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The Herald Scotland
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Opportunity to celebrate family values at annual business breakfast
This annual event has become a fixture on the calendar for family businesses of all kinds, from small concerns to those with global reach and a long history of achieving success over the course of several generations. The location for this year's breakfast meeting will be at the office of Virgin Money in Glasgow on Thursday 28th August, when the focus for discussion will be legacy through the lasting impact that family-run businesses contribute through Environment, Social and Governance. With their roots firmly anchored in their local communities, businesses like these contribute more than just economics, as was demonstrated during last year's event when those taking part learned of the importance that Walker's Shortbread, the Speyside bakery firm which has developed an international profile over the course of four generations, has had on creating jobs, opening up career paths and bringing prosperity to Speyside. What was also made clear during the same briefing was that all family businesses share similar issues, regardless of size, product or location and that events such The Herald Family Business Breakfast can help to forge ties and share knowledge on how others have successfully overcome similar challenges. Hugh Lightbody, Chief Officer, Business Gateway, says: 'Business Gateway has had the privilege of working with the Herald since they began their focus on this hugely important sector of the Scottish economy. Over the many years of our involvement we've seen a number of family businesses of all shapes and sizes. What is common to them all though is their commitment to the world around them and their grasp of the importance of environmental, social and governance principles in all they do. They are the powerhouses of local communities providing employment and improving wellbeing. The ongoing recognition of their importance through the breakfast and The Herald Family Business Awards later this year is testament to their contribution to the Scottish economy. And David Henderson, head of strategic finance, Virgin Money, says: 'Purpose led businesses are increasingly focused on the impact that their operations and activities have on wider stakeholders and on the environment. That is very much the case for family businesses who are seeking to create a legacy which positively impacts not just the owners and successors, but their employees, customers, and the wider communities in which they operate. 'At Virgin Money our purpose is to deliver fairer, more rewarding relationships and to assist current and future generations to drive progressive outcomes for society. We are delighted to be collaborating with the Herald and our other partners to support this event which will provide a forum to examine and debate the legacy which family businesses can create and to meet other family business owners who are already on that journey.' Meanwhile Andrew Malcolm, director, Malcolm Group, says: 'The Malcolm Group are delighted to be sponsoring the herald Scottish family business breakfast, as a family company with over 100 years existence and 4th generation of family employed in the company.' News of the event's keynote speaker and panel will be made soon and in the meantime full details of the event exclusive for family businesses are available from
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The best joke award has gone. Is the Edinburgh fringe taking all the pun out of comedy?
So long, pun of the year. The best joke of the fringe award – the lighthearted, groan-inducing staple of the Edinburgh festival – has been scrapped after 17 years. The award's retirement may not prompt national mourning, but it does bring to an end a curious fringe tradition – one that delivered easy headlines as well as endless debate. Launched in 2008, the award set out to distil the spirit of the festival into a single one-liner. Longlisted by a panel of critics and then voted on by the public, it aimed to showcase the sharpest bite-size humour from that year's fringe. Still, the announcement was never without controversy. In 2023, when Lorna Rose Treen took the title with the joke 'I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah', she was met with a wave of online criticism (the Sun claimed her win had 'killed comedy'). Last year, an article in the Herald deemed the award Edinburgh's 'most heated controversy'. The backlash feels somewhat overblown for an award that was simply a celebration of something meant to make people laugh. Comedy is inherently subjective, and everyone is never going to like exactly the same thing. But we all like a good (or at least eye-roll-worthy) joke. Just look at how much time we dedicate to reading the ones from Christmas crackers; it's not necessarily about their quality, but the shared joy they bring. On this level, the award made sense. Digestible punchlines are entertaining – we can steal them for ourselves, repeat them in our social circles and hopefully elicit some hearty snorts. And at one of the world's biggest comedy festivals, it's hardly surprising that people would want to crown the year's most crowd-pleasing quip. Still, the idea that the art of live comedy can be condensed into a single line is undeniably flawed. How many times have you been told a 'funny story' and found yourself unmoved? The act of relaying humour is a difficult task. For standup in particular, a joke can't be separated from its setting. While the fringe's best joke list tended to be pun-heavy, jokes don't always land in isolation. They live in a comedian's energy, the crowd's mood and the rhythm of the moment. Stripped of this context and presented simply as written words in a list, even the most dynamic line can fall flat. Perhaps that's why the list often felt underwhelming: it ignored the bigger picture. There's no mention of physical comedy, timing or tone, which are crucial ingredients to bringing humour to life onstage. The shows that made me laugh hardest across the festival, as both a critic and, more recently, as a judge on the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, rarely got a look in from the best joke award list. Last year's winner for best newcomer, Joe Kent-Walters, transformed himself into Frankie Monroe, a Rotherham working men's club MC, complete with corpse-like, Sudocrem-white face paint and leering movements. Did his hour consist of neat, packable humour? Absolutely not, but it was genuine, full-body comedy that stayed with me long after the show ended. Similarly, the year before, Julia Masli's show, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, became a word-of-mouth hit. Masli, a clown by training, took on the role of an agony aunt of few words. There was nothing close to a standard joke in her act; instead, it lived on the curiously trusting relationship she built with the audience. There were plenty of confessions and practical solutions, but no linguistic wit. It was all the funnier for it. It is unlikely that anyone reading the best joke award lists from years gone by would have let out a guffaw. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the award was a welcome addition to the general merriment of the fringe – so much so that the unofficial ISH Comedy Awards have announced that they'd be running their own best joke award this year. The punchline can live on. That, at least, should be a cause for celebration. Anya Ryan is a freelance journalist. She was a member of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards judging panel in 2023 and 2024
NZ Herald
9 hours ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Treasury releases minutes of meeting Adrian Orr had with Nicola Willis before he resigned as Reserve Bank governor
The minutes say Reserve Bank board chairman Neil Quigley then said the board's view of the amount of funding required was closer to that of the Treasury than the Reserve Bank's management. They say Quigley clarified the board had a 'positive relationship and good communication with the Treasury'. Treasury reconsiders releasing information Last week, the Treasury released an email Quigley sent to a principal Treasury adviser, apologising on the Reserve Bank's behalf for Orr's behaviour during another meeting on February 20. 'I am sorry Adrian lost his cool with you this afternoon. Your question was not surprising, and [he] should have been able to give you a more dispassionate answer,' Quigley told the adviser. The Treasury released copies of the email and the meeting minutes after receiving inquiries about an allegation that there was an element of Orr being pushed to resign. The official line from Quigley was that Orr chose to resign because he disagreed with the board over the amount of government funding to pitch for. Indeed, Orr explained his concerns over funding in an email he sent to the board on February 14. He noted the tension between submitting a funding proposal that the Government wanted to hear, versus one that supported the bank's goals. 'The importance and clarity of operational independence for central banks is judged by global financial markets now and in the future. Not by any current Government,' Orr said. The point of contention is that Quigley didn't provide a reason for Orr's departure on the day he resigned, saying it was a 'personal decision'. This was despite the Herald specifically asking whether the problem was a disagreement over funding. It took until June for the bank to release a statement with an explanation for the resignation. The Reserve Bank also made a limited stack of documents public, rather than responding to individual Official Information Act (OIA) requests for information related to Orr's resignation. The Treasury has since conceded that copies of the email and minutes were in scope of the OIA request the Herald made on March 6. 'Although this material had previously been withheld under the OIA, the Treasury have reassessed the withholding and have determined that with the passage of time, the public interest in release outweighs the public interest in withholding the information,' the Treasury said. The Treasury told the Herald it would provide a fuller response to its March 6 request 'in due course'. The Reserve Bank last week said its legal obligations were different to those of the Treasury, and it stood by the information it released. It noted the Ombudsman was investigating complaints over its handling of information requests. Quigley awaits Ombudsman's ruling The situation has prompted the likes of the Taxpayers' Union and Geof Mortlock – a consultant who used to work at the Reserve Bank – to call for Quigley to resign. Mortlock questioned Quigley's credibility in recommending who Willis appoints as governor. On Monday, Willis said she had confidence in Quigley, saying he had the right skills and experience for the job. 'The Reserve Bank has been through a number of significant changes. It is in the midst of appointing a new governor. At this critical juncture, I think stability is helpful,' Willis said. However, she expressed her disappointment over the handling of Orr's resignation to the Reserve Bank board at a meeting on Thursday last week. Speaking to the Herald after that meeting, Quigley said the board also confirmed it had confidence in him. He expected to hear back from the Ombudsman soon. '[I] feel that I've done the right thing up to this point, and based on the advice that I've had,' Quigley said. 'But if that advice changes, or there's new information that comes in, then obviously I'll need to rethink how the bank proceeds. 'For now, to say I'm comfortable wouldn't be quite right, but I think, from my end, I feel like I've been well advised … and we've done our best.' Asked whether cumulatively he believed Orr's behaviour was problematic, Quigley recognised his role required him to give Orr feedback on his performance. 'I stand by the fact that the board did that. But I don't feel it's appropriate to move into the territory where I'm elaborating on the details of my, or the board's, managing of that relationship in the public domain because it's just not what I'd ever do with someone who worked with me or for me.' Orr hasn't spoken publicly about his resignation. Jenée Tibshraeny is the Herald's Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.
NZ Herald
10 hours ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Shane Jones unveils plan to double geothermal energy by 2040
Jones said he saw potential for the geothermal sector to expand and diversify into areas such as the extraction of minerals from geothermal fluid, and more use of direct geothermal energy to power industrial, commercial and agricultural applications. Among the proposals were improving access to geothermal data and ensuring regulatory settings were fit for purpose. The draft strategy paper said 'supercritical' geothermal technology – which involves drilling deeper into the Earth's crust – could offer up to three times more energy than current geothermal energy. The Government has ring-fenced $60 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund to fund research into the 'super' resource. Jones said $5m of that funding has been drawn down for work on the detailed design and cost to drill the first of three exploratory deep wells in the Taupō Volcanic Zone. New Zealand's first, and the world's second, geothermal power station was Wairakei, near Taupō, which started generating electricity in 1958. Wairakei is now one of 17 geothermal power plants across eight geothermal fields in New Zealand – which deliver a combined generation capacity of 1207 megawatts. Unlike wind and solar, geothermal energy is consistently available. In 2024, geothermal energy accounted for 8741 GWh, or 19.9%, of New Zealand's annual electricity generation. The country's geothermal reservoirs (up to 350C and located between 1km and 3.5km deep) have long powered renewable energy. The Taupō Volcanic Zone offered a rare opportunity to access superhot fluids at depths beyond 5km and temperatures exceeding 400C, the paper said. Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets and the primary sector. He joined the Herald in 2011.
NZ Herald
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Craig Grylls to be crowned champion jockey on last day of thoroughbred season
Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson are once again our champion trainers, the injured Lily Sutherland is the leading apprentice for the second year in a row and then there's the big one, the new one. Champion jockey: Gryllsy. He may only be 35 but Craig Grylls has been part of punters' lives for so long he can go by his singular nickname. Today is the realisation of a dream as he becomes the premiership winner, leading former two-time champion Michael McNab by 54 wins heading into today's meeting. A margin that size means Gryllsy had the premiership sewn up months ago when the TAB paid out on the result. But it will not be until they run the last race just after 4pm today that he officially becomes the champ, New Zealand's premiership-winning jockey. 'It still hasn't really sunk in,' he says. 'I know it has been coming and that I was going to win but tomorrow [Wednesday] makes it official. 'It is something to be proud of, and I am, but I haven't celebrated it yet.' Racing's relentless calendar leaves little time for celebration and like many who have won the title before him Grylls' achievement will be most publicly acknowledged at the Horse of the Year awards in Hamilton on September 7. It will be a popular award. Grylls has travelled so far and wide and ridden for so many trainers and owners that it seems everybody either knows him or feels like they know him. With a big smile for a little man, he is no-fuss on and off the track, busy enough to keep his horses handy when needed, so often the recipe for success in modern racing, particularly on the smaller circuits. 'It has obviously been a great season,' he says. 'Winning the NZ Oaks on Leica Lucy meant a lot to me because of the pressure and what it meant to Robbie [Patterson, trainer and close friend] and the owners. 'And winning the $1 million Aotearoa Classic on Orchestral on Karaka Millions night was also very special.' Besides being the most successful jockey this season, Grylls has also been the busiest and if all five of his engaged rides start today it will take him to 800 for the season, after starting the day on a new New Zealand record of $6,068,577 in stakes. 'I enjoy being busy but I had a little break recently. Just before that I was getting a little tired but I feel a lot better now,' he tells the Herald. 'Winter racing, when it is on the heavy tracks, is definitely harder on the body but I am feeling good now and looking forward to the new season.' The son of a jockey (Gary) and with a sister jockey in Bridget, Craig Grylls says today's achievement may have been two decades in the making. However, as tends to be the case with racing, life is about looking forward to the next meeting, the next winner, rather than pats on the back. 'We haven't talked about it too much but I know they [family] are proud of me and to be honest, so am I,' he says. 'But you never want to stop riding winners and next season starts the day after tomorrow.' That promises to be even more challenging as the jockeys' rooms, particularly in the north, will be their deepest in possibly two decades as Opie Bosson and Matt Cameron return, while Matt Cartwright is coming back from Australia. 'It will be strong and I like that. I actually think it is easier to ride in fields full of good jockeys and better for the punters.' As for today and his best chance of adding to his 140 wins and putting an exclamation mark on his dream season? 'All of mine have chances and are actually pretty even but I am on a few for Te Akau and that is always a big help.' Regardless of who wins today, Grylls will finally be where he has always wanted and now deserves to be. Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald's Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world's biggest horse racing carnivals.
