Daily Express owner and former porn baron Richard Desmond mulling sale of tabloids and other publications to rival Trinity Mirror January 10, 2017 Trinity Mirror shares rose in early trading after it emerged it was in talks with media mogul Richard Desmond to buy a stake in his four UK tabloids and other key publications. Shares rose 2.8 per cent to 100.23p after it confirmed it was in talks with Desmond's Northern and Shell Media Group to buy a minority interest [...]
Supermarkets had a record Christmas – but prices are rising January 10, 2017 Supermarkets had a record Christmas period in 2016, with sales growing at their fastest rate since June 2014, but prices are finally starting to rise following the Brexit vote. The latest figures from Kantar Woldpanel show that sales were up 1.8 per cent for the 12 weeks ending 1 January. Consumers spent nearly half a billion pounds [...]
It was a very merry Christmas for Morrisons with sales up 2.9 per cent January 10, 2017 Morrisons today revealed that sales in the nine weeks to 1 January were the strongest the supermarket has seen for seven years – and it's raised its expectations for full year profits. The group's shares jumped 4.5 per cent at the open. The group reported a 2.9 per cent jump in like-for-like sales excluding fuel – with [...]
Boohoo sets the online shopping trend to start the New Year January 10, 2017 Boohoo.com has ended 2016 on a high and looks set to continue the form into the New Year, with the online clothing retailer reporting strong increases in revenues and raising its revenue guidance for the start of this year. The figures Revenues grew 55 per cent, with growth in America particularly impressive: US revenues increased by [...]
Consumers wasted a whopping £13bn of edible food in 2015 January 10, 2017 Consumers threw out £13bn – 7.3m tonnes – worth of perfectly edible food in 2015. That generated 19m tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to those generated by one in four cars on UK roads, according to food waste reduction charity Wrap. However, 60 per cent of us believe we waste either no food or hardly any. Wrap has built off its work with [...]
Why solving the country’s housing crisis means backing – not battering – landlords January 10, 2017 Politics is a strange world, and the year’s events (Trump, Brexit and elsewhere in Europe) are topsy-turvy. But I still find it strange that Britain’s best and most effective form of housing provision, the private rented sector, is coming under such consistent attack. Policies such as changes to the way landlords are taxed, the stamp duty [...]
US fine will let RBS turn page on horror decade January 10, 2017 During the 2008-2009 banking crisis the UK government had to fork out a total of £115bn to rescue Lloyds Banking Group and RBS from imminent collapse, making the taxpayer a shareholder in both. Now a new milestone has been reached: the government is no longer the biggest stakeholder in Lloyds Banking Group, after it cut [...]
Should we rule out a trade war between China and the US? January 10, 2017 Andy Rothman, investment strategist at Matthews Asia, says Yes. Donald Trump is very unlikely to implement the 45 per cent across-the-board tariff on imports from China that he proposed in an interview last year. US law permits the President to make only an emergency declaration of 15 per cent tariffs for up to five months, and [...]
Why Trump’s America First policy won’t threaten the Special Relationship January 10, 2017 Donald Trump’s bellicose stance on trade during his presidential campaign focused on putting America first at all costs. He hinted at the unilateral imposition of tariffs on goods, imposing a border tax on imports and even leaving the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Whether he will actually do any of these things following his inauguration later [...]
Theresa May’s “shared society” slogan: Another excuse for more state, less Brexit January 10, 2017 I read Theresa May’s article about the “shared society” – assuming it was she who wrote it, and not her shadowy acolytes – with interest. It is always good to know what underlies our politicians’ thinking. But it is a disappointing read, a virtue-signalling undergraduate essay. It begins with the assertion, shared with most commentators, [...]