Jewel-laden tax bills, the start of Christmas and The Standard’s bosom friend Ms Sweeney. Catch up on the latest shenanigans in this week’s edition of The Capitalist
MERRY CHRISTMAS! (YES, ALREADY)
Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier every year, but this year the Folio Society takes the biscuit. The upmarket book publisher hosted their Christmas party at the Art Workers’ Guild on Monday night, a bold 66 days out from the big day. Guests on the night were treated to free-flowing English sparkling as well as a dazzling reading of A Christmas Carol from actor and Dickens’ fanboy Simon Callow. CEO Joanna Reynolds, resplendent in black sequins, acknowledged it was a little early, but was generally unabashed, saying the timing made sense with the launch of their Christmas collection and – besides – she wanted to have a party.
She is far from alone. Birmingham City Council erected a 65ft Christmas tree this week; Liberty opened its Christmas shop in August; and in the Square Mile, finance bros have already been spotted snaffling turkey and stuffing at lunch, with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencers all already slinging Christmas sandwich meal deals. To anyone who may object, The Capitalist says bah humbug.
A BOSOM FRIEND TO THE STANDARD
We at The Capitalist are acutely aware of the need to drive online traffic, by hook or by crook. So we can only applaud our rivals at Thw London Standard for their new method of growing their readership: hiding the word “boobs” in the web address. When we spotted a story on the actress Sydney Sweeney on the Standard’s “side-bar of shame” we naturally hovered our mouse over it to see what she’d done now. Our curiosity became intrigue when we noticed the “slug” included the words “sydney-sweeney-republican-good-genes-jeans-boobs”.
Clicking through – for journalism! – the story was not, for the most part, about Sweeney’s chest, although it did contain a mention of an article declaring her breasts “double-D harbingers of the death of woke”. Anyway, The Capitalist is thrilled to have an excuse to now do the same.
PUB POSHOS
To Chelsea for the launch of The Trafalgar, billed as the first pub to open on the King’s Road for 100 years. Long cosmos and posh scotch eggs were the flavour of the evening, which The Capitalist hoovered up during the launch party’s rather stingy two-hour free bar window. The 10th opening from the Three Cheers Pub Co, which also owns The Avalon in Clapham and The Princess Victoria in Shepherd’s Bush, owner Tom Peake said he hoped the pub would be a “home from home for Chelsea locals”. Given its setting in a Grade II-listed former Edwardian bank, and the high attendance of Sloane Rangers for the official Trafalgar Day launch party, The Capitalist imagines they will indeed feel quite at ease.
A GLITTERING TAX BILL
Readers who have had the misfortune of forking out for a painful inheritance tax bill may be more than a little upset to hear they could have avoided paying it by taking advantage of rather a niche loophole. The Capitalist was perusing the V&A’s Marie Antoinette exhibition this week, when we stopped at one of several highly ornate necklaces. The so-called Sutherland Diamonds had, we read, a miraculous history filled with scandal, scams and skulduggery. But, the tax geeks that we are, we were most amused to read that the rock-laden accessory was most recently given to HMRC as a substitute for a big inheritance tax bill. Food for thought, perhaps for any of our readers who may be caught up in the disastrous ‘family farm tax’ grab. Does our customs department accept second-hand tractors as a replacement for legal tender, too?
CROSSING A LINE
The champions of classical liberalism at The Economist have put their heads together (maybe on a night out, maybe at an editorial conference) and concluded that cocaine should be legalised. The mag notes that legalising the Class A narcotic would eliminate the price premium that benefits drug gangs while ensuring a higher-quality product was available to consumers. It’s what civil servants would call “a brave idea, minister” and indeed, The Economist notes there is little appetite for such a move among voters or MPs. Still, always good to generate the buzz of debate.
A NEW READER
Green Party leader Zack Polanski this week shared an article about the party’s sudden surge in popularity penned by our own Christian May. “Fair play for an actual honest headline by the editor of City AM,” he wrote on X. We’re happy to take the compliment and welcome Mr Polanski as a reader. May we draw his attention, in particular, to our reporting on the dangers of tax hikes and profligate government spending.