote their cause. If success is measured by column inches, they are certainly doing well.

It is hardly a surprise that a Conservative government, with a notably hard-line home secretary, should be eager to take action to curb the protestors’ activities. And many of us might think that the government has a point. The right to protest is vital, but it is not carte blanche. Suggestions that Just Stop Oil protests have impeded the work of the emergency services are, if true, unacceptable.

Last week, the prime minister, joined by home secretary Suella Braverman and her policing minister Chris Philp, met with senior police officers to discuss the issue. There is a lot to talk about; in November, the think tank Policy Exchange published

a report which highlighted what it called the “legal and policing quagmire” against which these protests are set, and recommended new legislation and changes to doctrine at the College of Policing.

More profoundly, this matter goes to the heart of some of our deepest-held values and beliefs. How do we balance public safety and the maintenance of law and order, vital to the working of the state, against the cherished ability to raise our voices in protest when we see what we think are obvious wrongs? There is no quick answer, nor

is any solution perfect.

Rishi Sunak seems to have already chosen a side. He described Just Stop Oil as a “selfish minority” whose activities were “completely unacceptable”, before pronouncing, in phraseology which would have delighted Lady Thatcher, “My view is that those who break the law should feel the full force of it, and that's what I am determined to deliver”. Uncompromising, clear, focused: the prime minister does not want the electorate to doubt for a moment how he feels.

More worrying was what he went on to say. Pledging to support the police, as any responsible government should in principle, he added “I've said to the police whatever they need from government they will have in terms of new powers”.

That should cause us to stop and think a little. “Whatever they need”? Presumably judged by the police themselves? This is not how policy is made. Nor, if they are thoughtful and responsible, should senior police leaders want it to be so. The police derive their legitimacy from the oversight

The Great Smog must be firmly in the past: our City will display exemplary air quality

SEVENTY years ago this week, five daysof toxic air brought London to a standstill. Flights were grounded, cars abandoned, and trains cancelled.

The “Great Smog” – as it became known – descended on the capital, as smoke and noxious fumes from coal fires, vehicles, and factories mixed with fog and mist.

Initial estimates suggested that about 4,000 people died in the immediate aftermath. Another 8,000 are understood to have died over the course of the following year.

The smog was an unforgettable signal that poor air quality is both deadly and economically damaging.

This tragic event inspired radical action which led to huge improvements.

In 1954, the City of London Corporation became the first governing authority to become a Smokeless Zone, banning the production of smoke anywhere in the City. The Clean Air Act followed two years later, enabling UK local authorities to do the same.

Chris Hayward

Over the last 70 years, we have taken bold, practical, and innovative action to improve air quality in the Square Mile and right across London.

As a result we have already reached a key goal: over 90 per cent of the Square Mile will meet the current targets for nitrogen dioxide ahead of the scheduled date of 2025. But we recognise more needs to be done.

City businesses and residents must be right at the forefront of this fightback. We have worked together to bring in a Low Emission Neighbourhood programme, with new electric vehicle charging points, green infra-

structure, and a zero-emission street pilot.

We are also working with building owners and occupiers at new developments in the Square Mile to reduce traffic and cut harmful emissions. This innovative approach is seen, for example, at the tallest building in the City at 22 Bishopsgate.

From there, we have gone on to ban new diesel vehicles from our own fleet, where there is a clean market alternative, and lead a London-wide crackdown on drivers who leave their engines idling when parked.

We have developed a CityAir app which gives over 35,000 Londoners low pollution travel routes with advice and alerts when air pollution is high. On top of that, our emissionsbased charges for on-street parking targets high polluting transport with higher tariffs, while rewarding drivers of low emission vehicles with lesser charges.

The results are hugely positive. Data collected by people at two sites in the

Square Mile this year showed a 40 per cent improvement in air quality. The Science in the City air quality monitoring project, run by Mapping for Change and commissioned by the City Corporation, showed data on nitrogen dioxide against figures collected in 2013 to see if local air quality had improved.

This transformative and ambitious work shows what can be achieved when the people of the Square Mile and the City Corporation work closely together.

As well as the obvious public health benefits, improving air quality will boost our attractiveness as a worldleading place to work, visit and live.

The City and London have more to do but we are undoubtedly on the right track. Together we can make sure that the days of The Great Smog are a distant memory as we deliver a brighter, cleaner future.

£ Chris Hayward is the Policy Chair at the City of London Corporation

and authorisation of the democratically elected government. They should not be given the freedom of the legislative and regulatory cupboard. We need to see this in the round. Braverman is the same home secretary who, weeks ago, was telling law enforcement that “initiatives on diversity and inclusion should not take precedence over common-sense policing”. Only a year ago, Sunak came out and said that there was a problem with public trust in the Metropolitan Police. Under these circumstances, what kind of cognitive dissonance allows politicians to offer these same police officers whatever legal powers they request?

The truth is that Just Stop Oil should be only a small part of a much wider conversation within government, and between the government and the electorate. What do we expect of our police, and how do we train, equip and resource them to do it? What are the fundamental values we want law enforcement agencies to defend and promote, and how do we instil these? Protestors come and go; one day Miss Rumbelow will be merely a pub quiz question like her spiritual predecessor Swampy.

Instead, ask yourselves this: do you have confidence in the police? Do they reflect your vision of a free and orderly society? Are you in a position to give them the support they need to do that job? If the answer is no, then we need a lot more than a few legislative tweaks to make a difference to how our communities are policed.

£ Eliot Wilson is co-founder of Pivot Point and a columnist with City A.M.

Eliot Wilson

Gove will announce his decision on whether the plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria should go ahead or not. The decision on the controversial plan has been postponed multiple times, and should come on Thursday

WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR VIEWS › E: opinion@cityam.com COMMENT AT: cityam.com/opinion

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Looming talent shortages

[Re: Halfords focusing on offering shoppers more essentials as they slash discretionary spending, Nov 23]

Unsurprisingly, the cost of living crisis is impacting shopping habits. In fact, Fourth’s data shows consumers will spend less on a variety of items from holidays to groceries next year.

So we may expect more announcements from retailers, and whilst attracting footfall in the golden quarter is vital, it is only half the challenge.

Our data shows 78 per cent of retailers are worried about talent

shortages in 2023. It’s a prepandemic issue that’s been exacerbated by fiscal uncertainty throughout Covid-19 and worsened by the cost of living crisis.

With the data showing employees want more benefits, such as access to flexible pay with earned wage access, retailers must prioritise their employees to ensure they have the resources to meet consumer demand for a streamlined shopping experience that integrates more tech - such as loyalty offers via apps.

Striking this balance between attracting shoppers and retaining employees is the key during these tough times.

Sebastien Sepierre Managing Director, EMEA at Fourth

Founders have hard choices to make to keep our startups in pole position in the future

Silver

Have yourself a merry, pricey Christmas... As food prices rise, Christmas dinner is going to be far more expensive than we thought this year. The price of chipolatas - the key ingredient of pigs-in-blankets - has soared up 42.7 per cent. Potatoes are also up 32.9 per cent compared to last year.

EXPLAINER-IN-BRIEF: AS MPS ABANDON POLITICS, SUNAK MUST CALL FOR UNITY

Another week starts, and another swarm of Conservative MPs might announce they’re stepping out of politics. This will be Rishi Sunak’s crux today and for the foreseeable future, as the number of Conservatives saying they will stand down at the next election surpassed ten last week. One of the most notable announcements came from Sajid Javid, a former chancellor and a prominent figure in the party. He joined the leadership race over summer, but then dropped out. He said he had

made the decision “after much reflection”. Other MPs who have announced their exit are Dehenna Davison, a young MP considered a rising star, and veteran MP Gary Streeter. Some say they’re doing it to dedicate more time to family or other career options, but it’s clear there’s a thought in the back of their minds - that the next election is already lost. Sunak now has the unenviable task of convincing his party that it’s worth staying on board.

ELENA SINISCALCO

THE CYNICAL optimism of “not wasting a good crisis” isn’t much use to most earlystage companies facing the onslaught of skyrocketing prices. The level of VC investment in UK startups plunged by over 50 per cent in the third quarter of this year, a trend that unfortunately looks likely to accelerate through the last quarter and into 2023.

When economic uncertainty increases, investors’ appetite for highrisk opportunities declines. The current levels of unpredictability are greater and more far reaching than anything we’ve seen before. In a polycrisis, what’s a startup to do?

For very early-stage businesses cash conservation is key. Start-ups shouldn’t take on new staff now, unless they know they can pay for them. They shouldn’t start buying expensive longterm outsourced solutions either. Instead, they should concentrate on extending the runway as far as possible while keeping overheads low. They should try to accelerate sales - but without sacrificing quality or service levels along the way.

For those companies with more momentum and recurrent revenues, investing in innovation in tough economic times isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Corporates in many different sectors are recognising that strategic innovation is a business imperative – whether to comply with net zero regulations, reduce energy consumption, or optimise networks for high data flows.

Big businesses want to work with smart innovative ones to help figure out solutions faster, and VCs are increasingly looking for these kinds of new entities on the horizon. Despite the slowdown, investment in UK advanced digital tech companies was almost £2.5bn from August 2020 to August 2021. There’s also more support than ever from a wide range of sources – both government and non-government backed. Some of the funding programmes available can be excellent ways to bridge between funding rounds, create new partnerships and attract new investment. You’d be amazed at how frequently chance meetings lead to a significant effect on the journey of a business.

But it’s still tricky to make the right

choices. Striking strategic deals with larger businesses to achieve scale can be a huge distraction from day-to-day survival. Playing an even longer game with academic institutions can slow product development. Founders should therefore be cautious about embarking on research and development unless it’s clearly in their line of sight. The temptation of funding itself shouldn’t distract from the real focus. There is a real risk of achieving short-term funding gains, but also losing the direction of the business in the process.

Deals and collaboration can draw long lasting benefits from new investment to long term employment opportunities, and in times of economic turmoil these can seem reassuring. Alternatively, some founders might start thinking about an exit as a means of ensuring their team can have job security through tough times ahead. Certainly, at times like these there are some companies who start to go shopping for talent through inexpensive ac-

quisitions. But a buy-out by a larger company can also shut down the potential of a small business, redirecting that energy towards its new parent’s goals.

And this is where focused leadership comes into play. Now it’s not the time for u-turns - we’ve seen enough already in politics - or un-thought through ideas. Business leaders don’t have all the answers - their role is to acknowledge the situation and provide a calm, purposeful role model for how to get through tough times.

Not many of us have lived and worked through turmoil and uncertainty of the degree we’re currently facing. Whichever their strategy, startups must weigh their options carefully and commit to staying focussed on the option they have chosen. You might not care about wasting a good crisis, but you definitely want to find your best path to navigate through this one.

£ Jeremy Silver is the chief executive officer of Digital Catapult

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Jeremy

Despite a slowdown, this year saw investment in digital tech companies

PRICEY CHRISTMAS Dinners will be almost 22 per cent more expensive

TRAVEL

I’m sitting on a vast rock and casting my gaze over 15 kilometres of smoking volcanic landscape at the entrance to the Norris Geyser Basin at the Yellowstone National Park. Known for its geo-thermal features, the geyser is located in the middle of the seismic Park. I don’t expect to see in mountainous, wooded Wyoming a lanscape reminiscent of a movie set from a film about an alien planet. But under leaden skies and after an unexpected snowstorm, this strange monochrome landscape is what I’m confronted with: and it makes me feel uneasy.

The lodgepole pine trees are blackened and skeletal. There is billowing smoke all around and on the boardwalk below I see shadowy figures and hear the odd masked conversation but, otherwise, an eerie silence mutes the scene.

This scorched tableau also has boiling mud pots and ponds with shades of glowing turquoise, shrieking yellow and bright red.

A thin coating of moisture covers everything I see. Snowmelt trickles through a layer of sandy material known as rhyolite, then oozes back to the surface as superheated sulphurous water. If constricted by rocks on its journey, this liquid may eventually become expelled steam that erupts as a geyser.

What causes the exposively high temperature? Magma lying just a few feet below the ground. Yellowstone hasn’t had an eruption for 640,000 years, but even so, I’m acutely aware I’m observing an active volcano. And, yes, it is unnerving!

It’s not all dystopian. A single bison is grazing at the northeast corner of the geyser. Oblivious to the presence of visitors, I was mesmerised with the animal. Others scrambled to take selfies with the beast from the safety of the raised boardwalk. Yellowstone has a bonanza of wildlife. Animals native to here even had descendants that roamed this land in prehistoric times. Bison, elk, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope populate the Lamar, Hayden and Madison river valleys.

So do predators like the black bear, bobcat, coyotes, grey wolves, grizzly bears, bald eagles, and other birds of prey. My feeling at seeing two grizzlies rambling along hilltops - though they were quite a distance from where I had pulled over - is almost indescribable.

Grey wolves were hunted to extinction in the early 20th century, although reintroduction means there are now several packs roaming here. There is life where you would assume there could not be: heatadapted sponges have even been discovered at the bottom of the extremely cold Lake Yellowstone, amongst the vast fields of vents, spires, craters, and gas-filled domes. Most prevalent throughout the park are thousands of bison. Small calves are frequently tagging along with mothers which I adore to see.

On my travels, I pull off a road which runs alongside the Firehole River to scout out baby buffalo. To my excitement, I spotted several calves (aka ‘red dogs’ due to their orange coloured fur). I was thrilled to be close enough to get a few choice photos of red splodges on a white snowy background.

The park’s rivers are also home to otter, beaver and indigenous fish such as Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout, Mottled Sculpin

YELLOWSTONE CELEBRATES A MILESTONE

THE TRAVEL HACK

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and Mountain Whitefish. These fish are a huge draw for fishermen and fly-fishing is a huge sport here. As rivers are often near the road, it is easy to spot them enjoying this balletic looking activity. I happily scamper off downstream to see several Ornamental Mallard Ducks with astonishing colouring having a swim. Their feathers are beautiful even on a dull day.

After getting a tip from someone at the tourist office in Gardiner to drive along the Old Yellowstone Trail, I pass under the beautiful Roosevelt Arch erected in 1903 near the park entrance.

I have my first sighting of pronghorn antelope in the town’s cemetery just off this road as well as seeing Bighorn sheep on the higher slopes. Further along, I slow down when a mother elk runs across the

road in front of my vehicle. She left her youngster delicately crouched in the grass nearby. She had used herself as a decoy to deflect attention from the baby.

Keeping and returning things to a natural system, to the way they were before humankind altered things, is the raison d’etre of this place. “Since our beginning, it has been a struggle to figure out what a natural park should be like. But one of our founding philosophies is it should be a natural system that functions the way it did before humans altered it. And the modern idea of a natural system is that it should include natural predators,” says Doug Smith, in charge of wolf reintroduction.

Records confirm that in the early days of the park’s existence, tribal people were driven away even though the Kiowa, Ap-

saalooké, and Shoshone people would have called Wyoming and Montana home for millennia. They were discouraged from hunting, fishing, or using their ancestral land.

Trappers and frontiersmen were also meant to be turfed out because of poaching bison.

There is now much more interaction between tribal people and the park’s rangers, and concessioners about conservation. A visit to the Yellowstone Indigenous Centre (located near the historic Old Faithful Inn) affords the opportunity to meet a member of the Shoshone tribe and learn about conservation workshops they hold for local young tribespeople.

The Shoshone people have the historic right to hunt as many bison in Yellowstone as they wish but they only take one animal

As Yellowstone turns 150, Lynn Houghton finds a National Park that’s future proofing with the help of its tribal people

BOOK THIS

each year and share the meat with the entire tribe.

One example of an historic aboriginal practice returning is allowing lightning strike fires to burn. This allows natural renewal by removal of undergrowth. It is a rather controversial practice particularly for any property owners living outside the park boundaries or in areas of the park where employees live.

Looking to the future, the park is doing all it can to bring down its energy consumption. It is said that the size of its fleet of vehicles has been reduced to bring fuel use down.

There are six rapid charging stations throughout the park for public use and, during winter, Snow Coaches provide tours for large groups which are fuel and cost effective.

I was thrilled to see clearly marked recycling at concessions and in hotel rooms. The national park service reports that 65% of rubbish avoids landfill in Yellowstone partly for this reason.

I really love the free water-filling stations installed to reduce the production, shipping, and use of approximately 35,000 plastic water bottles.

DISNEYLAND WITHOUT KIDS PARIS THE LONG WEEKEND

THE WEEKEND: I had faded memories of gawping at the Castle and meeting Mickey Mouse in the 1990s. It was back when I was a child and was the target market for Disneyland. Now 33, like many people my age, I’m probably more reliant than I should be on a hedonistic London lifestyle. The appeal of Disneyland was that it would return me to my childhood: could pink castles and the It’s A Small World ride really offer me escapism - and a healthier breakwhen I push pens instead of prams around for a living?

CAN ADULTS GO WITHOUT KIDS? I don’t have any kids, and when I emailed Disneyland to see if they’d have this newspaper down to visit, they were delighted we’d asked. Promoting adultsonly weekends away is part of their plan to keep the Park fresh as they celebrate their thirtieth year, even if the kids will always be the main focus. The reality is there’s plenty to do here as an adult and it’s thrilling to see the Park afresh from an adult’s perspective.

TOP TIP

Take the Eurostar to Paris after work on Friday and you have ample time to have dinner in the French capital before a late check in at Disneyland on the Friday. Do Disneyland on Saturday and the smaller Walt Disney Studios all day Sunday and be back in London by 10 or 11pm

the streets for a joyous explosion of song and dance. Ride queues can be savage, and some feel their 30 years, but there’s a charm to the older rides which have vintage charm rather than simply feeling out of date - but newer rides like the Ratatouille one and the Space Mountain ride are ferocious fun.

If you fancy guaranteed snow this Christmas it’s not too late to book a break to Lapland.

Reindeers, huskies and elves await if you book one of the 2, 3 or 4 night breaks this Christmas still available with Hay’s Travel.

Northern lights viewing and amethyst mines are some of the less well-known attractions.

Haystravel.co.uk/lapland-holidays

Returning to Yellowstone during its important 150 year anniversary feels like coming around full circle since my first visit. With the park’s renewed focus on sustainability and conservation, as well as a new way of working with its indigineous people, the future looks bright for Yellowstone.

NEED TO KNOW America As You Like It offers a two-week itinerary to Yellowstone priced from £2,998 per person. 020 8742 8299; Americaasyoulikeit.com) Visit travelwyoming.com; visittheusa.com and visitmt.com

WHAT’S IT LIKE WITH JUST ADULTS THEN? Wonderfully innocent with a dash of dark humour. Flanked by security guards, Jafar from The Lion King sweeps past us in his cloak. He leans over to greet a young girl in a buggy, using his cane for balance. She presses back into the buggy as if she’s trying to break through the back of it and bellows out the loudest scream. It’s magical seeing how much the kids love it here - but it’s equally thrilling voyeuristically watching the chaos from a distance. Walking around the districts, you’ll occasionally see scenes like this: famous characters from the Disney films being escorted from afternoon kids’ show to photo opportunity, yada yada, and in the late afternoon they all meet to perform the Parade, where thousands line

HOW SHOULD I PLAN MY DAY? It’s worth buying Disney Premier Access to skip the queues. While it doesn’t feel in the spirit of Disneyland to saunter past queuing families, in practice it means you can spend the day doing the rides, then head back to the Newport Bay Hotel for a swim in the plush pool a short walk away on the fringes of Lake Disney, freshen up, then head back into Disneyland for the evening. Best is that it’s pretty much boozeless everywhere, spare for the Ratatouille restaurant and the Walt’s restaurant and a Champagne trolley that meanders through the crowds in time for the 11 o’clock spectacular at night. I had one glass of wine and one beer all weekend - there’s enough rides and park to see that you don’t end up with loads of time for indulging over drinks so it’s a healthy weekend. But if you do, the escapist Walt’s is decked out like a family home would have been when the park founder was alive - and it is so effectively intimate I instinctively paused as I walked in, feeling like I’d actually trespassed into someone’s living room, full of trinkety photos and fussy furnishings. It does good food too. Staring up at the newly refurbished Castle as a brilliant light show beams film characters onto it, glass of champagne in hand, isn’t too much of a hardship either.

NEED TO KNOW: Eurostar goes to Paris return from £78. Rooms at the Newport Bay Hotel Disneyland Paris start from £188. Entrance from £50; Disneylandparis.com

Adam Bloodworth has an adultsonly celebration as the Park celebrates its 30th anniversary

SPORT

THREE AND EASY

Ruthless England see off African champions to set up quarter-final with France, writes Frank Dalleres

ENGLANDproduced a clinical performance to eliminate Senegal from the World Cup in Qatar last night and set up a blockbuster quarter-final against holders France.

Gareth Southgate’s team overcame some early jitters with two first-half goals crafted by Jude Bellingham and finished by Jordan Henderson and captain Harry Kane. Bukayo Saka added a third after half-time to end any resistance from the African champions and

WORLD CUP BRIEFING

GIROUD AND MBAPPE SEND FRANCE INTO LAST EIGHT

£ Olivier Giroud became France’s all-time record goalscorer and Kylian Mbappe struck twice as the holders beat Poland 3-1 in the last 16 of the World Cup yesterday. Centre-forward Giroud swept home his 52nd international goal from a pass by Mbappe just before half-time. Mbappe then made the game safe with two blistering finishes in the 74th and 91st minutes, taking his tally for the tournament to five goals. Robert Lewandoswki scored a consolation penalty for Poland at the second attempt deep into injury time.

MESSI HAILS SUPPORT AFTER ARGENTINA MARCH ON

£ Lionel Messi has praised the vociferous support enjoyed by Argentina at the World Cup after they overcame Australia 2-1 on Saturday to set up a quarter-final with the Netherlands. The South Americans have been cheered on not only by a sizeable travelling contingent but also many Qataris. “There’s this bond we have, this union, which is something beautiful,” said Messi after marking his 1,000th appearance with a goal. “It’s unbelievable what they transmit – the passion, their energy, their joy – and we’re very thankful.”

confirm England’s place in the last eight, where they will face France on Saturday night.

England started the brighter, with Bellingham and Kane both sending in dangerous crosses that evaded goalkeeper Edouard Mendy but couldn’t find a white shirt. Senegal’s constant harrying forced mistakes, however, and a misplaced pass from Harry Maguire led to Ismaila Sarr firing just over from close range, after John Stones had blocked Boulaye Dia’s shot.

Moments later they went even closer to taking the lead, when Bukayo Saka gave the ball away, Sarr fed Dia and the striker’s powerful shot was repelled by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

England broke the deadlock against the run of play in the 39th minute when Bellingham burst into the Senegal penalty area and cut the ball back for Henderson to guide a first-time shot low past Mendy. With their opponents suddenly ragged, they capitalised again in first-half injury time

with Bellingham to the fore once more. He charged from the edge of his own box and into the Senegal half before feeding Foden, who squared the ball for Kane to smash home.

England effectively killed the contest in the 57th minute when Foden scampered down the left and crossed low for Saka to dink a finish over Mendy. One blemish was the absence of forward Raheem Sterling due to a family matter which puts the rest of his World Cup in doubt.

DUTCH CAN BECOME WORLD CHAMPIONS, SAYS VAN GAAL

£ Netherlands head coach Louis van Gaal insists his team are strong contenders to win their first ever World Cup in Qatar this month after progressing to the quarterfinals. They beat the USA 3-1 on Saturday through goals from Memphis Depay, Daley Blind and Denzel Dumfries to set up a lasteight clash against Argentina on Friday. “I think we have big chances here,” said former Manchester United manager Van Gaal. “We still have three matches to go. I’ve been talking about this for a year, that we can become world champions.”

TODAY’S MATCHES: WHY AND HOW YOU SHOULD WATCH

£ Japan v Croatia, 3pm, BBC

Two teams defying expectations meet this afternoon at the Al Janoub Stadium. Croatia were written off as a team in transition from the World Cup finalists of 2018 but coasted through the group stage and have quietly amassed a nine-game unbeaten run that includes Nations League wins over France and Denmark. Comeback specialists Japan, meanwhile, produced two of the biggest upsets at this tournament by beating Germany and Spain to finish top of Group E.

£ Brazil v South Korea, 7pm, ITV Something of a David versus Goliath battle between the pre-tournament favourites and a side who snuck through on goals scored thanks to an injury-time winner in their final group game. Brazil’s sheen has been dulled slightly by a loss to Cameroon which ended an 18-match unbeaten run stretching back to the 2021 Copa America and injuries to Neymar, although he is set to return and they remain the team to beat. South Korea are aiming to get beyond the last 16 of the World Cup for only the second time and have lost all four previous meetings, including 5-1 in June.

BROOK FLOWING Yorkshireman finishes on high in his second Test

FURY WANTS ‘REAL’ FIGHTS GOING INTO 2023

£ Heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury has said he wants “real challenges” after toppling Derek Chisora on Saturday night in London. The WBC world title holder said: “I want to fight real men, real challenges. [Oleksandr] Usyk came over here and got in my face. We [Fury and Anthony Joshua] live in the same country but have you ever seen AJ do that after a fight?”

SPRINGBOK STAR NKOSI MISSING FOR THREE WEEKS

£ Rugby World Cup-winning South Africa winger Sbu Nkosi has been reported missing by his club, the Bulls. “Sbu Nkosi has been absent without leave for the past three weeks,” read a Bulls statement. The Springbok speedster, who has played 16 Tests for South Africa, has not been responding to phone calls and texts.

FORMER FERRARI DRIVER

TAMBAY DIES AGED 73

£ Former Ferrari driver Patrick Tambay has died aged 73. The Frenchman, who had Parkinson’s Disease, raced for the Prancing Horse as well as McLaren and Renault and won two grands prix in a 114-race Formula 1 career that spanned nine years. “We are all truly saddened by the news,” a Ferrari statement read.

CHIEFS GO TOP OF POOL IN PREMIERSHIP RUGBY CUP

£ Exeter Chiefs put 50 past Gloucester as they concluded their Premiership Rugby Cup group stages with a thumping victory. The 50-33 win sent Exeter top of Pool A while Gloucester’s losing bonus point ensured they are in second place. The top team from each of the three pools, as well as the bestplaced runner-up, qualify for the cup’s semi-finals.

KIPTUM AND BERISO SET SPEEDY MARATHON TIMES

£ Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum became the third-fastest men’s marathon runner yesterday while Ethiopian Amane Beriso became the third-fastest women’s marathon runner when the duo each won in Valencia. Beriso’s time knocked Paula Radcliffe’s 2003 world record time down to fourth in the all-time rankings. Kiptum, 23, won in two hours, one minute, 53 seconds.

LAWRENCE WINS ON HOME SOIL DESPITE POOR ROUND

£ South African golfer Thriston Lawrence won the South African Open by one shot yesterday in Johannesburg. Lawrence’s final round of two-over-par opened the door for chasing Frenchman Clement Sordet with the duo going into the 17th all square but Lawrence held his nerve.

IT WAS not supposed to be occurring at this point in the year but the Premiership season has reached its half-way stage. Given the downfall of Worcester Warriors and Wasps, the 11 remaining sides hit the milestone at the weekend – albeit there were only four fixtures played.

There are just eight points separating second and eighth, while all teams placed ninth to 11th are level on points.

Here are some talking points as the runners and riders for the Premiership top four begin to set out their stalls.

STYLISH SARACENS

They’re top of the league and are yet to have a loss inflicted upon them, but it still feels like there could be more to come from Saracens.

Having been beaten by a last-minute drop goal in last year’s final, the north London side have really kicked into life this season.

They’ve played nine, won nine, have a positive points difference of nearly 100 and have scored a try bonus point in all but two of their matches.

Quite simply they’re on fire, and it’s scary. Even when Mark McCall’s side had players on international duty, they showed their strength in depth and remained unbeaten when others went winless.

The side have instilled a culture others envy and a quality of depth rivals could only dream of.

It is unlikely they’ll go the full season without a loss but at the half-way stage they’re 11 points clear and some would say that’s already unassailable.

BOTTOM THREE BONANZA

Imagine if the Premiership had relegation; Newcastle Falcons, London Irish and Bristol Bears would be in one almighty scrap.

The three sides are all joint bottom of the league on 17 points – albeit with

SARACENS HALFWAY TO GLORY

where small changes in coaching styles and 50/50 decisions can make a huge difference on where teams are in the table.

Newcastle and Irish have some of the hottest backs in the league and Bristol boast England’s current pair of starting props in bulldozing Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler.

On paper none of these sides should be towards the foot of the table.

But if they weren’t, who would be?

All teams have their strengths and it’s small margins that are making the difference.

SURPRISING SALE

Some tipped Sale to be in semi-final

They’re the closest team in the hunt to catch Saracens and have won seven of their nine matches this season –and they’ve done that without key player George Ford.

Sale are a really tight-knit group with few internationals away on duty throughout the season, and that’s put them in a strong position.

Under Alex Sanderson – a former apprentice to Saracens’ McCall –Sale have

fourth-placed Gloucester so have some leeway in their bid for a top-four finish.

They could continue to be a surprise package this season.

UNDERPERFORMERS

Exeter Chiefs currently linger in seventh having announced the exodus of many of their star players across last and this year –it’s becoming a real worry for much of their

top four.

The league is congested throughout and that’s something the sport’s bigwigs will be pleased to see given the sad fact that they’ve lost a duo of teams to financial woes.

The English game is by no means out of the woods and competitive rugby could be the only selling point the league has in time.

A competitive Premiership is paramount to any development elsewhere in the domestic game.

But there we are, at the half-way stage of the league, and just as it was in September it would take a fool to predict the top four with any real conviction.

As the Premiership reaches midpoint, Matt Hardy picks out the season’s emerging themes

Harry Brook completed just his second England Test with a second innings knock of 87 yesterday in Pakistan. After his first innings stand went for 153 in an incredible opening day of Test cricket –in which the 23-year-old set a English record of 27 runs in a Test over –his second innings took his total of runs beyond 200. The first Test between Pakistan and England concludes today.

Sanderson was once McCall’s apprentice