CITY WHISPERS: It’s not easy being woke – try asking IHG about LGBT

Following Pride month, Holiday Inn and InterContinental Hotel-owner IHG should have its LGBT+ credentials watertight to keep attracting as many guests as possible.

But the firm is in a muddle after human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell accused it of ‘hypocrisy’ for brandishing pro-LGBT+ attributes on its website while operating a hotel in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, where same-sex activity can lead to up to three years in prison.

IHG said the firm did not discriminate based on sexual orientation, but admitted it would ‘comply with legal requirements’ when national law conflicted with its own policy.

‘Safe space’: IHG admitted it would ‘comply with legal requirements’ when national law conflicted with its own policy

But when contacted by The Mail on Sunday, the hotel said it would ‘provide a safe space for guests regardless if they are in a same-sex relationship’, seemingly at odds with the law. 

However, when asked if this ‘safe space’ would still apply if Tashkent police came searching for LGBT+ people, IHG said it ‘didn’t want to get involved in hypotheticals’.

BrewDog trick frivolous in cost-of-living crisis

Skip the recent video posted online by BrewDog boss James Watt if you are afraid of heights. 

Watt is shown hurling a laptop in a bag out of a helicopter 1,000 feet above Las Vegas to celebrate his investment in Mous, which makes phone cases, computer bags and more. 

Impressively, the bag looks in perfect nick when it lands. 

The laptop turns on, but is in far worse shape. 

Perhaps not a great trick during a cost-of-living crisis though. 

Hamoodi preparing knockout blow at Nanoco? 

Footage has been circulating of Nanoco’s activist shareholder Tariq Hamoodi channelling THG’s Matt Moulding – topless and showing off muscles.

The video at least had context as it was filmed when Hamoodi was in a charity boxing match several years ago.

Hamoodi and hedge fund Decagon Asset Management have requisitioned a shareholder meeting at the tech firm, which settled a legal row with Samsung earlier this year.

He has been agitating for a board overhaul at Nanoco for some time and has a slew of proposed directors to replace current management if successful.

But shares in Nanoco ended the week lower than before the meeting was arranged – perhaps Hamoodi is still preparing to deliver a knockout blow?

More turmoil for Sanjeev Gupta 

More turmoil for industrialist Sanjeev Gupta last week as Simec Atlantis Energy, a renewables firm he backs, asked for a share suspension as it would not meet its June annual report deadline.

The group, set up by Gupta’s father, said it had been ‘working hard’ to sign a 30-year lease in Wales, where it is building an energy storage facility.

Negotiations for this closed on June 20.

Simec said there were ‘no material issues’ causing the delay.

Although it is nowhere near on the scale of, say, being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, it is a less-than-ideal turn of events for Gupta.