UK flooding, Royal Mail strikes, British Steel: your commercial news round-up
updated on 14 November 2019
Forget the upcoming general election, Brexit confusion and the increasingly cold weather: today is everyone’s favourite day of the year – John Lewis Christmas Advert Day! This year’s advert features excitable dragon Edgar trying to bring some festive cheer to a medieval village and you can already buy the full range of Edgar merchandise at John Lewis and Waitrose – it doesn’t take much to see the commercial sense in that! Here’s some more news stories from the week:
- As parts of South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were hit by heavy flooding this week, some homeowners and business areas in the affected areas found out that their insurance wouldn’t cover the costs of starting over. Meanwhile, political party leaders paid visits to the areas with Prime Minister Boris Johnson heckled for his government’s slow response to the flooding and Jeremy Corbyn using the opportunity to blame the Tories for neglecting the North.
- Royal Mail workers have been banned from striking before Christmas and in the run-up to the general election, as Royal Mail won its legal battle at the High Court. The Communications Workers Union (CWU) said its members were “extremely angry and bitterly disappointed”.
- Thousands of jobs at British Steel have been saved as Chinese firm Jingye promised to invest £1.2 billion into the ailing steelmaker which went into liquidation in May. Jingye has promised to save as many jobs as possible at the company, which is based in Scunthorpe and Teesside. The move means that the Chinese company will control a third of the UK’s steel industry.
- The Liberal Democrats and the SNP have launched legal challenges against ITV after the channel excluded party leaders from its televised election debate. The head-to-head debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn is set to take place on 19 November. Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon both condemned the decision not to include other party leaders, with Sturgeon commenting that ITV “fails to recognise that the UK is no longer a two-party state”.
- It was controversial when it first came out, but Greggs’ vegan sausage roll has propelled the bakery chain to victory as it revealed that sales had grown by 12.4% in the past six weeks, with total sales up 13.4% this year. The company has raised its profit forecast for 2019 in light of the strong trading results.
Be sure to check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Follow @LawCareersNetUK on Twitter and like us on Facebook for instant business news updates.
