Gordon Brown’s speech on eve of Scotland’s independence vote. Full video and transcript September 18, 2014 At last, the world is hearing the voices of the real people of Scotland. The silent majority will be silent no more. And our patriotic vision, proud of our Scottish identity, proud of our distinctive Scottish institutions, proud of the Scottish Parliament that we, not the Nationalist party, created. And proud, and [...]
Watch: Leaf’s-eye-view of a tree being hoisted to the top of the Walkie Talkie September 18, 2014 Skyscrapers may be complex to build, but what about getting the furniture into them? You can usually squeeze a sofa into the lift – but a full-grown tree requires rather more specialist equipment. The video below gives a leaf's-eye-view of the process involved in hoisting a palm tree into the top floors of the Walkie [...]
Monitise share price tanks after Visa Inc reveals plans to reduce stake September 18, 2014 Monitise's share price is tanking today, after Visa Inc said it was looking at options to reduce its stake in the business. Shares in the British tech business had fallen more than 35 per cent at pixel time, wiping hundreds of pounds off its market value and making it the biggest single loser on [...]
Fifa ethics committee orders FAs to return £16,000 luxury watch September 18, 2014 Fifa has ordered the FA and other football associations (FAs) to hand over a £16,000 luxury watch given to management by the Brazilian football federation (CBF). According to Fifa, officials from the 32 nations competing at this summer’s World Cup were given the watches as a gift from the CBF at a pre-tournament congress [...]
Supermassive black hole found at centre of tiny galaxy September 18, 2014 A huge black hole has been found at the heart of the M60-UCD1 dwarf galaxy – one of the smallest and densest galaxies ever known. The galaxy has a diameter of around 300 light years – that is just 1/500 the size of the Milky Way, yet its newly-discovered supermassive black hole is five [...]
Could Labour be set to make a big announcement on low pay at its party conference? September 18, 2014 Tackling low pay has been a central policy theme for Labour while in opposition, and it’s not hard to see why. While the economy is growing, wages aren’t rising in real-terms and people don’t feel better off. Ed Miliband knows this and has sought to focus his party’s strategy on the cost of living crisis [...]
Posen: “Joseph Stiglitz is wrong – the reality of Scottish independence is frightening” September 18, 2014 Following pro-independence assertions by economist Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, saying the debate around Scottish independence had been "fear mongering", and that currency was a "non-issue", last night Adam Posen, the former Monetary Policy Committee member who now heads up the Peterson Institute for International Economics, published an article criticising his view. Cracking out the [...]
Furniture and vacuum cleaners drive retail sales into 17th month of growth September 18, 2014 Retail sales are starting to look healthier, with the volume of items bought in August up 3.9 per cent year-on-year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the 17th month of consecutive year-on-year growth, prompting the ONS to say “it would be true to say that the underlying picture is one [...]
The City of London has its own caliphate – and they have away days in Hampshire September 18, 2014 Given what we've learned about caliphates over recent months – largely from the rise of the brutal Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East – the City of London, with its decidedly Western attitudes to money-making, is not where you’d expect to find one. But it turns out the Square Mile is home to [...]
Day trip to the moon, anyone? Scientists say the average person would be “fine” in space September 18, 2014 Astronauts are a very healthy bunch – before being sent up into space they must go through rigorous physical training and pass a multitude of medical tests. Even when on a mission there's no respite – the International Space Station is equipped with its very own treadmill to keep them in tip top form at [...]