Friday High Five – a week for crazy news stories
It’s been a week for really crazy news stories.
I make the full declaration that I’m a supporter of Blackburn Rovers Football Club, so have slightly more emotional investment in the latest financial twist than most of our readers.
Still, an iconic North West business having to ask a judge in India to let the owners settle a tax bill is the latest bizarre turn this tale has taken.
I still for the life of me can’t understand why on earth a chicken and pharma company from Pune in India has sunk so much money into a Lancashire football club.
Elsewhere, Manchester United, who Rovers once considered to be rivals, have warned the New York stock market that their failure to qualify for the Champions League will hit the numbers this financial year.
THG look like they’ve made a significant move towards sustained recovery, and the deal with Holland and Barratt can’t hurt. The share price, however, remains stubbornly lower than where they need it to be.
The ongoing scrutiny of Douglas Barrowman won’t sit easy with entrepreneur and corporate financier, and the reaction from his wife Baroness Michelle Mone has been as robust. But they have massive questions to answer.
Last night’s BBC probe was fairly damning, but it reminded us that though claims to want to avoid publicity he opened up his life to a Channel 4 TV documentary about super yacht owners a few years ago. The contrast couldn’t be greater.
We opened the week with an interview with Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig, who was refreshing and frank in her assessment of what the city needs to do next. Her observations from her recent trip to Japan clearly showed how much her thinking has been informed by how the Japanese hi-tech economy has been boosted by transport investment.
Finally, yesterday I was on a panel at the Better Business Network held at Manchester Metropolitan University with the title – Should we all just stop reading the news?
Hopefully I persuaded at least some of the audience that they should engage with the news, and not just the ones about football finance and offshore tycoons.
