And it’s not just banks which are once again looking to buy into other parts of UK financial services and money washes away all sorts of murky deeds in the world of global finance. Do the Saudis see Phoenix and M&G as nothing more than sound investments? Or might the rationale be ‘you may not like us but you can’t do without us, and we’ll make sure that soon you really won’t be able to do without us’? It’s worked so far for China, who make everything and own a pretty big chunk of the world’s mineral rights; and many are finding having to hold their noses to get Russian gas and Ukrcomainian grain. I’m not one for conspiracy theories. But, makes you think, doesn’t it?
“The working-from-home illusion fades”
Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted his energy bill more efficiently.
