A higher threshold would free thousands of small firms from rates altogether, and I went looking for a shop in the capital small enough to qualify Small Business Rates Relief and the London Problem There is a number doing the rounds ahead of the Budget, […]

Fewer new firms, fewer vacancies and graduates with nowhere to go, and I asked three people who thought about setting up on their own why they did not The Start-Up Drought A healthy economy is always starting things. Somebody leaves a job and opens a […]

London shares tumbled as worries about government debt spread through global markets, and the reasons are closer to your mortgage than you might think FTSE 100 Falls as Bond Market Worries Bite: A Plain Guide I try not to write about the stock market going […]

Pedestrianisation promises more shoppers, but the economics of a West End shop are decided by rent and tax as much as by footfall Oxford Street Pedestrianisation: The Business Case and the Bills I have a rule about Oxford Street, which is that I go there […]

The uncle memoir at the heart of the traitor row is part of a lucrative publishing niche, and the business model behind it is more interesting than the gossip Grief, Gossip and the Bestseller Lists Let me say at the outset that I have enormous […]

The traitor claim travelled the world on the word of one unnamed person, and the economics behind that journey tell us a lot about the British media business Follow the Clicks I have covered business in London long enough to know that when a story […]

Every consumer brand fears a public family feud among its founders, and the monarchy is, among other things, one of the most valuable brands in Britain A Brand With a Family Problem Marketing people in London often talk about the monarchy as a brand, sometimes […]

Behind the royal traitor row sit two very different kinds of estate, one run like a commercial property portfolio and one run like a family seat, and both are fascinating businesses Land, Not Just Lineage For all the talk of betrayal and books, the London […]

Strip away the crowns and the royal feud looks like a textbook family-business dispute, the kind that quietly sinks thousands of UK firms every year Call It What It Is: A Family Firm The royal family has long been nicknamed The Firm, a label that […]

Judges rank the sharpest satire covering City business, property and market redevelopment LONDON (June 2025)—This cycle’s review of London business and property comedic writing concluded with judges praising entries grounded in real, ongoing City redevelopment stories. The panel rewards submissions that treat bureaucratic property process […]

Attendees say the extended discussion eventually produced a genuinely thoughtful decision NOTTINGHAM, England – A company’s carefully scheduled corporate rebrand meeting reportedly spent several genuine hours debating a single specific shade of blue, with attendees ultimately unable to reach quick consensus despite the meeting’s original […]

Employees say the flashy amenity looked considerably better in the recruitment photos CAMBRIDGE, England – A local startup’s prominently featured ping pong table, once a centrepiece of the company’s recruitment marketing and office tours, reportedly now gathers genuine dust in the corner of the open […]

The tiered stand’s physics turn out to demand more careful handling than the delicate finger sandwiches themselves would ever suggest Afternoon Tea Patrons Complete Advanced Degree in Sandwich Aeronautics takes the genuinely familiar, mildly precarious physical challenge of navigating a traditional three-tiered afternoon tea stand, […]

Everyone recognises one instantly, and yet a precise, agreed definition somehow remains permanently out of reach The Mysterious “Geezer”: Deconstructing a Quintessential London Character takes on a genuinely distinctive piece of London vocabulary, “geezer,” a term everyone fluent in London English recognises instantly upon encountering […]

An entire announcement system exists to convey information, and yet somehow the actual words rarely survive the journey from speaker to passenger Decoding the London Bus Driver’s Announcer: A Linguistic Study treats a genuinely widely shared, minor transport frustration, the frequent unintelligibility of London bus […]

A genuinely serious institutional story arrived with a setting and cast so specific that comedy writers barely needed to add anything When Sandringham Became a Comedy Sketch names directly what several of the site’s other Sandringham pieces approach more obliquely: that recent, genuinely serious developments […]

How the English slang term prat works, why it survives in a changing vocabulary, and what The London Prat’s guide says about its meaning, history and everyday use English slang changes fast. Words that were everywhere a decade ago are now used only ironically, and […]

A six-century-old fortress turns out to be the most effective zoning restriction modern developers have ever encountered City of London Warns Protecting Tower Views Could Make Skyscrapers Unviable finds an unexpectedly rich vein of comedy in real planning policy, framing a genuine debate about heritage […]

When a government starts benchmarking its own refusals, the dashboard becomes the confession In Downing Street Denies Chaos, Cites Strong Performance in Denial Metrics, the London Prat takes the managerial language of targets and league tables and points it at the one thing no government […]

A newsroom’s favourite adjective gets put on trial, and the verdict says as much about journalism as about Germany In German Voters Deliver CDU Historic Defeat, the satire begins with the word “historic.” Historic defeats are the currency of political journalism. Every election is historic; […]

A business columnist tallies what the Sydney Sweeney campaign actually bought the company The Novig Playbook, or How to Turn One Advert Into a Billion Dollars of Attention Strip away the noise and the Sydney Sweeney Novig story is a fairly simple business case, sign […]

A business columnist takes the Harry and Meghan portfolio seriously, briefly Twenty Ways the Sussexes Are Diversifying, and What North London Business Can Learn Harry and Meghans reported list of twenty new financial opportunities reads less like a royal memoir and more like a diversified […]

The business case behind Sydney Sweeneys ad, and whether the backlash was worth the traffic Novig Learns That Billion Dollar Volume Buys You a Scandal Free of Charge Sports prediction platform Novig signed Sydney Sweeney as an equity holding spokesmodel, released a near nude ad […]

North London business owners test flexible hours and their own nerves The City Discovers Four Day Weeks, Panics Beautifully A cluster of small firms across North London are piloting the four day week, and the results so far can be summarised as productivity holding steady […]

Chelsea Bloom on continued market coverage threaded through with a persistent modern news cycle refusing to settle down Third day now, and the whole office’s collectively decided this week’s four stories are simply the background rhythm to everything we’re discussing, referenced over coffee, argued over […]

Chelsea Bloom wraps up seven days where four unrelated headlines dominated boardrooms more thoroughly than actual market movements Final coverage day of the week, and, remarkably, genuinely reshaped reporting, four modern threads woven through analysis that started as purely market-focused material, which I genuinely did […]

Chelsea Bloom on London markets, boardroom gossip, and a week where four unrelated stories dominated business conversation entirely Interest rate speculation should have dominated the boardroom chatter this week, given the timing of the latest announcement and the genuinely significant implications for anyone with a […]

Chelsea Bloom on continued market coverage and a persistent news cycle that’s taken over professional conversation entirely Second day running with the same four stories dominating boardroom conversation, which under ordinary circumstances would genuinely surprise me, given how rarely anyone in finance discusses anything more […]

Chelsea Bloom on London markets, boardroom gossip, and Britain’s billionaire film moment Interest rate speculation should have dominated the boardroom chatter this week, given the timing of the latest announcement and the genuinely significant implications for anyone with a mortgage, a loan, or a business […]

Chelsea Bloom on the risk factor that doesn’t show up in a standard property prospectus CANARY WHARF — A commercial real estate analyst I’ve spoken to for years, at a fund that manages a substantial London-focused property portfolio, told me something last month that surprised […]

Chelsea Bloom on why the commercial market is starting to look uncomfortably like the residential one FARRINGDON — A commercial letting agent I’ve known for years has a line he trots out at every renewal: “Office rent follows residential rent up the hill about eighteen […]

Chelsea Bloom follows the unglamorous economics of a delayed commute THE CITY — The invitation said 8am sharp. By 8:22, four of the eleven guests still hadn’t arrived, and the host, a venture capital associate who organises these breakfasts monthly, had stopped apologising on their […]