Rachel de Thame urges people to take same care with finances as with gardens
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BBC News
24 minutes ago
- BBC News
New-look Man City aim to bounce back amid uncertainty
Manchester City head into the new season with the cloud of financial charges still hovering over them, while there are questions on how quickly their new signings will integrate into the been dominant with four successive Premier League titles, Pep Guardiola's all-conquering side endured a bitterly disappointing 2024-25 finished third in the table, failed to win a major trophy and suffered a shock last-16 exit from the Fifa Club World Cup at the hands of Saudi Arabia's will be a wounded beast, but there is uncertainty as to how they will respond to last season's struggles and whether Guardiola can build another title-winning machine."We are ready," said the Spaniard. "We had a short pre-season but a really good one and we are ready to go, to enjoy the good moments and bounce back as soon as possible."I cannot assure you, but the signs are that we can be better. Maybe we can be worse! You never know. But I think it will be better." Charges verdict rumbles on Last Sunday, the giant electronic advertising board close to Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium served a reminder it has been "246 days since Man City's FFP hearing ended".That has since ticked on to 252 days and we are no closer to knowing the outcome of City's 115 charges for allegedly breaching the Premier League's financial rules, which were first published in February hearing took place in front of an independent commission between September and December of last year, but there has been no indication as to when the findings will be have strongly denied the charges but, if found guilty, the commission could sanction a massive points deduction or the unthinkable scenario of relegation.A decision was widely expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2025 and boss Guardiola provided a timeline of "in one month" back in February, but that has now dragged into another sheer scale of charges and amount of evidence has led to October now being mooted for the time of the verdict, but there has been no official confirmation of club has declined to comment, while Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said they have "no influence" on the timing and it would be "wrong" for him to the meantime, it has been business as usual for striker Erling Haaland signed a new bumper contract which expires in 2034 and the club extended their kit partnership with Puma for a record £100m per season, making it the largest such deal in the Premier January, they have spent almost £400m on new signings as Guardiola reshaped his squad in an attempt to reclaim the Premier League trophy. Are City flying under the radar? It isn't that often Guardiola gets it wrong in the transfer market but of the four January signings, only Egypt forward Omar Marmoush can be classed as a success after scoring eight goals, including a hat-trick against defender Abdukodir Khusanov barely got a look-in after March, Brazilian centre-back Vitor Reis has now been sent on loan to Girona, while there appear doubts over whether Guardiola trusts midfielder Nico summer strategy was to bolster the squad by addressing the problem areas, bringing in Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves to fill the hole at left-back, while box-to-box Dutchman Tijjani Reijnders will bring much-needed energy to the legend Kevin de Bruyne and Jack Grealish left in the summer and it may fall to Frenchman Rayan Cherki to pick up the mantle of attacking creativity, while James Trafford will provide goalkeeping competition to Ederson as the Brazilian enters the final year of his desperately missed the presence of Rodri in the middle of the park during an injury-ravaged season for the club and the Spaniard is unlikely to be fully fit until September after a dressing room has lost serial winners in De Bruyne, Grealish and former captain Kyle Walker so, while Guardiola will be hoping the new boys quickly grasp his vision and settle in immediately, are City flying under the radar?Aside from the acquisition of Trafford from Burnley, City did the bulk of their transfer business in June before the Club World Cup, while signings such as Florian Wirtz for champions Liverpool and Viktor Gyokeres at Arsenal caught the sources have pointed to new captain Bernardo Silva having the experience to galvanise a side which underperformed to their previous high standards last term, when he leads them out against Wolves on Saturday (kick-off 17:30 BST).One insider said "don't count us out" and it would be foolish to do so for a side that has been champions in six of the last eight seasons. Guardiola to relight fire - or is the end near? Last season will have been a shock to Guardiola, finishing outside of the top two for only the second time in 15 seasons as manager at City, Barcelona and Bayern a 10th season with City, the 54-year-old is currently the Premier League's longest-serving boss and has said he will take a break from management once he the great Sir Alex Ferguson did over at neighbours Manchester United, Guardiola will need to show he still has the desire to re-energise himself and his team in an attempt to overthrow Arne Slot's Liverpool and return to the summit only has the playing squad been refreshed, but the coaching staff too. Jurgen Klopp's former Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders has joined in a similar role, and set-piece coach James French has also arrived from the Reds, while Kolo Toure was promoted from the youth former City and Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann has cast doubt over whether Guardiola has the ability to go again, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: "When a season starts, you've got to light a fire in a team, with the fans, and make people believe. And I'm not sure he's got that fire any more."I'm not sure they're going to win another big title under Guardiola. I'd be surprised, to be honest."Spanish football expert Guillem Balague added: "The fire that we see now - what we see in his eyes, in the jokes with his players and how he returned refreshed from the summer - can that continue until the end of the season?"He has a two-year contract until 2027 and 100% by the end of the two years he will not continue with club football. But nobody can say that may not happen earlier, that this could be his last season."Is he excited because it is his last season or is it because he really feels he has a team in his hands which he can mould and create a new Manchester City, a third version?"If he sees himself having the ability to continue then we will see a second year but we will not see a third. We are seeing the end of Pep Guardiola as a manager."
Spectator
25 minutes ago
- Spectator
What's wrong with charging a fat tax?
At a time when quarterly economic growth in the UK is flatlining at 0.3 per cent, it's good to learn that not every industry in Britain is in mortal peril. While their customers have seen better days, coffin makers report that the average casket width has grown from 18-20 inches to a girthy 20-24 inches. As a 15.8 per cent increase, it's the definition of an upsell and the kind of growth that only countries that have fired their chief statistician can hope to achieve. You'd think it would be a boom time for the National Association of Funeral Directors, who, given their trade, must rarely be in the mood for celebrating. Yet it seems that both the bereaved and those doing the boxing and burying are alarmed by the corpulence of the corpses. With coffins growing ever wider, prospective punters at Danescourt Cemetery in Wolverhampton were dismayed to learn this week that new 6ft-wide gravesites had been earmarked for a £450 surcharge over standard 5ft ones, a 20 per cent levy totalling £2,700. Local councillors were criticised for the move, which followed a May decision to create a new cemetery section for the big-boned. While the City of Wolverhampton Council has justified it as a response to increased demand for those larger sites, opponents lambasted it as a 'fat tax'. Predictably for a Labour administration, the council appears to have backed down on sustainable financing for the two-tier tombstones, with a spokesperson saying it would 'not proceed with the plans'. Councillors were no doubt spooked by the dread accusation of 'discrimination'. But then, why shouldn't cemeteries discriminate? Those with more to love are literally depriving those also dearly departed of graveyard space, which in many parts of the country is competitive despite ailing church attendance. As Matthew Crawley, chief executive at the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management, put it, the so-called 'fat tax' might equally be termed 'a concessionary fee for appropriate land usage'. Should the funeral business die down, Crawley might consider a career in the Whitehall diplomatic corp. To be more blunt, and at the risk of speaking ill of the dead, while rotundity is eminently defensible as a lifestyle choice, it's also frequently a burden on others and exactly the kind of negative externality that economists justifiably love to tax. The matter is not even one confined to mortality. It is surely a greater nightmare to the living that, when you embark on a long-haul flight, fellow travellers literally overflow from nearby seats, with complaints about this phenomenon swelling across the West in line with people's waistlines. While some airlines have asked the big-bodied to pay more, in Australia two years ago advocates for 'guests of size' invoked discrimination law against policies that meant girthier customers needed to stump up for two seats. The Obesity Collective's director Tiffany Petre claimed it was unclear who qualified as too fat to fly, though being unable to squeeze both arse cheeks into one seat is usually a good sign. Online influencers frequently echo the claim that chunky monkeys shouldn't be charged more, bringing inevitable claims of 'bullying' and 'fat shaming'. The American influencer Jaelynn Chaney called it 'outrageous' that people are 'forced to pay twice for the same accommodation anyone else gets with just one ticket'. Naturally, Canada has already made the double-charge illegal so long as you can provide a doctor's note. That leads us to the fraught area of whether fatness should incur higher costs in healthcare. Private health insurers generally charge higher premiums, and the government has shown an increasing desire to tax junk food or exempt it from promotions. By contrast, no politician would dare suggest that the stocky citizen should pay more taxes while placing a greater burden on our NHS. It's a debate that inevitably comes down to whether you think obesity is a lifestyle choice or a curse imposed by genetic misfortune, a McDonald's on every street corner, and Sainsbury's generous promotions on cheese. When combined with the NHS's miserly distribution of Ozempic and similar drugs for weight loss, there's no shortage of excuses for love handles. And to be fair to advocates for the overweight, some of us are playing the game on easy mode, blessed with more self-control, more money for the low-cal Waitrose shop, and perhaps even a private doctor for that Ozempic prescription. But ultimately such excuse-making can't nullify the physics: if you are fat, it's because you ate too much. Offsetting the downsides of your dietary choices through higher costs is no different than surcharging smokers for every pack of cigarettes, or slapping alcohol duty on a bottle of wine. While it's down to local councils how they manage their cemeteries, caving to campaigners over spurious claims of unjust discrimination is a grave mistake.
Wales Online
25 minutes ago
- Wales Online
Gardener who tended to £200,000 cannabis factory was caught when police found a set of keys
Gardener who tended to £200,000 cannabis factory was caught when police found a set of keys Blloshmi Albi, 33, who came to the UK illegally in order to 'make money', was stopped by police who found his mobile phone and a set of keys Blloshmi Albi, 33, came to the UK illegally (Image: South Wales Police) A gardener who came to the UK illegally in order to make money was found to be tending to a cannabis factory with plants worth up to £200,000. There were four growing rooms in a house which contained more than 400 plants. Blloshmi Albi, 33, was stopped by a police officer while he was travelling as a passenger in a car on February 2 in Cardiff. He was searched and was found in possession of a mobile phone and a set of keys. A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday heard the keys belonged to a house in Heathfield Place, Cathays, and the phone contained images of a cannabis factory. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter. The property was searched and the whole house had been given over to the production of cannabis. A total of 94 mother plants were discovered in four growing rooms, and there were 330 saplings in a nursery area. Prosecutor James Evans said there was evidence of an earlier crop which had already been grown. Article continues below The plants found in the address were found to have an upper value of £200,000. Albi, of no fixed abode, later pleaded guilty to cannabis production. The court heard he was of previous good character. In mitigation, the court heard the defendant had spent 91 days on remand in custody. It was said he had entered the country illegally in order to "make money" and became involved in the enterprise as a gardener. Sentencing, Judge Carl Harrison described the cannabis factory as a "sophisticated commercial set up". Article continues below Albi was sentenced to eight months imprisonment. The Home Office will decide whether the defendant will be deported following the end of his sentence.
