by Jasmine Stephens, Family Editor The general election is now only weeks away and the parties have all been clamouring for your votes. The economy, welfare, housing, immigration, the NHS; all have featured heavily in the debate. However, when they want to attract the female vote, top of the list for discussion through the window of a pink bus is that old chestnut; childcare. Yes, childcare is a key concern. It’s hideously expensive, inflexibility can cause huge problems particularly for...

Pamflet, a self-described “London grrrl-culture zine”, launched its thirteenth issue this week, after a four-year hiatus. The zine’s creators, Anna-Marie Fitzgerald and Pheobe Frangoul, hosted a night of wine and chat at Soho’s The Trouble Club – all female member’s club / den of intellectual feminine iniquity, founded by the Evening Standard’s Joy Lo Dico – to celebrate the occasion. “We heard about The Trouble Club and came here for a drink,” said Anna-Marie. “We thought it sounded fun.” The...

The decision to relocate to another country for work and take on the life of an ex-pat is unlikely to be a straightforward one for anyone, but it’s particularly nerve-wracking when you have children to consider. Annabel Kantaria, author of novel Coming Home, gives us some tips to make the move as smooth as possible for your kids; both when relocating abroad and when the time comes to move back home. By Annabel Kantaria While moving abroad – or back...

Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada Abderramahne Sissako revisits the country of his childhood, Mali, in his powerful outcry of a film. Timbuktu and the surrounding desert region were under jihadist control for about a year from 2012 to 2013. The new leaders, for the most part coming from different countries, ride around town on motorbikes and in jeeps, announcing their laws with megaphones. Football and music is forbidden, women must cover up and wear gloves, it is forbidden to smoke, to sit...

By Ivan McKeever, CEO SwitchMyBusiness.com It is a political cliché that if every one of Britain’s 5.2 million small and micro firms were each helped to create one job, we would wipe out our unemployment problem. But what do those parties seeking our votes offer beyond tempting rhetoric at election time? A survey for SwitchMyBusiness.com, an energy compare and switch service for small businesses, revealed 93 per cent of small business owners want drastic change from the next Government. And...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food “Well at least Michel Roux came to greet us,” one ageing gentleman bellows from a few tables away, adapting the audacity of a dated Town Crier. Unfortunately Marcus Wareing isn’t present at his mother ship restaurant at The Berkeley Hotel but he can be forgiven the day off, especially due to an injury that he's currently recovering from, as was explained on our earlier tour of the surprisingly calm kitchen. In fact, if that’s...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  A new study has been released revealing the top 50 most boring things of modern life. Party Political Broadcasts, Fifty Shades of Grey and shopping channels have been hailed as life’s biggest bores according to a study which asked 2,000 adults about what causes them to switch off. Even with the election on the way Party Political Broadcasts were rated as excessively boring by over half of the adults polled, with ad breaks, queueing in the Post...

By Richard de Winter  @rgdewinter  @TLE Now it may have escaped your notice, gentle Reader, but there is a General Election imminent.  You could be forgiven for not knowing.  It’s not like the newspapers and news bulletins have been blathering on about nothing else for the last few weeks, or that social media have been filled with ever more offensive streams of invective.  Some of you may not even be aware that a worrying number of people seem to believe...

By Rob Foster How has your career in investment informed your belief in equity, and how did you come to write the book? I started to have these conversations with colleagues a couple of years ago, based on the premise that equity is the only way to access newly created wealth. The price of your house may go up & down, price of a gold bar may go up & down, if you own a bond it might pay interest,...