John lewis

Thursday

Tanya Gold

So boring it’s mesmerising: The Place to Eat at John Lewis reviewed

From our UK edition

I am, like a strain of Withnail, in the John Lewis café by mistake. I meant to review the new Jamie Oliver café and cooking school on the third floor of John Lewis Oxford Street, but they have run out of food beyond pink cake. We have no choice but to go upwards to the fifth floor and the electricals. I have always felt safe in John Lewis, a despicable thing to think, let alone type, but that is done now. It is called The Place to Eat, which echoes, though unconsciously, Ecclesiastes 3. It is preeningly ugly. I wonder if this is another strain of common British humble-brag, like our teeth, our town centres and our clothes. Because this is ugliness by design: it’s too ugly to be anything else.

Friday

Ruth Bloomfield

Would you rent a John Lewis home?

From our UK edition

John Lewis recently returned to its roots, resurrecting its ‘never knowingly undersold’ price-matching promise. But it’s hard to imagine how the company, which opened its first store on London’s Oxford Street in 1864, could apply this undertaking to its latest venture. For, not content with supplying the nation with sofas and curtains, lightbulbs and sewing patterns, John Lewis wants to provide the actual homes to put these items into – dipping its corporate toe into the world of 'build to rent', or BTR. The retailer has unveiled plans to construct almost 1,000 rental flats at three company-owned sites – above a Waitrose store in Bromley, south-east London; on a brownfield site in West Ealing, west London; and on a warehouse site in Reading, Berkshire.

Thursday

Martin Vander Weyer

The arrogance of Apple

From our UK edition

Can flexible working get the best out of what a ministerial press release calls ‘hardworking Brits’ – or is it a couch potato’s charter? As of 6 April, employees have had the right to ask for flexibility – including remote working and hours to suit – from their first day in a job; employers can reject unworkable requests, but are obliged to consider and consult. If you’re an optimist, you’ll think workers whose family lives are accommodated by enlightened employers will be happier, more loyal and more productive: ‘5 a.m. will be the new 9 a.m.,’ declares the HR Director, for parents who choose to ‘tackle work before attending to childcare commitments’ then ‘wrap up earlier… prioritising family time’.

Wednesday

Martin Vander Weyer

Rampant unions will embed high inflation

From our UK edition

So farewell, Transpennine Express, the northern rail operator whose hapless management were no match for the Aslef union that was determined to see this underperforming franchise renationalised. TPE’s drivers, beneficiaries of the super-luxury conditions I recited last month, have effectively invented a new form of moral hazard: have no fear of crippling your employer with outrageous demands and relentless non-cooperation, because if it goes down, the government will step in and re-employ you on the same terms or better. Aslef has more strikes planned nationally for 31 May and 3 June, and the other rail union RMT – having done its best to disrupt travel to Eurovision in Liverpool – says it may join in on the second date, which happens to be FA Cup final day.

Thursday

Martin Vander Weyer

Will a John Lewis home be up Boris and Carrie’s street?

From our UK edition

The Financial Times carried a curious story at the weekend about ‘the secretive process to elect the Lord Mayor of London’ being ‘thrown into disarray’ by ‘objections from some City leaders’ to the candidacy, for 2022, of Nick Lyons — who has just been elected as one of the City’s two sheriffs but who happens to be an Irish citizen. Lyons’s unnamed opposers say City rules have always required the Lord Mayor to be a British citizen. The City Corporation, the Square Mile’s local authority, says it has legal advice to the effect that Lyons is not disqualified, EU citizens being permitted to stand in UK local elections.

Tuesday

Jason Sam

Was John Lewis a traitor?

January 6 is normally a rather uneventful day in American politics. It’s usually a day when Congress convenes to quietly certify the slate of presidential electors sent to them by all 50 states, and finalize the winner of that year’s presidential election. On January 6, 2021, this formality was interrupted by a group of rioters who ransacked the Capitol in an attempt to delay the certification of now-president Joe Biden’s victory on November 3, 2020. Before January 6, numerous Republicans in the House and Senate made clear that they would object to the certification over concerns about voter irregularities in the 2020 election and demanded a debate in Congress on election integrity.

john lewis traitor election

Thursday

Richard Bratby

The Mozarts of ad music

From our UK edition

It’s Christmas 2020 and Kevin the Carrot is on a mission. Snow swirls, ice glistens and roast turkeys and cold cuts wait on the table, bathed in cosy firelight. The visual symbols of Christmas are all present and correct in the big Aldi seasonal advert, but what pulls them together is the music. A hint of John Williams on a solo horn, a burst of swashbuckling rhythm; symphonic strings as our vegetable hero makes it home. It’s all there, sumptuously scored and precisely gauged to make you feel that in 30 seconds, you’ve experienced an epic. And then, of course, to go out and buy parsnips. ‘I was lucky, because the mood had already been chosen,’ says Guy Farley, the composer who wrote that score.

Thursday

Ben Sixsmith

Sarah Cooper isn’t funny

If Joe Biden wins the US presidential election in November there is one possible outcome that even conservatives will be forced to welcome: the world might see less of Sarah Cooper. If you have been on Twitter in the last six months you will have no doubt encountered Cooper. Her fantastically popular videos offer a kind of impersonation of Donald Trump — Cooper does not mimic the President, however. She has no original script and never speaks. Instead, she plays the President's speeches aloud and opens and closes her mouth, as if she is speaking his words. That is not quite all she does. She also screws up her face. There is some minor craftsmanship to what she does. She is not just pulling Kenneth Williams-esque grimaces.

Sarah Cooper, YouTube

Friday

Amber Duke

Who deserves a funeral?

No one would argue that Rep. John Lewis doesn't deserve a proper memorial. He was a civil rights icon and a long-serving member of Congress who was beloved by his colleagues. In the middle of a pandemic, however, how do we decide who gets the pomp and circumstance of a traditional burial and who has to watch their loved one go six feet under via Zoom call? Funerals are important: they acknowledge the sanctity of life and allow friends and family to come together to grieve their loss. This reality doesn't change based on how famous or revered an individual was to the general public: it doesn't hurt any less to say goodbye to someone who was just a dad or just someone's child or just a dear friend. Their lives aren't any less significant.

funerals