Gossip,whispers and City rumours in this week’s edition of The Capitalist

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but what about scraping your articles, scrambling its contents and publishing it on a separate ‘news’ website? This seems to be the preferred compliment of many ‘local news’ websites established in the post-GPT era, including ‘The London Globe’, which has recently been having a field day posting gibberish rewrites of City AM articles. While many do include gushing paragraphs about our journalists (Samuel Norman, “well-known for his in-depth analysis”; Maisie Grice, “an accomplished investment reporter”) which we do appreciate, a choice number of their stories have rather stretched the truth to breaking point.

Take their rewrite of City AM story ‘Investor pressure mounts on boss of King’s favourite interior designer’, in which the the article’s author (City AM retail reporter Felix Armstrong) has been rather woefully confused for its subject (Dame Dianne Thompson, the boss of the King’s favourite interior designer): “The ongoing scrutiny of Felix Armstrong’s role comes amid a broader discussion regarding governance and accountability in organisations closely linked to the monarchy. Critics are questioning whether Armstrong’s leadership aligns with the values and standards expected of a firm patronised by the Royal Family.” The Capitalist would like to set the record straight that Felix is neither under ongoing scrutiny, nor linked to the royal family. For what it’s worth, The London Globe’s editorial policy states the publication “may use artificial intelligence tools” to assist with “editorial workflow”. Which we suppose excuses the matter.

The Capitalist: the UK’s most eccentric conference

LA DOLCE VITA, BY WAY OF CUSTOM HOUSE AT WORLD TRAVEL MARKET
“Just been to the Maldives for Champagne, now I’m off to Croatia!” blurted one travel industry professional to The Capitalist from this week’s World Travel Market, the UK’s strangest conference. An Excel London trade fair for the travel industry, hundreds of countries have promotional stands, many with free-flowing booze to show off their country’s bounty, and so the guest experience involves haring from ‘country’ to ‘country’ for meetings. The image above is of our Life&Style Editor at ‘Italy’. It wasn’t all sun, sea and sand though: at one stand, five reps got stuck in the booze cupboard and needed to be drilled out to safety. Elsewhere on their stand, stressed tourist board representatives continued to wax lyrical to journalists and buyers from travel agencies about how amazing their destination is in the winter.

BURNHAM’S BURNING QUESTIONS AT BRIEFING
Andy Burnham rattled journalists by not taking a group to Antigua for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Could the PM be avoiding scrutiny? At a briefing, his spokesman did not accept Burnham was sidestepping reporters. In a question about the EU, the Downing Street spokesman affirmed that Burnham had “exposed himself to more scrutiny” via an ITV News interview. One question at the briefing was about the proposed nationalisation of Poundland. The spokesman didn’t rule out a full government takeover, adding he would not pre-empt the “commercial process ongoing”. Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick plainly said “no” to nationalisation when asked by City AM. There’s your insight into how rumours run wild when politicians dodge the media.