Spain’s double world champion Jorge Lorenzo drew first blood by taking the MotoGP floodlit season opener from pole in Qatar yesterday as Italy’s Valentino Rossi stormed to second.

Spanish whizzkid has style and class to go for victory – maybe even a title – first time out

Former F1 driver, who lost his legs in a crash 11 years ago, won paracycling gold at London 2012 and tells Robin Scott-Elliot his amazing journey is far from over

What's in a name? Plenty, according to the frontrunner for the leadership of the Scottish Tories. If Murdo Fraser takes over, he plans to separate his party from David Cameron's Conservatives and re-launch under a new name. It won't make a great deal of difference to the fortunes of Mr Cameron's party in Parliament, as the Tories have only one MP north of the border, Dumfriesshire's David Mundell. Whether assuming a new name can revive Tory fortunes in Scotland is another matter. What voters there clearly do not like are Tory policies, not the party's name. Mr Fraser is certainly thinking outside the box but he needs to concentrate on content as well as branding.

The next big battle for the tobacco industry – some might say the final battle – will be waged around the issue of legislation that forces their cancer-causing products into plain cigarette packets that are free of company logos and branding.

Getting the best out of a marketing programme begins with being clear about what you want to achieve. Mark Rollinson explains why the success or failure of a marketing project begins with the brief

The UK arm of Signet suffered a slump in profits in its second quarter, as dire consumer spending took the shine off the retail jewellery group's US results. Its H Samuel, Ernest Jones and Leslie Davis chains in the UK posted operating income down by 40 per cent to $2.8m (£1.7m) for the second quarter to 30 July.

In an article in Saturday's paper, we reported that Manassen Foods, the Australian- branded food business being bought by China's Bright Food, is the owner of the Ryvita brand. In fact, while Manassen distributes the crispbread in Australia, the Ryvita brand is actually owned by the UK-listed group, Associated British Foods.

The conservative MP Alan Duncan has gone into battle with Westminster Council over the removal of an "enormous" tree he says is blighting his London home.

Alexia Leachman of Blossoming Brands explains how having a strong personal brand will make people buy into you as an individual, which is important if you want to get new business, seek investment, or get people to work for you.

Once they would have been called sell-outs, but today's artists are keen to take the corporate dollar, says Elisa Bray

Abercrombie and Fitch is offering to pay Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and his fellow Jersey Shore cast members if they will stop wearing the brand on the show.

Comment

Nestle raised its annual outlook yesterday after strong emerging markets demand for its Maggi and Nescafe brands boosted the underlying sales for the first half of the year by 7.5 per cent.