Features - Page 177

Following record amounts of borrowing in May, the UK’s debt is now larger than the economy.

Andy Hunter is the booksellers answer to Midas. Everything he touches turns to gold. At the beginning of the year, Hunter noticed untapped ground – there was no independent platform to retail books from. If one were to exist and could capture the minds and loosen the purse strings of even a handful of Amazon’s customer base, the profits would be considerable indeed.

Oriel College has voted in favour of removing the statue of Cecil Rhodes and will establish an independent inquiry to examine the key issues surrounding it, as a result of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign established four years ago.

The prime minister has announced a £1 billion fund for pupils in England who have missed out on school as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Following the £645 billion already spent by the Bank of England in an attempt to resuscitate the British economy, it has announced it will be spending another £100 billion in bonds to further the investment into quantitative easing.

Leaders in the creative industries have warned of a “cultural catastrophe” following Covid-19.

In the first workshop for No Direction Home, Tom Parry told his cohort: “Don’t try to be funny. Try to be interesting”. In the past 18 months since the group’s foundation, this advice has proved fruitful, as the collective has gone on to grow and thrive.

Nicola Sturgeon is to announce the latest relaxation in lockdown measures as Scotland moves to the second phase of lockdown later today.

Australian national airline Qantas have announced that they will be cancelling all international flights until late October.

The UK's biggest bank is set to continue with its plans to cut some 35,000 jobs, announced earlier this year.

Kwame Kwei-Armah remains positive in spite of the fact the Young Vic is expected to run out of money by the end of the year, if present circumstances are anything to go by. “I am a hard-wired optimist” he says – a quality more important now than ever as we enter the thirteenth week of lockdown.

Some 1.3 million children will now be able to claim free school meals thanks to the work of Manchester United forward, Marcus Rashford.

For decades, psychologists have understood the power of art therapy. Research indicates it can alleviate pain and improve moods; however, few institutions have dedicated funding towards it. The global pandemic has dramatically changed the needs of the public, according to The New York Times: “compelling cultural institutions around the country to create trauma-aware initiatives that put their art collections and educators at the forefront of a mental health crisis”.

Following a slump in prices and spending across the board, inflation fell to 0.5 per cent in May, down from 1.3 per cent in April.