This week’s front pages of the national daily newspapers were very quick to put the feelgood factor of the fantastic Commonwealth Games in Birmingham behind them. Seeing the thousands upon thousands of people who attended all the events surely demonstrated that the city could be an admirable host of the Olympic Games, if only they were to bid, writes David Little, a Partner in solicitor Bishop & Sewell’s Corporate and Commercial department.
Exactly two years ago were all being encouraged to ‘Eat out to help out’. Sadly it seems restaurants did not receive big enough helpings, with a report by accountants UHY Hacker Young suggesting almost three-quarters of the UK’s top 100 restaurant companies are now losing money. Debt repayments are a major problem, while the expected post-pandemic recovery has been compromised by soaring food and energy costs.
Quoted in the Independent Peter Kubik, of UHY Hacker Young, said: “It may be a case of ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’ for many UK restaurant groups. They expected, and needed, higher consumer spending as we put Covid further behind us, but this spending is now likely to fall”.
It does seem a fair challenge from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and others, that with inflation currently running at over 9% and interest rates on the climb too you would think the government would be in permanent emergency session, rather than on holiday.
Someone not on holiday would appear to be Dominic Raab our Deputy Prime Minister. A leaked Ministry of Justice paper suggesting he is planning to curb judges’ powers to limit ministers’ accountability in judicial reviews. Reported here by the Guardian the move comes amid rhetoric from ministers about “lefty lawyers” and judicial overreach.
Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “This leaked document suggests that the government plans to make it even harder for people to challenge them and make themselves even less accountable to the public. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen an unprecedented assault on our legal rights, including in the Judicial Review and Courts Act and through ongoing proposals to scrap the Human Rights Act”.
You would think the government had bigger fish to fry.
David Little is a Partner in Bishop and Sewell’s Corporate & Commercial team. Should you require any further advice or assistance, please contact him quoting reference CB334 on +44 (0)20 7079 4143 or email: [email protected]
About Bishop & Sewell LLP
Bishop & Sewell is a long-established, full service Central London law firm – with an international reach – specialising in Personal, Property and Commercial legal matters. To learn more, visit www.bishopandsewell.co.uk