Concierge firm co-founded by queen’s nephew reports loss despite cost cuts

Quintessentially, the luxury concierge service for the super-wealthy co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew Sir Ben Elliot, has reported a £2.1m loss despite cutting jobs and buying extra time to repay £15m worth of loans.The firm, which Elliot, a former co-chair of the Conservative party, founded in 2000, said there was still “material uncertainty” about the company’s ability to operate beyond the next year if sales slumped or it failed to get fresh funding. It came as the company reported a £2.1m loss for the year to April 2024

Save UK investment trusts from New York’s blackjack raider. Vote no to Saba | Nils Pratley

Saba Capital’s proposals are “self-serving and destructive”, says the chair of one of seven London-listed investment trusts in the firing line of the New York hedge fund. Another is “appalled by Saba’s action and conduct”. A third says Saba is pursuing “a backdoor attempt to seize control of the trust”. A fourth thinks Saba is following an “unknown and unproven” strategy and, similarly, is trying to “take control of your company for its own economic benefit”.When opinion is so uniform, it is tempting to take the opposite side and suspect a case of vested City interests feeling threatened

Cost of assuring nuclear safety from millennium bug was well worth it | Letter

In your article (How a batch of tinned meat fostered fears of the millennium bug, 31 December) you quote Martyn Thomas, who led Deloitte Consulting’s Y2K work, rightly saying that heroic efforts successfully avoided major disasters arising from the Y2K software issues. At the time, I was a member of the advisory committee on the safety of nuclear installations. For nuclear systems, the major goal was not so much about finding and then fixing bugs – although that was done, of course. Rather, it was to do with re-establishing confidence in safety that might have been compromised by potential bugs.It was expensive, but this expenditure was not wasted, as some still claim

Hooray! A new year gift from Elon Musk | Brief letters

For the past six months, “things can only get better” had seemed a redundant hope. And then along comes a headline to disprove it (Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage and calls for new leader of Reform, 5 January).Les BrightExeter My prediction for 2025 was that the narcissistic egos of Nigel Farage, Elon Musk and Donald Trump would inevitably lead to them turning on each other, leading to their collective self-destruction. I wish I’d placed a bet on it.Sarah JamesMonmouth Re Christine Evans’ account of operating in Africa while the nurse held a surgery textbook open for her (Letters, 3 January)

Local protest group launches legal action over Wimbledon expansion plans

A local campaign group is taking legal action to stop the expansion of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC), as the row over the future of Wimbledon reignited on Monday.Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) said it has made submissions to the Greater London Authority arguing for a judicial review of plans to convert a swathe of the former Wimbledon Golf Club into a vastly expanded grand slam venue. The protest group says it has taken this “momentous” decision to stop “inappropriate” development of the 29-hectare (73 acres) site.The move comes after the decision by the mayor of London’s office to approve planning permission for the development in September. The deputy mayor, Jules Pipe, spoke at the time of the “very significant benefits” that would come from the plans, which promise 39 new courts, an 8,000 seat show court and the restoration of a lake designed by Capability Brown

Ascot leads racing’s ‘Premier League’ tracks in exploiting overseas markets

Having gone into the busy holiday schedule amid talk of plummeting betting turnover and a black hole on the sport’s balance sheet, there is at least a smattering of reasons to be cheerful as racing sets off into 2025.The domestic Christmas programme delivered on every level, with Constitution Hill, Sir Gino and The New Lion in particular hinting at a long-awaited revival in UK jumping’s competitiveness at the spring festivals. Galopin Des Champs, meanwhile, set up an attempt to become the first three-time Gold Cup winner for 20 years with an emphatic success at Leopardstown’s four-day meeting, where Brighterdaysahead also looked like an exciting new talent over hurdles.And while the weather wiped out the jumps programme on the first weekend of 2025, Ascot chose the slightly odd time of 2pm on Sunday afternoon to announce a big boost to the prize fund for Britain’s most prestigious all-aged Flat race, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in late July. This year’s race will be worth £1