The Capitalist: This isn’t just blackmail, it’s M&S blackmail
Embarrassing Ed Miliband, dream dinner party guests and window taxes, catch up with the latest gossip from the Square Mile
M&S is clearly playing by the book in its response to the crippling cyber attack launched on its systems over Easter, with talk of a £100m insurance claim to help them get over the losses. But ask yourself, how might you respond to extortion and blackmail? The Capitalist spoke to one former City chief whose firm was targeted some years ago by hackers who underestimated their opponent. “We turned the tables on them,” he explained, “we deployed some resources to find out who they were and exactly where in the world they lived.” This threat of exposure – or perhaps worse – saw the cyberpunks swiftly retreat from the field of battle.
Clarkson for PM?
Rivalry between a Prime Minister and Chancellor is to be expected, though it’s been a while since Westminster’s witnessed anything like the tension that existed between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The Capitalist can report that the current occupants of Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street are currently battling it out for a dubious accolade; Britain’s least popular politicians. The latest CityAM/Freshwater poll of UK voters shows that 50 per cent of Brits have an unfavourable view of Rachel Reeves, but she’s pipped to the post by Keir Starmer who is disliked by a punchy 58 per cent. We asked voters for their view of a dozen of the UK’s most prominent political and cultural figures and the top three are King Charles, Jeremy Clarkson and Nigel Farage. That’s a dinner party The Capitalist would like to join.
Labour’s Nimby backlash
Speaking of unpopular ministers, Ed Miliband has been causing embarrassment – and not just for the usual reasons (inability to eat bacon sandwiches/baffling number of kitchens). His wife joined fellow residents of leafy north London, including Benedict Cumberbatch, in objecting to a new block of flats in Dartmouth Park, describing the proposal as “too bulky”. Surely there could hardly be a better example of “the whims of nimbys” that the Prime Minister has promised to bulldoze to build 1.5m new homes by the end of the parliament? Not so, says housing campaigner and founder of Create Streets Nicholas Boys Smith, who told The Capitalist that while replacing the existing 1930s building is “clearly the right thing to do” the developer “has been foolish and misled by trendy designers. Their proposals are not completely offensive but when you have a well-established and lovely street like this, far more sensible and far more neighbourly would have been to build a new house that better echoes of even replicates its neighbours.” Let’s see if Mrs Miliband’s campaign proves more lasting than her husband’s cabinet career…
Pier More-Sun
Piers Morgan’s tenure as editor of The Mirror was put under further scrutiny this week at the TravMedia Awards this past Monday. As the paper’s current Travel Editor Nigel Thompson took to the stage to accept his Lifetime Achievement award to a standing ovation, a voiceover couldn’t help but take a jab at Morgan’s love for a freebie holiday during his time at the paper. Commending Nigel’s work ethic, the host said that “Piers Morgan needed someone to write up his endless travel features”. Morgan must have been busy with, erm, well perhaps we’ll leave it at that.
Beyonce and the future of men
To Old Queen Street, where Fraser Nelson chaired a discussion on “the crisis in male employment and education” with US academics Richard Reeves and Nicholas Eberstadt. While the Capitalist believes centuries of patriarchy were due a reset, the panellists made a compelling case that the increased participation of women in the workforce since the 1960s has led to the “declining marginal utility of men,” which is having knock-on consequences on everything from mental health to unemployment to fertility rates. Quoting pre-eminent 21st century philosopher, Beyonce, Nelson mused that empowered women were no longer interested in “triflin’, good for nothing type of brother[s]” and questioned whether we’re heading for a world where “men are only good for sex and heavy lifting”. A macho fist-bump to that.
The return of the window tax?
A rare thing Rachel Reeves doesn’t want to tax: windows. Despite a widely circulated social media post warning the Chancellor was planning a £3.70 per aperture levy, The Capitalist can find no evidence for the claim and is happy to confirm that windows have been tax-free since 1851.