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MARKS and Spencer insists that the decision of chief executive Marc Bolland to “retire” in April is not linked to the fall in clothing sales that was also announced yesterday. It probably wasn’t. A man doesn’t leave just because sales of general merchandise (mainly clothes) were down by 5.8% over the three months up to […]

IF I hadn’t embraced the Christmas spirit this festive season, then there was the perfect opportunity to do it at an event at the Andaz Hotel next to Liverpool Street Station in London this week. The Andaz, formerly known as the Great Eastern Hotel, is an impressive part of Hyatt Hotels’ portfolio of London properties.

THEY sit like uneasy neighbours squabbling over the size of a privet hedge between their houses. The North West and Yorkshire have had a rivalry stretching back to the Wars of the Roses. Now the argument is often over the respective merits of each region’s economy, particularly over whether Manchester outshines Leeds when it comes

LEEDS has been named the best big city in England to live in. That was the result of a survey this week where Yorkshire’s biggest city beat six other major English cities including Manchester and Birmingham in MoneySuperMarket’s 2015 quality of living index. Apparently it scored highly in a number of categories with Leeds residents

HOSTING an event for KPMG Enterprise this week gave me the opportunity to have a close up look at the impressive new home of the business advisory firm in Leeds. The Sovereign Street building represents a big change from the firm’s previous home across the road. Walking in you immediately see staff walking around the

A DJ rapper, a former England cricketer nicknamed Badger because he fidgets a lot, an Apprentice candidate who irked Lord Sugar for not selling enough cat towers in a pet promotion and a sports presenter idolised by rugby league fans. Putting all four together in front of an audience of top business people and hoping

DO you have a doppelgänger? No, it’s not something you buy from Anne Summers, but the German word for look-a-like. It literally translates as “double-goer” (I’ve met one or two in my time) and is often applied when someone looks like a famous person. In Germany it is traditionally seen as a harbinger of bad

THE word legend is bandied about too much these days. But I was lucky enough to be in the presence of one yesterday. Former Leeds United great Norman Hunter was the guest at our lunch at the Foundry restaurant where we ‘celebrated’ the 40th anniversary of his infamous fight with Francis Lee of Derby County.

IT still ranks as one of the biggest challenges of my working life. Give me an arrogant company chairman or cabinet minister to interview, or even the cashflow demands that come from running a business, and I’ll tell you that either are easier than the Lord’s Taverners Balloon Debate. It is more than two years

MASSIMO Cellino has been in charge of Leeds United for barely 18 months but his latest managerial sacking was greeted with a grim inevitability by long-suffering supporters of the Championship team. Are fans of the club today paying the price for something that happened in a previous life? Or is it payback time for all