Ben Marlow

London

Associate Editor and Columnist at The Telegraph

Contributor at Freelance

Associate editor and columnist, Telegraph

Articles

Thames Water customers risk £230 rise in bills as rescue deal collapses

3 days ago | msn.com | Ben Marlow |Matt Oliver |Louis Goss

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Seriously, what’s the point of Channel 4?

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Ben Marlow

Channel 4 was once at the very forefront of cutting-edge British TV. It repeatedly churned out brilliant and original shows of a type that viewers couldn’t find on other channels. With shows like Queer as Folk it took on sensitive issues that other broadcasters were too meek to confront. The Word, Brass Eye and Eurotrash pushed the boundaries of mainstream television to their limits. The Big Breakfast, Big Brother and Gogglebox pioneered new genres that changed television forever.
Seriously, what's the point of Channel 4?

2 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Ben Marlow

More worryingly for Channel 4 perhaps, the company's latest financial results show that the economics of this strategic shift are yet to stack up. For all the talk from outgoing chief Alex Mahon about how it has demonstrated that its "public service model can evolve and thrive in a changing world", the hard figures don't quite support that bold claim.
Donald Trump is heading for his own Liz Truss moment

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Ben Marlow

Nigel Farage was recently asked whether Donald Trump would prove to be “chump or champion” with his tariffs blitz. His response was that it was too soon to tell, but even a Trump acolyte like the Reform leader would surely concede that the early signs are pretty woeful. The US president is erratic at the best of times but his trade war has been utterly indiscriminate.
Donald Trump is heading for his own Liz Truss moment

2 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Ben Marlow

Trump's real Truss moment may still be to come, however, as investor fears shift from a devastating trade war with Beijing to his plans for a new era of sweeping tax cuts that could tear a fresh hole in federal finances. The investment community's response was both swift and overwhelmingly negative to the approval of Trump's tax cuts bill by a key congressional committee on Sunday, following days of Republican infighting over spending cuts to Medicaid.
Hundreds of Poundland stores to close under rescue deal

2 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Ben Marlow

Despite generating revenues of more than €2bn in 2024, Pepco bosses said Poundland had been a "drag on the group's financial performance - with lower revenue growth, lower gross margins, higher costs to operate, and consequently, lower profitability and returns on invested capital". Rachel Reeves's National Insurance tax raid had also aggravated the situation, the company said, as it piled "further pressure to Poundland's cost base".
Ed Miliband’s net zero fantasy is turning into a real-life nightmare

3 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Ben Marlow

The net zero fantasy-land that Ed Miliband inhabits is a world of rainbows and unicorns where the sun shines 24 hours a day and the wind always blows. It is a mystical utopia in which zero carbon energy is abundant and so cheap it is practically free. Meanwhile, the path to this arousing green nirvana is so smooth that one day we will surely be invited to skip down it in bare feet, holding hands and singing “Kum ba yah”.
Ed Miliband's net zero fantasy is turning into a real-life nightmare

3 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Ben Marlow

This is truly the stuff of 21st century nightmares. As shadow energy minster Andrew Bowie warned recently: "This green revolution will come with a 'Made in China' label."Indeed, that moment is already upon us, to such a degree that the renewables industry in Britain is almost completely dependent on Chinese products and components, particularly when it comes to solar panels and batteries.
Richard Desmond faces £15m demand in High Court lottery row

3 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Charles Hymas |Ben Marlow

The regulator estimates that the total legal bill for the case is likely to reach £30m, yet the last set of published accounts for Mr Desmond's Northern & Shell, which cover the period to the end of December 2023, show it sitting on cash of £20.8m. Sources close to Northern and Shell rejected the suggestion that Mr Desmond was unable to meet the legal costs of the case. "There is more than enough for Northern and Shell to fight to the bitter end," one source said.
Trump’s war on drugmakers will blow up in his face

3 weeks ago | aol.co.uk | Ben Marlow

The Trump foreign policy blitz is becoming almost impossible to keep up with. A highly welcome de-escalation of the US-China trade war has been unveiled following negotiations in Switzerland over the weekend. Angst-ridden financial markets across the world rejoiced at the news.