I’m going Back to the Floor for @HospAction and would be super grateful if you’d tip me, clearly not for waiting prowess which is rusty as you like but because HA are an amazing charity helping so many. #WeveGotYou
https://t.co/TL0KE1E282
Thank you @GylesB1 for presenting our 10th @MayfairTimes Community Awards - celebrating individuals and businesses making a positive contribution to Mayfair, St James’s and Marylebone. Thanks also to our special guest (and judge) Sir Stephen Fry.
Great to join hundreds of MPs, Peere and members’ businesses in the House of Commons to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the hospitality sector and the strategies needed to help unlock recovery, growth and investment
Higher prices - and inflation - are inevitable given the additional tax and costs being loaded onto hospitality and retail as a result of the Budget. Largest of these is the halving of threshold for NICs, bringing many more workers into the scope of a jobs tax for first time
Biden: I know some in the incoming administration.. they don’t even believe climate change is real. I think they come from a different century. They are wrong. Dead wrong. It’s the single greatest existential threat to humanity.
If Treasury is modelling French style levy I hope they are modelling French VAT too - even with VAT and tourist tax, visitors in France, Spain, Italy, Greece pay less than we do with 20% VAT. We are the least competitive on price - hotels pay 75% tax rate https://t.co/uACgxSzUIe
Vamos, @RafaelNadal!
As you get ready to graduate from tennis, I’ve got a few things to share before I maybe get emotional.
Let’s start with the obvious: you beat me—a lot. More than I managed to beat you. You challenged me in ways no one else could. On clay, it felt like I was stepping into your backyard, and you made me work harder than I ever thought I could just to hold my ground. You made me reimagine my game—even going so far as to change the size of my racquet head, hoping for any edge.
I’m not a very superstitious person, but you took it to the next level. Your whole process. All those rituals. Assembling your water bottles like toy soldiers in formation, fixing your hair, adjusting your underwear... All of it with the highest intensity. Secretly, I kind of loved the whole thing. Because it was so unique—it was so you.
And you know what, Rafa, you made me enjoy the game even more.
OK, maybe not at first. After the 2004 Australian Open, I achieved the #1 ranking for the first time. I thought I was on top of the world. And I was—until two months later, when you walked on the court in Miami in your red sleeveless shirt, showing off those biceps, and you beat me convincingly. All that buzz I’d been hearing about you—about this amazing young player from Mallorca, a generational talent, probably going to win a major someday—it wasn’t just hype.
We were both at the start of our journey and it’s one we ended up taking together. Twenty years later, Rafa, I have to say: What an incredible run you’ve had. Including 14 French Opens—historic! You made Spain proud... you made the whole tennis world proud.
I keep thinking about the memories we’ve shared. Promoting the sport together. Playing that match on half-grass, half-clay. Breaking the all-time attendance record by playing in front of more than 50,000 fans in Cape Town, South Africa. Always cracking each other up. Wearing each other out on the court and then, sometimes, almost literally having to hold each other up during trophy ceremonies.
I’m still grateful you invited me to Mallorca to help launch the Rafa Nadal Academy in 2016. Actually, I kind of invited myself. I knew you were too polite to insist on me being there, but I didn’t want to miss it. You have always been a role model for kids around the world, and Mirka and I are so glad that our children have all trained at your academies. They had a blast and learned so much—like thousands of other young players. Although I always worried my kids would come home playing tennis as lefties.
And then there was London—the Laver Cup in 2022. My final match. It meant everything to me that you were there by my side—not as my rival but as my doubles partner. Sharing the court with you that night, and sharing those tears, will forever be one of the most special moments of my career.
Rafa, I know you’re focused on the last stretch of your epic career. We will talk when it’s done. For now, I just want to congratulate your family and team, who all played a massive role in your success. And I want you to know that your old friend is always cheering for you, and will be cheering just as loud for everything you do next.
Rafa that!
Best always, your fan,
Roger
Stark analysis from @DeutscheBank suggesting double the number of jobs could be at risk as a result of NIC change & all workers will see a hit to take home pay wages suppressed by £5.6bn. It’s regressive - it hits the lowest paid, part time and predominantly women. Rethink needed
Sharing for a friend, who is so passionate about kids literacy she started Wriggly Readers, to help kids learn to read. If you have young children or know people who do, please consider buying a book & donating one to a child whose parents can’t afford one
https://t.co/s0hF1ABClP
This video gave me goosebumps: retired workers are chanting the name of a woman who bravely protested forced hijab by undressing in public.
It’s powerful to see the older generation defying the regime’s attempts to silence a woman who used her body to protest against Islamic ideology.
This is the Women, Life, Freedom movement—one woman’s courage uniting a nation. The regime should be afraid.
The Islamic Republic tried to discredit a woman from the Science and Research University by labeling her “mentally unstable. They are failed.
Now, we are all united.
Although her name has not been confirmed, “Ahou Daryaei” is circulating on social media.
The effect of inflationary pressures from energy, wages and cost of supply - and a timely reminder that hospitality is three times as impactful on the basket of goods calc than energy - you cannot get control of inflation unless you get control of pre profit taxes and costs
1/When I protested against mandatory hijab, after the security forces arrested me, my family was pressured to declare me mentally ill, the Islamic republic of Iran even taking me to a forensic doctor. One of my relatives came to see me in prison and shared the situation.