Sorry.

They came once a week for three months.

And then they started to really dig into my personal socials.

They were screen grabbing pictures of my kids and putting them online.

And then there was sort of death threats starting to happen.

And it's just creepy shit.

uh and then i would i mentioned i would always leave my business partner had something going on and i had to stay uh and we got a whole deer delivered that morning and i just thought like i was like i can't take this anymore i saw people coming in that were like visibly upset because i had these pictures of like dogs being skinned alive and shit it was like this is not happening in canada no and then i saw this then then they started bringing like megaphones and when the door would open they would start screaming in their slogans and this And it was screwing up our like walk-in traffic because there's like these lunatics outside.

It was,

Obviously, that, that was far form-- far more inflationary, but sort of that, that sense that the, the UK is, is particularly exposed, especially because I know you, uh, you've mentioned before that actually the US stock markets and their indices have fared a little better than, than our own here.

Sure.

So the US has got a bigger market anyway, more liquidity, um, and a huge tech sector.

London does not have a huge tech sector.

It has a small tech sector.

But London has a massive global footprint with resource stocks, particularly mining companies, lots of big old-school firms, and those firms tend to be particularly badly exposed to economic shocks.

So copper miners, for instance, look at a demand decline, a serious steep demand decline during an economic shock or a period of uncertainty, while gold miners might make up a little bit for a rally there.

[laughs] That won't stop me.

That's very fair

... that fox shooting as part of the service.

Now, I think we're seeing, again, another sign that the ESG boom, the green governance boom that, that swept the square mile for so long, boosting the coffers of so many city firms, helping, uh, companies chart exactly their environmental, social, and governance impact, that, uh, we're seeing that unravel before our very eyes.

Um, this is another example of how all of that revenue that was out there for the taking for so long is now very much not as readily available, uh, with worldwide generation operating the platform known as G17 Eco has failed, in fact, at this point.

Sure

... or, or another.

But I think the wider trend is much less of a surprise.

So the- The mania in, in, in some ways for, for a different way to measure capitalism, which was controversial among some people in the city throughout its life, was certainly something that was helping people earn a few quid, get new businesses set out, have a, have a look at the, the, the, the business of money, the business of, of doing business in a different way.

Why is that?

... provide short-term and long-term equipment.

Also, at the drop of a hat, you can get a load of things within four hours for all of the building sites that you have to clamber over to get from Cannon Street Station to wherever else you're going in the city.

They provide a lot of the stuff that those guys are using.

So orders there show you that the activity levels are picking up for that kind of thing.

And although the numbers for last year were a little bit flaky, you know, losses before tax much higher, the current trading statement that they've issued today is a little bit more upbeat.

So that tells you that the demand for those tools on those sites is getting better.

Wow

Mm

... which is a network of funds.

In 2007, it sought to modernize how other funds communicate with each other and how they do business, and its data is based on actual transactions.

It's not a survey.

No one's rung up.

It's actual money actually moving.

And they found that for the first time since November 2024, more money has gone in in May into UK equities.

Yeah.

Does this spell trouble for the most famous Italian car maker in the world? Michael Hunter's here to answer that exact question.

The markets are never entirely wrong, and the reaction on the market was very, very clear, and it's the latest emblem that we have of these luxury car marks really struggling with a non-petrol head future.

They know how to get Jeremy Clarkson and your good self excited.

But I think for a certain sector of the population, I think this is aspirational because it is the, it is the expression of an iPhone in car form.

But that, that's what they're struggling with in car, in car world.

They, they, they're struggling to translate top-end design for an unusual, fancy, eye-catching product into a utilitarian-

Mm

... of a major strategic overhaul, it shows you that there's still a lot of potential, and there's a lot of people who think that potential will start feeding through, not, not least in the city.

So they've identified around about ninety-five thousand households who are in a sweet spot where they have 300K annual income, a net asset value of about three million pounds, and also are still economically active.

So the age-old conundrum for the economically active, uh, relatively well-off person of being cash rich but time poor.

Investec currently has about eight thousand of those on the books, and they want to double that by 2030.

Oh.

They, they are indeed siblings.

But the wider story of Whitbread is very interesting.

But we also have a story about the weather, uh, to, to justify this segment, and that is that Wickes, the DIY shop, has taken a hit from a very wet, uh, sort of April and May.

Yes, that's correct.

We heard earlier in the month from Wickes, the, the well-known home improvement brand, that sales of outdoor items such as decking, paving, when you're renovating your garden into the summer, took a terrible hit from all that wet weather that we had when people would otherwise be doing that.

And I think the wider point, the wider point shows us, I think, how these big, successful nationwide brands, these multimillion, near billion-dollar companies in some cases in this industry, are vulnerable to these currents in the weather now-

Because the early forecast for then is looking spectacular

...

there are hopes that May, end of May bank holiday, the second bank holiday in May will help, will be a lot better, will draw people in or draw people back outside again into the shops and back outside into the gardens.

But there is so much riding on all of this, and companies catch an awful lot of flack when they blame the weather.

So where did you actually go to, uh, to school, culinary school?

Um, there's, yeah, there's like a few colleges, uh, you know, within the city, and I went to one.

They had an apprenticeship program, which was cool, so I got to work full-time, and then I went to school on my two days off.

Um, and that was like a two-year program.

But I'd been working in restaurants all, all through high school and whatnot, so um, yeah, I had a pretty good, uh, pretty good foundation already.

And, and school's just like, you know, a way to get that piece of paper.

And you learn, you learn some cool stuff in school, and definitely all the safety stuff, uh, you know, holding temperatures, cooking temperatures, chemical stuff.

Mm-hmm.

What's the public land situation up there?

Public land, uh, we call it Crown Land. Uh, there's tons of it. And, uh, hunting's generally pretty, you know, pretty good, depending where you're going. Um, and I think the, some of the bylaws, like, there's, I guess depends if you're close to, you know, provincial or federal parks. Like, there's certain parks that there's no hunting in the parks. But the, uh, the Crown Lands, I think it's open. You're allowed to camp on them for, you know, you have to move your structure every three weeks, like if you're going for a big trip or something. But, um, it's, it's pretty well just free reign, uh-

Mm.

And then when you go home, it's, it's good, but it's not the same, you know. And is it, is it the experience outdoors? Is it that you're so hungry 'cause you've been hiking a mountain, you know, on your, on your sheep hunt or whatever it is? You know, why does that meal taste so good that's over the fire, you know? And it's, uh, it's... As a professional chef, like, I, I can't figure it out, you know. And it's, um... So anyway, that's what I was passionate about. I thought, you know, this was, uh, this was gonna be f- a fun project to do, All Over the Fire. And, uh, and yeah. It, it proved to be a lot harder than the first one 'cause everything (laughs) had to be done outside over a fire.