A new skyscraper is coming to town
Land, chicken and quantum computing.
Hello there,
The UK Government has got its work cut out with its “Get Britain Building” mission. The battle between the people and the ruling class over who gets to do what and where on this North Atlantic rock has been raging for more than a thousand years.
The problem stems from the fact we haven’t got a lot of space. We’re by no means the smallest country or even the most densely populated but it’s not like the US where you can wander off and start a new city with no one noticing. There will always have been some feudal lord or other shaking you down for a few shillings.
There was an exception to this which was “common land”, still under the control of the lord of the manor but free to use by tenants and inhabitants of nearby properties. You’d then have a couple of strips to farm at various locations across the manor. However, since the decline of the feudal system which started in the 13th century thanks to inflation caused by the plague, landowners began to enclose bits of their land, depriving the commoners.
Through a series of Enclosure Acts land was turned into fields to improve efficiency as England’s pleasant pastures green became all fenced off. This inevitably led to riots and a lot of social unrest. I’m not sure Starmer has to worry about revolting peasants but we’re in for a few years of strongly worded letters and the odd payoff, that’s for sure.
Gerroff my land,
Hugo
Lord of the Manor
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
New skyscraper approved in the city will be the same size as The Shard 📏 - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I like big stuff but only if it’s proper big. 309.6m is the biggest you’re allowed to go in London thanks to the Civil Aviation Authority. 1 Undershaft is getting one up on The Shard by boasting Europe’s highest publically accessible viewing gallery.
McKinsey coughs up $650m for their role in opioid marketing 💊 - it is a fairly direct warning by prosecutors to consultants that you can’t just go about recommending stuff that has massive downstream societal impacts as if it’s just some abstract business school case study. On top of being in it up to the hilt the senior partner involved then went about deleting documents when Purdue Pharma came under scrutiny.
Chick-fil-A to open five stores in the UK 🍗 - they tried to open a couple of outlets in Reading and Aviemore a few years ago but their connection to unpleasant Christian campaigners saw them both shut down pretty quickly. They’ve since cut funding to these groups and are making some more obvious location choices - London, Liverpool, Belfast and Leeds.
Deliveroo wants to help restaurants modernise 🍕 - a survey by the delivery company found that the marketing and sales data collected through their app is the only data many eateries have. They see digitisation as key to helping the struggling sector improve falling productivity and increase their profit margins (which Deliveroo are eating into).
Notre Dame has been put back together ⛪ - the cathedral was reopened this week with an awful lot of input from LVMH who took it as an opportunity to show off their gear in a solemn celebration of all things classique. It’s been a good year for the fashion house, with the Paris Olympics being another chance for the company to market all things French and fashiony.
The SHOCKING TRUTH about Diary of a CEO 🥴 - you may have noticed the Steven Bartlett podcast getting more provocative in its titles at just about the same time you stopped listening. You were correct to stop listening, much of the health content peddled over the past year or so has transpired to be pseudoscientific waffle. I’m all for a good diet but it’s not going to solve everything.
Digital Twins are speeding up innovation 👯 - back in the day, if you wanted to test whether something works you had to make a physical version of the thing to find out. For the past twenty years or so computers have been used to test the viability of everything from rockets to medicines. AI is massively increasing the sophistication of this as the growing computing power is able to more effectively model human organs to test how they react to different compounds.
Warner Brothers is being split into television and streaming 📺 - this would see the likes of HBO split in two as the conglomerate looks to manage the continued decline of linear television. This immediately sent shares in the business up 16% as it follows Comcast who made a similar move last month. It has been trying to sell stuff for months to cut its current $40bn-worth of debt.
Tech companies all pledging their fealty to Trump through big donations 🧎 - both Meta and OpenAI have made donations to the incoming president’s inauguration fund in an apparent attempt to declare a slightly one-sided truce after a lot of bad blood. Silicon Valley has traditionally been of the Democratic persuasion but with the change that is expected to come in the near year they want to make sure they’re on the good side of the administration.
Google unveils quantum computing chip 💾 - there’s no doubt they spend a lot of time mucking around and behaving like a monopoly. Still, occasionally the search behemoth does something ground-breaking thanks to their wizards. Their new Willow chip can solve problems that would take a ‘normal’ super computer ten septillion years in five minutes. What this might actually enable is unclear but seems like a step in the right direction.
Really good Stuff
Somewhere to live - a charming flat by the park in New York
The Big Apple is just delightful at this time of year so if you need somewhere to put your feet up after your shopping why not invest in this gorgeous two-story duplex?
Something to drive - Aston Martin Valour
It’s a long way off your classic DB5 but if you want to get from A to B really quickly for a mere $2.3million, this will sort you out.
Something to wear - a wonderfully simple cassock
You might need to get ordained to really pull this one off but the outfits worn by the clergy at the Notre Dame re-opening, designed Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, are to die for.
Quote of the week
"The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common,
But lets the greater felon loose
Who steals the common from the goose." - Anon