David Brent was supposed to be a satire, now he looks like a model for political leaders August 5, 2026 Attention-seeking, self-absorbed and desperate to be liked, David Brent was meant to embody everything a leader should not be – but today’s media landscape rewards the very qualities Ricky Gervais satirised, says Tim Focas A Tiktok clip has gone viral for comparing Andy Burnham to David Brent. His cheesy mannerisms, dad dancing and guitar playing [...]
What Burnham could learn from BP’s pragmatism August 5, 2026 In 2020, BP unveiled a “major, necessary step in support of our purpose to reimagine energy for people and our planet.” The new strategy – “performing while transforming” – would see the firm “significantly scale-up our low carbon energy business” as part of a commitment “to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner [...]
The best weapon against AI slop is a good lunch August 5, 2026 Morning Wire is rightly campaigning against AI slop but the best answer to the advance of the robots is human connection, and that’s what journalism and PR are best at, says James Millar Some years ago a leading mathematician, genuinely one of the cleverest people in the country, reassured me that AI would not make [...]
IPOs aren’t the new meme stocks August 5, 2026 The market may be producing bigger IPO stories. like SpaceX and Anthropic, but that doesn’t mean retail investors are blindly buying the hype, says Carl Hazeley If you only read the headlines, you’d think retail investors had found their next obsession: blockbuster IPOs. SpaceX has dominated the conversation again this week as investors digest its [...]
Britain has an AI minister – now it needs an AI answer August 4, 2026 The appointment of Kanishka Narayan, Britain’s first Cabinet-level minister for AI is an acknowledgement that this technology is the central economic question of the age, but the minister’s real test is whether he continues to build durable homegrown capability or instead subsidises dependency on non-European platforms, says Stefano Pasquali Kanishka Narayan’s appointment as Britain’s first [...]
Susannah Streeter: investors are bracing for tax rises August 4, 2026 The Notebook, where the City’s movers and shakers have their say. Today financial commentator Susannah Streeter takes the pen Usually, at this time of year we would be enjoying Médoc’s beautiful beaches, looking forward to long lunches, endless stretches of Atlantic coastline and enjoying the region’s famous wine as the sun sets. But the devastating [...]
What are we to make of John Healey? Time will tell. August 4, 2026 Who exactly is in charge of this government’s economic policy? In a bid to find out, I’ve tasked two of our journalists to hit the phones, mooch around the bars of Whitehall and track down Westminster’s new power brokers. I’ll let you know what we find out, but he fact that the answer to this [...]
Donald Trump is creeping towards a shrewd sanctions policy August 4, 2026 President Trump is shifting toward a more solidly pro-Ukraine position which, while welcome, will require careful calibration to mitigate potential global trade disruptions and address corporate enablers of the Russian war effort, says Derek Grossman President Trump’s warm welcome on Tuesday to Volodymyr Zelensky, his Ukrainian counterpart, shows that he is moving, fitfully, toward a [...]
AI powerhouses are betting on London’s future August 3, 2026 London is a truly global city with a world-leading financial sector, a sophisticated and mature technology ecosystem, and the infrastructure to support growth at scale – and with these major recent AI office signings, we are seeing the city endorsed by the businesses shaping frontier technology, says Mike Wiseman In my experience, the property market [...]
Jonathan Reynolds’ industrial strategy is straight out of the 60s August 3, 2026 Jonathan Reynolds, the new business secretary, has set out a vision for publicly owned services, with private sector partnerships, still under public control – a baffling vision from some eccentric economic bestiary, says Eliot Wilson Andrew Murray Burnham has been in Downing Street for two weeks now. He promised – new Prime Ministers always promise [...]