Melissa Wright deplores the cost and quality of high street coffee shops in Britain, and says she’d much rather get an espresso in Milan for €1.20Why does your article (The £5 coffee is coming – but should we swallow it?, 30 April) not mention the elephant in the coffee shop? Coffee in the UK is at best mediocre and at worst gag-worthy.I live in Milan,...

Despite the huffing of ideologues, the world has moved on. Voters and businesses are calling for more effective protectionsAs the sewage-filled waters start to close over the heads of Torydom, their Tufton Street thinktankers carry on like the orchestra on the Titanic. In three grand Westminster houses dwell the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Institute of...

Businesses say fees for Dover inspections are much higher than first thought and will push up shop pricesImporters of food from the EU into Britain have said newly introduced post-Brexit checks could increase their costs by up to 60%, pushing up prices for customers and driving some shops out of business.After five previous delays, the UK government...

Rishi Sunak claimed to have farmers’ backs but their union’s president is far from convinced, as he spars with the government over floods, falling markets and fraught retailer relations‘This is the first time I’ve had my lawn cut by somebody else,” says Tom Bradshaw, the new president of the National Farmers’ Union. Just over a month after being voted...

Moves come despite hospitality group reporting record profits and increasing returns to shareholdersBusiness live – latest coverageThe Premier Inn owner Whitbread is to cut 1,500 jobs in the UK and shut more than 100 struggling restaurants despite announcing a significant rise in returns to shareholders.Whitbread, which runs 850 hotels in the UK and...

A large takeaway flat white will already set you back £5.19 in London and other cities aren’t far behind. If cafe owners aren’t getting rich off our caffeine habit, who is? It was one of those London museum cafes where buggies block the entrance and children trail veggie straws across the floor. The queue of parents stretched to the door and the staff...