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 our Corporate and Commercial department.
Exactly two years ago we 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.
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David Little is a Partner at Bishop & Sewell in our expert Corporate & Commercial team. If you would like to contact him please quote Ref CB338 on either 020 7631 4141 or email company@bishopandsewell.co.uk.
The above is accurate as at 10 August 2022. The information above may be subject to change during these ever-changing times.
The content of this note should not be considered legal advice and each matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
