Rachael McKelvey

• Please do not email me on a Sunday
• Rain stops play
• Are interest rates too high now?
• Does anyone watch normal TV anymore?
• Why doesn’t anyone want the Common Wealth Games?

Please do not email me on a Sunday
Apparently, someone paid for some research by Axios HQ that found that the best time to email your colleagues is in fact between 3pm and 9pm on a Sunday as they are likely to be read first, with the open rate a staggering 86% compared to between 50% and 76% during the normal working week.

You don’t need to commission me for research, you are getting this lived experience for free, but I can confirm that unless both you and your colleagues working patterns involve actual working between 3pm and 9pm on a Sunday, please do not send that email.

I know the temptation to get a head is real and there is absolutely nothing stopping you getting ahead on Sunday, but that’s your business not anyone else’s. Delay sending that email till normal working hours, most email platforms actively encourage you to do that these days, so imagine your colleagues delight at receiving an email knowing full well you got the advisory note to delay sending it and just decided that your priorities were more important than respecting the boundary of their working hours.

Rains stops play
Had a lovely trip to Birmingham this weekend and I can now technically say I’ve been Edgbaston, I still haven’t seen any cricket at Edgbaston which was kind of the point of going to Edgbaston really.

After barely doing much above 55mph on the M1 on the way up it seemed that Storm Antoni was genuinely posing a ‘risk to life’ with the wind and heavy rain across the UK with serve warnings issued for Northern Ireland and South-West Britain. The first storm to be named of the season. Rest in peace British Summer, we hardly knew ye.

The UK is looking at 10 more days of rain to complete our bumper summer and while people keep trying to sell me on the fact we might get a nice week in September that is all well and good but it starts to get dark at like 7pm in September as that is technically autumn. I want to sit outside and read the paper on a Saturday morning without needing a blanket. I’d like my front lawn to be dry enough to mow when I get back from work. I’d like my morning walk not to be in shorts and coat thinking I’m going to be sick because it’s too hot but too early to get absolutely soaked.

The Met Office have confirmed it should be slightly drier and a bit warmer for the rest of the month but there are “currently no strong signals” for any warm or settled weather for the rest of the month. It’s like they want to keep us all gloomy (iykyk).

Are interest rates too high now?
I don’t want to talk about the Interest Rate Rise, yet here we are with the base rate rising to 5.25% the highest it’s been for the best part of 15 years, but is it too high?

The chief economist of the Bank of England Huw Pill seems to think so, the same Huw Pill who early this year just told us all we need to get used to being poorer, that Huw Pill. The risk with continuing to raise interest rates is that over-tightening builds the existing inflated rate into the economy and therefore directly increases the chances of recession given the current state of absolutely everything *gestures vaguely around at the state of the world*

Even Jeremy Hunt now appears to be concerned that we’re getting stuck in a “low growth trap” following the actions of the Bank of England and Pills comment. Also a raft of other Tory MPs are apparently worried about how it will reflect at the ballot box, which is always my primary concern when the country is on a bit of a cliff…the optics for my personal brand, with one backbencher apparently saying “The reality is to get inflation under control, people do have to be poor,” said one backbencher. “You have to have less money. But that is not a particularly politically sellable strapline.”

Does anyone watch normal TV anymore?
Ofcom has seen its sharpest fall in viewership of traditional TV since records began according to its stats in this year’s Media Nation report, with a 12% drop-in viewing time over the space of a year down from 2 hours 59 minutes in 2021 to 2 hours 38 minutes in 2022. The proportion of people watching TV also fell from 83% to 79%, with even older core viewers engaging more in streaming services than regular TV. Disney+ being the unexpected hit with the over 64s.

I can confirm I have watched very little regular TV this week and gone straight into devouring a boxset that I should have watched ages ago and didn’t that was about to disappear from one of my streaming services of choice and that is literally how they get you. Dare me to watch 10-hour episodes in 3 days, completed it mate (during month end, I need help)

The same week Chartr first newsletter charted the unexpected re-rise in popularity of Suits, which finished airing in 2019, but is obviously a firm favourite…Gabriel Macht, no notes…Harvey Specter, also note notes and while sceptics are convinced that the shows revised popularity is the Meghan Markle effect, Gabriel Macht still garners more searches. It will be interesting to see what the impact of the writer strikes have on the balance of terrestrial and steaming views.

Why doesn’t anyone want the Commonwealth Games?
Last month Victoria pulled out of hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games and this week it was the turn of Canada to halt their current bid and the only bid for the games in 2030, so what gives?

The cost, pure and simple. In the case of Australia the original estimate of costs had doubled to £1.4 BILLION. To host the event there needs to be massive investment which mostly footed by the taxpayer and return is nominal. The latest report of the costings for Birmingham 2022 Game were that the investment was £778m and it returned £870m into the Economy and while I wouldn’t snub £100m, I can understand why other countries wonder if its worth it. Especially that, with the exception of India 2010, the last 5 events have been hosted either by the UK or Australia and literally no one else. The investment required to hold it elsewhere would simply be enough to make it a hard no, even if you were Canada and wanting to host the 100th game back where it all began. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.

Current watch: The Sixth Commandment – Why do I watch these things? Based on the real life murders of a local university lecturer and his neighbour and the events that led to the criminal trial of Ben Field. Maids Moreton will always have a special place in my heart, the day I realised how unwell I was when I had glandular fever (I didn’t know at that point) was having to stop in Maids Moreton to throw up on the way back from swim club at probably about 10pm on a Friday night. Anyway, the cast are absolutely incredible, the story telling is superb and all filmed with the blessing of the families of those involved.

Current read:
How to argue with a racist: History, Science, Race & Reality – I have a lot of time for Adam Rutherford and this book dismantles the age old assumptions around race and genetics and what they actually don’t tell us about human difference and how science is no crutch for racism. This book also includes one of my favourite quotes of all time from Jonathan Swift from 1792 ‘reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired’ which tends to stop me having useless arguments, because you can’t reason someone out of an assumption they didn’t get to themselves by logic.

Most Impactful Listen: FT’s Money Clinic – The financial advice we’d give to Barbie – What a brilliant episode, with Barbie approaching her retirement years what financial advice you would you give? Clear Barrett is joined by Hadelsbankens Wealth Manager Christine Ross and the FT’s own personal finance columnist Miora O’Neill who chat through the advice they would love to give Barbie after her long and glittering career and her relationship with Ken. A thoughtful insight into women’s finances and the things that need to be considered.