Tag: chances
CBI’s chances of survival shrink further after Chancellor says there’s ‘no point engaging’ with business lobby group
THE CBI’s chances of survival shrank further yesterday after the Chancellor said there was “no point” engaging with the organisation.
And a top fund manager said the lobby group’s sexual misconduct scandal risked putting women off business.
Jeremy Hunt said there was no point engaging when the CBI’s own members ‘have deserted them in droves’[/caption]
The CBI, which is meant to represent 190,000 members, is in meltdown as police investigate two separate rape allegations and inappropriate behaviour across the organisation.
When asked if the CBI could rebuild trust, its president, Brian McBride, said: “I simply don’t know.”
Dame Helena Morrissey, former boss of Newton Investment Management and director of a number of City firms, said the “horrible allegations” risked “putting women off joining industry”.
She told The Sun: “I don’t know why the CBI is still trying to cling on — it’s over.
“They cannot continue to represent business.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told journalists: “There’s no point engaging with the CBI when their own members have deserted them in droves.
“We are not going to wait for a reinvention of the CBI or for the CBI to get back on its feet.”
On Friday, in the wake of fresh rape allegations, over 60 companies axed, paused or suspended their membership of the CBI, including Aviva, NatWest and John Lewis.
The lobby group has mothballed its operations until a meeting in June.
RISHI SCHMOOZES 200 CITY LEADERS
PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak proclaimed his Government was “unashamedly pro-business” as he launched a charm offensive to woo company bosses.
Yesterday’s “Business Connect” summit was an attempt to re-engage with hundreds of chief executives after contact with the scandal-rocked CBI was frozen.
Sources said the Government wanted to “lavish love” on business after years of tension.
It has been shaken by the success of Labour’s Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves having boardroom breakfasts with City chiefs in what’s become known as a “salmon and scrambled eggs offensive”.
Business confidence in the Government was rattled last year by the brief reign of Liz Truss and her mini-budget, which brought the financial system to the brink of collapse.
Company chiefs have also never forgotten Boris Johnson’s “F*** business” comment when he was Foreign Secretary.
Mr Sunak took to the stage to tell company chiefs: “We’ve got your back. We know the last year has not been easy but I believe we are turning a corner.
“Optimism and confidence are improving. Our job is to build on that positive momentum and that’s why we need to create the conditions for you to succeed and drive that growth.”
A major tech boss said: “It’s clear the Government wants to engage and listen. And that should be welcomed because business has fallen down the agenda.”
BAE Systems CEO Charles Woodburn said it was “good to have some engagement”.
And advertising tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell said: “Whatever the stimulus for this event is, the UK brand has been damaged, so any effort around that is a positive.”
Luxury handbag designer Anya Hindmarch called on the Government to appreciate Britain’s strong creative industries as a “marketing arm for the UK”.
She said: “It’s very easy to lose your edge — like sunburn, it can happen before you realise.”
Mr Sunak admitted he regularly bought Hindmarch bags for his wife and hailed the UK’s fashion universities as the best in the world.
But Burberry boss Gerry Murphy slammed the Government for failing to bring back tax-free shopping.
He said scrapping VAT relief was a “spectacular own goal” that had made the UK the “least attractive shopping destination in Europe”.
BANK RUN ON SUISSE HIT £55BN
CREDIT Suisse customers pulled £55billion out at the start of the year, the Swiss bank has revealed.
The lender yesterday admitted the true scale of the turmoil that preceded its state-engineered rescue by rival UBS.
It warned that it would not be profitable until 2024 after making a loss of 7.3billion Swiss francs (£6.6billion), the worst loss since 2008.
Credit Suisse was hit by market turmoil after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse in the US in March, causing clients to withdraw funds.
The Swiss National Bank called the subsequent takeover “systemically important” to the global banking system.
There had been concerns that unless the run on Credit Suisse was stopped, it could spread.
BEN RUES GYM SLIP
GYMSHARK, the athleisure brand started by the UK’s youngest self-made billionaire, has posted a 40 per cent slip in profits on the back of rising costs and weakening demand.
Ben Francis, 30, set up Gymshark 11 years ago and it was valued at more than £1billion in 2020.
But pre-tax profits fell from £45.4million to £27.8million in the year to the end of July 2022, despite overall sales rising a fifth to £484.4million.
SHARES
BARCLAYS up 0.96 to 154.20
BP up 3.90 to 533.90
CENTRICA up 1.05 to 113.85
HSBC down 0.40 to 573.3
LLOYDS up 0.05 to 48.91
M&S up 0.75 to 164.65
NATWEST up 1.70 to 274.2
ROYAL MAIL up 3.80 to 254.60
SAINSBURY’S down 1.20 to 280.50
SHELL up 8.50 to 2,461.50
TESCO down 0.80 to 278.10
4MOST BONUS
AN employee-owned firm is giving 150 staff a £150,000 payday after selling a stake.
4most, a provider of risk analytics, was considering a stock market listing — but has now sold a 51 per cent stake to Phoenix Equity Partners.
The windfall for staff includes graduates who had been with the firm for only two years.
Q&A: How 2023 college grads can boost chances of finding their IT dream job
The unemployment rate for the IT remains at historic lows — just 2.2%. Meanwhile, more than 300,000 tech job postings remain open — a 17-year high — leaving nearly four in five employers struggling to fill job roles.
That means this year’s college graduates should be looking at a target-rich environment for their resumes. Yet, entry-level tech job applicants often get no responses, even after shotgunning the job market with resumes. And many new graduates are unaware of free or inexpensive job-hunting resources available to them through staffing firms, online training, and professional networking sites.
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s City of Last Chances Explores a Volatile New Realm
Versatile and prolific author Adrian Tchaikovsky won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016 for his sci-fi tale Children of Time, but he’s equally as well known for his Shadows of the Apt fantasy series. He returns to the fantasy genre with his next novel, City of Last Chances, and io9 has a first look today!
Thomas Muller rates Bayern Munich’s chances of beating Man City on Pep Guardiola reunion
Aleksandar Mitrovic ‘ruined Man Utd transfer chances’ with red card rage at Old Trafford
Exposed: The missed chances to prevent ‘psychopathic’ criminal from killing four people
Econofact: Can moving to a different neighborhood improve your chances in life?
Dermot Kennedy on shunning parties, the chances of seeing him on I’m A Celeb and new album Sonder
HIS debut album Without Fear topped both the UK and Ireland album charts and launched the Irish singer songwriter to the world.
Three years on and Dermot Kennedy is back, loving being back on the road and playing live with new album Sonder released next week. And for the 30-year-old, it’s about keeping it real.
“For me it’s always been about credibility,” he tells me from his hotel room in Newcastle, just hours before his acoustic gig at the city’s Boiler Shop on Tuesday. His arena tour starts next April.
He adds: “Going from album one to album two is all about trying to gauge your own ambition and figure out who you’re trying to be and what you’re trying to achieve.
“It’s always been about making the best music I can. I’m not trying to hamper my own progress in any way.
“I don’t want to get in the way of where certain songs like (recent single) Kiss Me could take me.
READ MORE BIG INTERVIEWS
“I do want to play stadiums and I’m not shy about that. I’m always trying to juggle that kind of ambition versus my own humility and integrity.”
So there’s no chance of seeing the singer in the jungle on I’m A Celebrity . . . in the near future?
‘I play shows to connect with people’
“Definitely not,” he laughs. “I have a decent head on my shoulders as to what’s OK and what’s not. I’ve met people I admire like Dave and Finneas but it doesn’t faze me.
“I wouldn’t say success has really changed things for me personally. I’m not the type to be in LA, or in New York and go to parties. I’m not a networker.
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“While I love meeting new people, I know who my best friends are. And I’ve been the same since I was a child. I will never change.
“When I’m home, my friends or parents don’t ask me anything about music. We’re just normal and I’m very grateful for that.
“And that’s why I gave the album the title Sonder — it made sense for me to take the weight off my own shoulders.
“My music is not about me, and I don’t want to be a celebrity. I just want to share this album with people and make them feel better.”
Meaning “the realisation that everyone has a story”, Sonder is something that has appealed to Kennedy for a while and became the perfect title.
He says: “I’m in an industry where it’s celebrated to be all about yourself. You’re constantly thinking about your own goals, achievements and your own story and journey.
“I don’t love that if I’m honest. As an artist I don’t play shows to celebrate what I’m doing — I play shows to connect with people and to share with people and, and to see their emotions and for them to see mine.
“For me, my fans’ stories are as important as mine and that’s why I don’t necessarily talk too much about the meanings of songs because I don’t want to cloud how someone else interprets it for their own lives.
“What really strikes a chord with me is that someone in the crowd could have a story to tell that’s just as important as mine.
Seeing him perform live is an unforgettable experience. The singer has also topped more than four billion streams across music platforms[/caption]
“Like with the song Divide — it’s about today’s times but not in a Bob Dylan way — more a song to give light relief or escapism. Music is important to make people feel better in difficult times. That’s important to me and inspires me to keep making music.”
It’s Kennedy’s ability to capture emotion and vulnerability in his songs and bring them to life with his incredible voice that makes him so unique.
Seeing him perform live is an unforgettable experience. The singer has also topped more than four billion streams across music platforms and was nominated for Best International Male Solo Artist at the Brit Awards in 2020.
And his new music is set to achieve more accolades for the footballer turned singer.
‘Proud how dynamic the album is’
Better Days, the first single released from Sonder won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year 2021.
“I’m very proud of this album and how dynamic it is,” he says. “I feel like I’m in a position where I do what I like musically. I love the acoustic side of my music but there’s a more fleshed out and bigger arrangement to my new songs.
“For those to live side by side especially when I play live, makes me happy.”
Better Days and Kiss Me have had huge radio airplay and are fan favourites at his live shows.
He says: “One of the first times we played Better Days live was at TRNSMT festival in Glasgow and it was wild — you could tell the crowd hadn’t been to a show in a very long time.
“It immediately became a song about the last couple of years, despite that not being where it came from. When I write songs, I hope they’re a temporary remedy for people that are finding life difficult.”
As for Kiss Me, a song he wrote with Dan Smith from Bastille, Kennedy says: “It’s probably one of the best songs I’ve ever written. In terms of lyrics and the way that it’s structured and the melody. It’s got a big pop arrangement around it and sounds fantastic when I play it stripped back and acoustically. Then in the full band show it’s something special. I’d say potentially it’s the best song I’ve ever made.”
Other highlights on Sonder include autobiographical Dreamer and poignant ballad Innocence And Sadness — which some fans are calling his best-ever song.
He says: “I wrote that one on my parents’ piano and it’s coming across as being quite powerful live. And the hip hop influences found its way into the production with that song. I’m so pleased with it.”
And the change in sound for Kennedy is matched with a change in hair colour for the singer who sports a new purple tint on Sonder’s cover artwork.
He laughs: “The colour matches the music — though huge upkeep — it’s nice to be part of a new colour palette.”
Laid back and taking everything in his stride, Kennedy isn’t one of those pop stars who moans about his work.
He says: “There isn’t a day that I don’t love what I do. I get to be in the studio making music or I’m playing shows to people — making and playing music is my favourite thing in the world, so I never have to pretend or force myself.
“It’s always enjoyable. And even when I’m exhausted or missing out on friends’ birthdays or weddings, I deal with it.
“There are certain things that I sacrifice but I think people understand that.
‘I’m not one to be partying’’
“This isn’t just a hobby for me. I’ve been doing this for 15 years now and so anyone close to me really understands that I have chased it desperately for a long time.”
Kennedy has never been workshy and got his break in music through years of busking, and has recently returned to the streets to busk on his Sonder Street Sessions.
The artist is keeping busy until his new album is released.
“Busking is a great way to connect with people,” he tells me. “And I’ve been far more open and honest with this new record and am open to how people will see themselves in these songs.
“I love the fact I can play the big venues and then the next day stand on a bench, busking in the park. I love both worlds.”
Looking after his unique voice and his health is something Kennedy has put more focus on with success.
He recently supported Shawn Mendes on his Wonder tour in North America and publicly supported the Canadian singer when in July, he cancelled the rest of his world tour in the UK, North America and Europe due to mental health stuggles.
He says: “Touring is complex and can be insane, especially those huge tours. They’re not always sustainable.
“You’ll find yourself working on your days off and after the pandemic, to go straight back into that lifestyle, it can choke you.
“If I had to pin down one silverlining for the pandemic, it’s that I got to take stock of everything. I look after myself physically and look after my singing.
“My vocal technique has improved massively and I’m much more capable of putting on a show and physically be ready for it.
“I always try to find time to get away even when I’m on tour.
“I will try and play football or, like earlier today, I find time to walk around for the first time in a while.
“I just spent a few hours wandering across the Moors for two hours by myself, making a bunch of weird noises to try to warm up my voice. it’s important to let your mind have some space.
“I’m not one to be partying — though you can’t be too strict. I need some fun and so I let go, but I’m disciplined. I like to believe I haven’t made any serious mistakes so far.
“I admit I’m a workaholic but I’m focusing on having a balance of music and real life in the coming years. Same with social media — I don’t look at my phone too much. I try and stay away from what people think about me.
“Social media can be fantastic as you connect with fans, but you have to be careful as people have opinions that are unfounded and irrational.
“Seeing that negativity is not helpful in any way, so I do keep my distance. I keep a protective bubble around myself.
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“I look at someone like Ben Howard, who became so enormous then kind of retreated, which is fine.
“I might do that if things ever get too much but at the moment I’m enjoying it all.”
- Sonder is released on November 18.