Latest news with #Birkenhead-born
Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Times
Peter Taaffe obituary: old-school Labour agitator
Peter Taaffe believed that Margaret Thatcher was the best thing that ever happened to socialism. Thrusting forward and glaring out from thick-lensed spectacles, the co-founder and leader of the Trotskyite Militant Tendency predicted in 1986 that her dismantling of one-nation Toryism would 'lay bare the realities of the class society' and prompt a 'purist workers' revolution'. When Thatcher announced plans to introduce a poll tax of British adults, the Birkenhead-born revolutionary thought his time had come. He called for nationwide non-payment of the tax, organised workers' 'bill strikes' and was a key agitator of the poll tax riots in May 1990 that contributed to her downfall as prime minister five months later and the replacement of the poll tax with council tax. Taaffe declared: 'With
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Bittersweet' final video of Paul O'Grady shared by his widower
A final video of Paul O'Grady has been shared by his widower, who called the footage filmed shortly before the comedian and presenter's death 'bittersweet'. O'Grady, who rose to fame as drag queen alter-ego Lily Savage before hosting a string of popular TV programmes – including For The Love Of Dogs, died at his home 'unexpectedly but peacefully' in March 2023 at the age of 67. O'Grady's official Instagram account, which is managed by his husband, Andre Portasio, shared the video of the comedian thanking fans for reading his book Eddie Albert And The Amazing Animal Gang: The Amsterdam Adventure, along with him stroking his beloved pets. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paul O'Grady (@paulogrady) The Friday post said: 'It's incredible how our minds can shield us from the pain of loss in moments of shock. 'Today, my (@andre_portasio ) iPhotos reminded me of a lost video I recorded of Paul just 20 minutes before he sadly passed—what became the last recording he ever made to camera. 'In this bittersweet moment, you see him as the genuinely kind man he was, expressing heartfelt gratitude to everyone for supporting his book, which he recorded for an award ceremony he couldn't attend. 'It's hard to believe it's been two years since his passing. All the while, he's surrounded by his beloved dogs. We miss you dearly, @paulogrady . Happy heavenly birthday!' Reacting to the post, EastEnders star Michelle Collins wrote: 'This is unbelievable , so sad makes you realise what a wonderful person he was life can be so fragile we have to really embrace it like Paul did, such a loss wish there were more like him.' 'Miss him so much,' radio and TV presenter Gaby Roslin wrote. 'This is special and precious. Big love Andre.' In the clip, Birkenhead-born O'Grady says: 'Hello everybody, I'm Paul O'Grady, and I just want to say a massive thank you for reading my book, Eddie Albert And The Amazing Animal Gang, and also for voting for it. 'I'm absolutely delighted with my award. So thank you very much. 'And by the way, this is Eddie. This is my dog. And Butch in the book is based on this little one. 'You're very quiet today, eh (Eddie)? Anyway, once again, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Look after yourselves.' Portasio met the former BBC Radio 2 presenter in 2006 before they tied the knot in an intimate London ceremony in 2017. O'Grady was known for his fondness of dogs and became an ambassador for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in 2012, following the success of ITV's multi award-winning For The Love Of Dogs, which was filmed at the charity. He also presented a string of shows across the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, including Blankety Blank, The Big Breakfast, Blind Date and The Paul O'Grady Show.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meet the world's fastest-growing global device refurbisher
James Murdock never set out to be an entrepreneur, let alone with a company galloping towards $1bn (£790m) in revenue, but he did see a problem in the way mobile phones were being traded. 'I plucked up the courage to start my own business,' says Murdock, who co-founded Alchemy Global Solutions in 2017, now billed as the fastest-growing global circular tech company in the world. 'The opportunity was there. In the early days, trading in was interesting and you could do it badly and still exist. The companies were doing other things in the cell phone industries like call centre management but we made Alchemy to do this one thing.' Read More: How Jeff Dewing went from bankruptcy to £70m fortune It has certainly reaped the rewards from the increase in popularity for second hand items, which has now entered the electronics space. Alchemy recovers devices directly from consumers through partnerships with manufacturers, mobile carriers and retailers, manages their trade-in programmes and facilitates the transactions from end to end. The four co-founders' vision was an astute one. The Irish-born company hit $442m in annual revenue after five years in business and last year reported record revenues of $711m. It has refurbished more than six million devices, including smartphones, tablets, wearables and laptops. Before Alchemy, Birkenhead-born Murdock admits that the experience of trade-in was a 'clunky' affair, one where customers would sign up for a period of time or, previously, try to find ways of trading in an old device. 'There was an opportunity to have the whole thing in one place,' says Murdock. 'You buy a product and you would be asked if you want to trade in and get a discount. The other side is that the assets come back in different conditions from very good to poor with different levels of cleaning and refurbishing.' Established in Dublin and registered in Co Kildare, the founders took 18 months to build the necessary technology before launch, with $2.5m of pre-seed investment from Macquarie, an Australian financial group. 'A lot of what we try to do is that if you are a manufacturer and you have a product that has the ability to have a second life and be traded in, you often want it to happen in multiple geographies,' adds Murdock, who is also Alchemy's chief marketing officer. With a UK subsidiary — Brexit was a 'big VAT issue' in setting up there — Alchemy has rapidly expanded across Europe to Asia before entering the US and then Dubai. With a typical smartphone costing 72kg of carbon dioxide to manufacture and produce, but only 11kg to refurbish and resell, Alchemy, which works with emission-trackers Greenly, has also avoided well over 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ being emitted by giving devices a second, or even third, life. Read More: AI will replace humans in translation within five years - Unbabel CEO The company doesn't use any fake parts in refurbishments, and has gained the rights to buy original parts from manufacturers. Not being reckless in how to remarket, says Murdock, has also benefitted Alchemy's rapid rise. 'The best manufacturers embrace circularity, do it well and gain control over the residual values,' he adds. Alchemy, which has its own consumer brand called Loop Mobile, is regarded as among the top sellers on platforms such as Back Market, Walmart and Amazon, while Murdock says that companies like fashion giant Shein are now seeing the value of second hand electronics on its own marketplace. Murdock has been ahead of the game for 15 years when he was first learning about residual value on the iPhone and products which would have worth over time. He would have launched Alchemy earlier but for little difference between mobile phones for consumers to want an old one. That is until the rate of innovation decreased. Murdock left Solent University with a marketing degree in 2000 before working as an advertising executive with a computer manufacturer. He later worked for Brightstar and its Bolivian-born billionaire founder Marcelo Claure where he set up Blackberry distribution in Africa 'and learned how to deal with high-horsepower people'. 'I've had some good training in how to get thick skin and get stuff done,' the 47-year-old adds. 'If you have passion and perseverance for something, there are a lot of opportunities out there. 'I recall starkly [in the early Alchemy days] if I didn't sell any product then it wouldn't be done as there was no one else to do it. Read More: 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'Recently we've been able to hire some awesome people selected for universities and MBAs that I would never have been able to do. Now we can pay them and they can learn from us and we can learn from them.' Having raised no external funding, Alchemy is now on track for a run rate over $1bn through 2025. Today, the founders employ 340 'Alchemists'. 'That's pretty good when you're doing around $900m of business where a lot of our competitors would do that revenue with 10,000 people,' says Murdock. 'We do it with tech and decisiveness and speed is one of our key attributes.' Read more: 'I went to a board meeting days after nearly dying but I soon saw my purpose' Meet the CEO responsible for selling London to the world 'Want to grow an iconic brand? CEOs have to value CMOs as servant leaders'
