Off to Lunch is back!
The business news that matters
Hello everyone and welcome back to Off to Lunch after a two-week break…
This newsletter has been away for a couple of weeks while I work on exciting plans for the future of Off to Lunch, our podcast and Business Leader magazine. Thank you for bearing with me during the break. Off to Lunch is going to get even better as a result of these plans so it will be worth it. You can find some details about the plans at the end of this newsletter - specifically the opportunity to help shape the future of Off to Lunch, our podcast and Business Leader magazine by joining the team.
Off to Lunch is a summary of the business news that matters in the UK. Two events are looming on the horizon that should meet this criteria - the King’s Speech and the Autumn Statement.
I say these events should meet the criteria because sometimes these political set-pieces mean more to the Westminster bubble than they do to the economy or the day-to-day running of a business. Off to Lunch will be here to help you understand what - if anything - actually matters.
The King’s Speech is tomorrow and the Autumn Statement is on Wednesday November 22.
The King’s Speech involves the monarch laying out the policies that the government intends to pursue over the next year. Given that a general election is looming and this is the first speech for King Charles III and Rishi Sunak, it promises to be particularly important this year.
A number of proposals have already leaked out ahead of the speech, including plans to issue licences to oil and gas companies to drill in the North Sea every year. You can find the Financial Times story on that here. The government could also ban new homes from being sold as leasehold properties and insist they are sold as freehold. More details on that here. Meanwhile, airlines face a ban on adding charges to ticket prices for extra luggage space and printing boarding passes. The Mail on Sunday broke that story here.
The government has issued a statement previewing the speech in which Sunak said:
“This will be the first King’s Speech in seventy years and the legislation we will bring forward is part of our plan to build a better future for the next seventy.
“Just as I have done with energy security, net zero, illegal migration and HS2, the King’s Speech will take the long-term decisions to address the challenges this country faces, not the easy way out with short-term gimmicks.
“As we take the necessary steps to halve inflation and reduce debt, we will legislate to grow the economy, by supporting innovative businesses and protecting consumers.
“To make the real change this country needs, we will bring forward bills that strengthen our society, help people feel safer in their own communities and give a sense of pride in the place they call home.”
You can find that statement here. For a less sanguine preview you can check out a piece by Sam Coates, deputy political editor of Sky News, here. “Charles will have to announce measures we know he is bound to dislike,” is the headline.
Other stories that matter…
1. There have been some fascinating follow-up pieces to the news last week that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, has been found guilty of all fraud charges against him. Danny Fortson wrote in The Sunday Times about the lessons that venture capital investors may learn from backing Bankman-Fried and WeWork, which is also on the brink of collapse. The short answer? Silicon Valley investors may now do more due diligence in the future, but little else will change - they are trying to find the tech giants of the future and that means 99 of their 100 bets may fail. You can read that The Sunday Times piece here. I also enjoyed a piece from Ted Gioia’s The Honest Broker newsletter on how FTX has exposed the flaws of effective altruism and the folly of relying on numbers over human judgment. You can read that piece here. Lastly, Benedict Evans excellent tech newsletter includes a link to a glowing profile of Bankman-Fried by Sequoia, which was published before FTX collapsed and has now been deleted. That link is here. You can find Benedict’s Newsletter here
2. Jeff Bezos has appointed Sir William Lewis, the former editor of The Telegraph, as chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post. Lewis is also the former chief executive of Dow Jones and founded The News Movement, a news service for young people. You can find the Washington Post’s statement here. The Telegraph has reported that Lewis is now expected to drop out of the race to buy the newspaper. Story here
3. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is sitting on $157 billion (£126 billion) of cash, a record for the company. You can find the company’s latest results here
4. Elon Musk has unveiled his own AI technology. It’s called Grok and has been inspired by Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a book that has inspired Musk since he was young. More details here
5. Sticking with Musk, he was in the UK last week for the government’s AI summit and spoke at a Q&A event. He gave an interesting answer to tech investor and entrepreneur Brent Hoberman about the outlook for the UK, including his admiration for Dyson and Arm. You can find a video of the Q&A here
And finally…
There has been no Off to Lunch for the last two weeks as I have worked on exciting plans for the future of this newsletter, our podcast and Business Leader magazine. Part of that is building our team. I am looking for a deputy editor-in-chief to work alongside me on what is one of the most exciting projects in the media industry. We have had an extraordinary amount of interest in the job so I will be closing applications for the role at the end of this week. You can find the job advert, and apply, by clicking here
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Best
Graham