From a record 7,089 points to Black Monday: The FTSE 100 highs and lows of 2015 Britain’s blue chip index posted a five per cent loss for 2015, and 12 per cent lower than an all time high hit in April. The basic resource heavy index has been rocked by the commodities rout as well as concerns over a slowdown in China. In short, it's been a bumpy ride for investors. So [...]
The biggest gaffes of 2015: Boris Johnson Vs child, Jeremy Clarkson’s clanger, fat fingers and s*** trains. The business boo boos, fantastic fubars and ghastly gaffes that made us groan and giggle this year were in some cases a little more serious than merely misplaced word or comment. And don't even get us started on VW's emissions cheating. Here are the gaffes that stuck with us in 2015. 1. Security snafus There was [...]
2015 in review: The best crowdfunded projects, gadgets, investments and companies of the year include beer, burritos, gifs and Greece 2015 was the year that crowdfunding really took off. Whether it was serious equity funding for a slice of the business or a kickstarter for the latest gadget giving people a reward in return, there were plenty of options. Here, we’ve rounded up some of our favourites this year, including beer, burritos, gifs and more. 1. The [...]
Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk suspended from the Labour party over “inappropriate behavior” December 31, 2015 Labour MP Simon Danczuk has been suspended by the party amid allegations that he sent a 17-year-old girl explicit text messages. The Sun claims the 49-year-old politician "bombarded" the girl with "sleazy" texts. Danczuk, who split up with his wife earlier this year, later tweeted that the story was “not entirely accurate” and referred to “an extremely [...]
Train fare increases 2016: Here’s how much your Tube, train and bus, Oyster and Travelcards are going up by in January December 31, 2015 Good news, commuters. The new year is going to usher in one of the lowest increases in Tube, train and bus fares in recent years. Travelcard season tickets will increase by less than one per cent, while pay as you go single bus fares will be frozen at £1.50. Those living in Stratford "and a number of [...]
UK weather: Storm Frank, Storm Eva and Storm Desmond bring record rain to UK in December December 31, 2015 Storms including Frank, Eva and Desmond have contributed to make one of the wettest Decembers on record, while temperatures have risen to smash previous highs for the time of year. Early provisional statistics from the Met Office suggest the UK mean temperature between 1 and 29 December was a record-breaking 8 °C which is 4.1 °C above the long-term average, beating [...]
BP evacuates North Sea oil field due to a floating barge December 31, 2015 BP was forced to order a total evacuation of its Valhall platform in the North Sea today, after a large unmanned barge ripped from its anchor during a fierce storm and started floating towards the drilling platform. Oil company ConocoPhillips also had to shut down output at its Eldfisk and Embla oil fields, and was pulling staff from its Eldfisk [...]
BBC down: Broadcaster suffers major tech issue on New Year’s Eve as digital services go offline December 31, 2015 The BBC was this morning suffering from a major technical issue, with its digital services going down across the board. All of its websites and several of its digital services, including radio, were offline on the morning of New Year's Eve, with no word as to what was causing the outage. BBC sources said the site had [...]
FTSE 100 falls on last day of 2015 December 31, 2015 Britain's blue-chip index was down 0.13 per cent at 6,266.14 points in the final half day trading session of 2015. Elsewhere, the French Cac was 4,663.42 points lower while the German Dax was closed for a public holiday. The FTSE 100 has failed to reach a record high hit in April, partly due to the market turmoil bought about by concerns over [...]