Gordon Brown calls 6 May election April 5, 2010 GORDON Brown has called the general election for 6 May, firing the starting gun on a four-week campaign to overturn the growing Conservative lead in the polls. The prime minister travelled to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve parliament on 12 April. The contest for the 650 seats is likely to be the [...]
iPad mania grips US as sales begin April 5, 2010 APPLE’S latest must-have gadget stormed into US homes yesterday as more than 300,000 people snapped one up on its first day on sale. The highly-anticipated iPad tablet notebook pushed Apple’s shares to its highest ever level after it rose 1.1 per cent. It attracted the usual flurry of add-on sales, with users downloading over 1m [...]
Tories support bribery bill April 5, 2010 PROPOSED amendments by the Conservative Party to the UK’s bribery bill have been withdrawn as Parliament prepares to pass new anti-corruption laws making it harder for UK businesses to get away with mis-conduct. Instead, the Tories have said they will fully support the bill when it comes before Parliament. A statement from the Tory office [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 5, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES DUBAI WALTH FUND BUY-OUT HEAD SWITCHES TO CARLYLE Carlyle, the US-based private equity group, has poached Eric Kump, head of Dubai International Capital’s European private equity team, leaving the sovereign wealth fund with a troubled portfolio and lacking funds for new deals. Mr Kump will on Tuesday be unveiled by Carlyle as a [...]
Britain’s election battle starts today April 5, 2010 LET the battle commence. Gordon Brown will today go to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve parliament, paving the way for a general election on 6 May. It will be a hugely important and exciting contest; it will be the first time since 1992 that a general election will be monitored so closely [...]
Greece: aid is prejudiced April 5, 2010 GERMANY’S hard line on aid for Greece has been based on a “moral, racial approach” and the prejudice that Greeks don’t work enough, Greek deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos said yesterday. Pangalos also told a Portuguese newspaper that German leaders were too focused on catering to domestic voters at a time when the European Union [...]
Setback in Galleon case April 5, 2010 US District Judge Jed Rakoff refused to approve an agreement by a trading company tied to the Galleon Group hedge fund insider trading case to pay about $763,000 (£500,000) to settle a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) securities fraud lawsuit. The refusal came six days after the trading company, Schottenfeld Group LLC, won approval [...]
Carmakers set for get together April 5, 2010 French carmaker Renault, its Japanese alliance partner Nissan and Germany’s Daimler are likely to announce partnership and cross-shareholding plans as early as tomorrow, sources said yesterday. Renault and Daimler have been discussing a partnership as carmakers worldwide seek to become more competitive, sharing technology costs and gaining scale. The automobile sector, which is emerging from [...]
Osborne ups the ante in job tax stand-off April 5, 2010 SHADOW chancellor George Osborne yesterday stepped up his attack on the government over plans to hike national insurance contributions (NICs), claiming the “job tax” would be the fastest way to reverse the budding economic recovery. George Osborne also insisted that the Tories have no plans for further tax rises, despite repeated claims from Labour that [...]
MODELLING LEAVES METRO BOSS RED-FACED April 5, 2010 MOST of the management over at shiny-new high street lender Metro Bank might be patting themselves on the back over their latest marketing ruse, a giant mascot for the bank, but some of the poor staffers have been left red-faced. The new mascot – an enormous foamy “M” in blue and red, the bank’s colours [...]