Rachael McKelvey

• CITV switches off for the last time
• How the economy suddenly did better than expected
• Who was on PR for beer this week?
• M&S rejoins FTSE 100
• Tesco joins others in introducing body cams for staff

CITV switches off for the last time
CITV said goodbye for the final time this week after 17.5 years on air, the child in me is oddly pleased it never made adulthood, despite being 40 years old, it’s now moving solely online to ITVX Kids. I am old enough to remember you were either allowed to watch CBBC or CITV, when kids TV had designated times on actual channels rather than channels of their own and available 24/7.

Why the move online? Falling viewership, spending cuts and lack of content with original programming for children on public broadcasters at its “lowest level” Ofcom has ever seen. We were a CBBC household, very much trusting Auntie to keep us educated and safe, but boy did we like to change the channel to CITV for SM:TV Live, Pokemon, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (still have all the DVDs). There is just so much kids TV these days up and down the channels, on all the platforms, it’s definitely a sign of the times.

How the economy suddenly did better than expected
The UK economy did return to its pre-Covid levels by the end of 2021 according to new official figures…So how did the Office for National Statistics revise its GDP statistics in retrospect I can hear absolutely no one but me asking? Well…fortunately they blogged about it.

The jist was that although during the pandemic they were still getting good information from the monthly surveys for turnover and inflation but they weren’t getting the normal quality of information about the costs businesses were faced with and while normally they would be able to apply a ratio as a proxy…but these were far from stable and certain times so they used some proxy data from VAT returns…but again these were lumpy and bumpy depending on sectors and services were fully operating or not.

So how can they now revise the data more accurately? The annual surveys have arrived, most notably the Annual Purchases survey and Annual Business survey and these have been crunched! That has allowed the estimates to be updated and for the last three months of 2021 the economy is now estimated to have been 0.6% larger than 2019 levels, from the original estimate that it was in fact 1.2% behind. The power of data always means information can be updated.

Who was on PR for Beer this week?
There hasn’t been a day where there hasn’t been some news about Beer this week. Is Beer actually good for you? Apparently, the odd pint is likely good for your immune system and your gut flora and fauna…but apparently depending on where you live in the country it’s either good for your bank balance or not, with the North/South divide now very much present in the price of a pint, with beers in the south now three times higher than those up north. With the average price of a pint in Consett, near Newcastle coming in at £2.65 (what!) against the average price of a pint in central London topping it at £6.63. Logic being that you’d sell no pints in Consett if they cost £6.63 and you’d not be able to get enough beer if you sold them for £2.65 in London.

In other beer related news, apparently, they have now proved “beer goggles” are not a thing. I would love to have seen the test for this but researchers at Stanford University found that men were 71% more likely to want to chat with people they found attractive after just one bottle of beer (American beer probably, which is awful) but it “did not make them less fussy about who they fancied”. Imagine drinking a pint in Consett this weekend.

M&S rejoins FTSE 100
The blue-chip index has an old friend back after four years since it dropped out Marks and Spencer was welcome back on Wednesday afternoon by index complier FTSE Russell.

At the point they were ejected in 2019 the brand was in decline, with investors and customers losing faith, but in recent years they have significant positive trading updates, restored dividends with shares up 80% this year alone. The turnaround has been driven by changes in womens wears making them more competitive with other high street brands which has seen sales increase by 40%.

Behind the scenes they have made significant changes to their supply chains, sourcing from more locations, reducing turn around times with suppliers, upping margins across all their sectors, reducing their estate and closing failing stores has made a significant turn around in performance.

Tesco joins others in introducing body cams for staff
Tesco staff will now be offered the option to wear body cameras because of the increase in physical attacks, which according to the company have risen by a third in the last year. Earlier this year The British Retail Consortium have found that abuse against retail staff has doubled compared to pre-covid levels stating “The pandemic has normalised appalling levels of violent and abusive behaviour against retail workers”.

Tesco CEO Ken Murphy has confirmed that they have invested £44m in the last four years to increase security around the stores for staff. Sainsbury, Waitrose and Co-op all introduced body cameras for staff back in 2020 to help protect staff and last summer 100 retail chiefs wrote to 41 Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales asking for retail crime to take a greater priority in local policing strategies.

Current watch: Life at 50oC – A really special documentary showing the far-reaching consequences of the climate crisis and how people around the globe are already struggling to survive, let alone adapt to hotter temperatures. You think you have an idea of how unpleasant it is to be too hot, because we have experienced hot days and hot weeks, but the lived experience of those face extreme heat daily and the reality of what that looks like to survive in. Wells deeper than they’ve ever had to be dug before, that are too hot to make, feedings animals’ cardboard because there isn’t enough greenery or food to go around. Having to leave your entire family behind to travel hundreds of miles in a hope of finding work. Having your children want nothing more than to go to the park, relenting and going to the park for it to be dangerously too hot for them to play. It’s all to easy in richer countries just to think you’ll put the aircon in and everything is fine.

Current read: Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – A utopian feminist novel originally serialised in 1915 about and isolated society made up entirely of women, with the ability to reproduce without men. The result? The ideal social order free from social issues. Told from the perspective of a sociology student Van, who along with two other male friends set out on an expedition to chart the uncharted lands. They end up held captive, in the nicest way possible, and learn the language, culture and traditions. The women of Herland are also keen to learn about the rest of the world. The book deals with some big themes, but is so very readable and oddly enchanting, at points I didn’t know who I was rooting for really (not Terry, never Terry). I am very much looking forward to getting to its sequel which is now in my TBR pile.

Most Impactful Listen: FT Working it: Are Fridays dead? – Have we achieved the 4 day work week by stealth? Thursday nights out after work are the new Friday. Occupancy and Travel data both show that office usage is down, coffee shops, bars and restaurants like ghost towns on a Friday. In this episode Isabel Berwick talks to Nick Bloom Stanford Economics profession and FT columnist Pilita Clark about whether that is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future, the podcast also look at what people are doing if they’re not at the office on a Friday anymore and talks to Chis Silcock, MD for Kellogg’s UK and Ireland about why the company lets their staff knock off early on a Friday. How do you feel about Fridays in the office or working from home?