A disused area near to Old Trafford in Manchester is to be the site for a new, football themed luxury hotel fronted by former Manchester United footballers Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.
Hotel Football is planned to be a five-star property comprising 200 rooms and 153 one, two and three bed apartments
We hear police in Spain are cracking down on organisers of parties afloat after a series of sex scenes on a party boat appeared on a porn website. Police are now intercepting boat excursions from Magaluf and San Antonio, Ibiza to check the crew for inebriation and ensure captains are minimising risk of drunken passengers are not injured when disembarking. All passengers are also being searched for drugs.
The boat parties have become popular since new rules governing street drinking and stag parties ashore were introduced.
21-22 September 2016
Venues and Events Live exhibition, Old Billingsgate, London EC3.
web: venuesandevents.co.uk
19-20 October 2016
Showman’s Show for outdoor events, Newbury Showground.
web: 10times.com/the-showmans-show
Those who enjoy the slapstick artistry of the great silent films will enjoy the massive slice of movie history presented in a collection on Blu-ray of thirty-two films made by one of the stars of the silent era.
Offering more than twelve hours of viewing BUSTER KEATON-The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 starts with The Butcher Boy, which is the first glimpse cinema-goers had of Keaton and his acrobatic and slapstick talents ninety-nine years ago. Also starring is the ex-Keystone cop Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle, known as “Fatty” on account of his girth, a name he hated. Arbuckle was in fact very graceful on his feet, and equally acrobatic for his considerable weight and refused to get cheap laughs by getting stuck in chairs and suchlike. And he also demonstrated some very clever knife tossing in his first film with Keaton, and, without special effects got a large butcher’s cleaver to embed upright in a wooden bench when he casually flipped the cleaver from the other side of the room. Continue reading
A large majority of those reading newspapers were presented with arguments in favour of leaving the EU in the run-up to the referendum, according to Press Gazette.
The combined claimed circulations of national newspapers favouring Brexit was 6,755,480, against 4,993,934 favouring staying in the EU. The circulations of those not declaring was 2,733,504, making up a combined claimed circulation of 14,482,918. Continue reading
The majority of the electorate, who voted to leave the EU, are to blame for Lloyd’s bank having to cut 3,000 jobs and close 200 branches, according to its £8.5 million a year CEO, Antonio Horta-Osorio. This is despite his claim that Lloyds were “in a strong position to withstand the uncertainty” he says has been caused by the Brexit vote.
Horta-Osorio has not said whether the savings made by his job cuts and branch closures will be used to improve customer service, to donate to charity or to fund even more generous salaries, bonuses, expenses and pensions for himself and his management team.
Leaked messages from the organisations behind the long-running junior doctor’s strikes indicate that they were just pretending to want to “save the NHS” when all they really wanted was more money from it.
The chairman of their junior doctor’s committee Johan Malawana proposed “a strategy that tied the DH up in knots for the next 16-18 months” and, during talks with arbitrators Acas that the doctors should not get “too concerned in the Acas rubbish. We need to play the political game of always looking reasonable”.
The British Medical Association, which many would expect to know better, was revealed as cynically wanting the government to impose a seven day contract on doctors in the hope that this would win their members sympathy and support from the public for their striking for more money.
Forecasting a dip in bookings for August travel – due to sterling’s drop in value and acts of terrorism putting travellers off – Eurostar’s marketeers have introduced a day return fare of £58 for midweek travel to Paris and Brussels, representing just over a quarter of the normal fare for August. Continue reading
An increasing number of householders being chased for the TV license fee are using a legal loophole to prevent “enforcement officers” – actually staff of private firm Capita with no legal right to enter homes or search property without permission – from calling on them.
The legal process is “withdrawing implied right of access” to a householder’s frond doorstep, something any householder can do, thus making enforcement officers trespassers if they continue to visit.
It is, unusually, a criminal offence to fail to pay the TV licence and this is an unwarranted status likely to be altered by an overdue Act of Parliament next year.
Ofcom has upheld complaints from viewers that Channel 4 quiz show Countdown breached broadcasting rules by plugging products on air.
Countdown host Nick Hewer, 72, who is a former public relations consultant and more recently scrutiniser of young business hopefuls on The Apprentice TV reality show gave the upcoming Ideal Home Exhibition some “heavy promotion” that left some viewers wondering if he had been paid for it. And a guest on the same show, former British swimmer Mark Foster talked about his (paid for?) position as Ambassador for P&O Cruises before heavily promoting them. Continue reading