Business Insider is the latest casualty in a now rapidly shifting media world – more than 100 jobs are gone after the site bled half of its traffic in just five years. CEO Barbara Peng said: “We’re scaling back on categories that once performed well on other platforms but no longer drive meaningful readership or aren’t areas where we can lead.” A brutal 21% cut of the remaining headcount – falling since 2023 due to a long-standing hiring freeze…
Over at The Sun a reshuffle has seen business editor Ashley Armstrong depart with no current replacement. The paper has scrapped its business page, replacing it with a “Sun Money” consumer section. Former Sun supremo Kelvin MacKenzie says all sports hacks at the red top have been told to reapply for their own jobs – and even if they get them back, it’ll be on lower pay. Casualties of a dying format…
Press Gazette figures from earlier this year show that across the UK and US, at least 3,875 journalism jobs were cut in 2024. The BBC led the UK cull with 210 roles axed, while the Evening Standard ditching its daily print edition saw around 150 job losses. In the US, the Associated Press chopped 8% of its workforce. New media is on the rise…
Miliband’s pet project the “home grown energy company” GB Energy has no desks and no office of its own. Despite completing multiple hiring rounds…
GB Energy staff are instead based in DESNZ’s existing offices in Aberdeen on Huntly Street as well as in Edinburgh and Glasgow. An FoI release obtained by Guido specifies that “in Aberdeen, Great British Energy staff sit in existing space shared with other colleagues from the Department, and do not have a specific desk allocation.” In other locations there is also no desk allocation. Not that GB Energy boss Juergen Maier minds – his office is confirmed to be far away in Salford. Also sitting in departmental space…
As it recruits more staff DESNZ says it is “pursuing property options through the Government Property Agency which are currently under negotiation.” They don’t even need desks – GB Energy staff are only expected to come into the office 40% of the time…
Over in the US, Lord Mandelson is busy guzzling wine at dinner parties while proffering his views on the supposed similarities between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump. According to The Times, the British Ambassador to the US told MAGA bigwigs last night that the PM and US President were both elected on mandates from people who “felt they were unheard by mainstream politics,” and who hate “uncontrolled woke culture.” Eh? Is Mandelson talking about a different Keir Starmer?
Speaking at Raheem Kassam’s MAGA hotspot Butterworth’s – he was there to unveil a plaque in his honour, a tough gig – Mandelson claimed:
“Although we don’t have identical politics, we are familiar with masters of the same drivers that brought our respective figures to power — President Trump in your case and Keir Starmer in mine.”
He went on to explain their alleged shared mandate, which was provided by “angry people” who were “angry about the cost of living, angry about uncontrolled immigration and angry about uncontrolled woke culture spreading across institutions.” The Times claims “guests sipped Hambledon English sparkling wine” as Mandelson delivered this astute piece of political analysis. Presumably he made good progress through a bottle before delivering his speech…
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Private schools have seen the biggest year-on-year fall in the number of pupils since 2010 thanks to Labour’s punitive VAT raid. Latest figures from the Department for Education show the numbers fell by more than 11,000 in January to 582,500 in England, a 1.9% decrease since last year. The tax was a nail in the coffin for many small independent schools, including one in Reeves’ own constituency…
That number is far from the government’s naive prediction that only 3,000 pupils would be forced out of these schools in the first year. The figures from the Department for Education only include figures in England, though according to Independent Schools Council, the UK-wide number of private school pupils dropped by 13,000 in a year. Labour again vastly underestimating the fallout from their punishing tax grab…
The Critic is running a report that George Osborne has agreed to hand over the Elgin Marbles via “permanent loan” back to Greece. Such plans have been mooted and not denied for years. Starmer has said he would “not to stand in the way” of any deal reached to surrender the stones…
The British Museum is currently denying reports. They say: “Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon Partnership are on-going and constructive. We believe that this kind of long term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”
Downing Street said this afternoon that it has no plans to try to keep hold of the Marbles via a change to legislation and “it remains the case that decisions relating to the care and management of the Parthenon sculptures are a matter for trustees of the British Museum which is operationally independent of the government.” Keir gives the go ahead as Osborne has his finger on the trigger…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”
