Business groups find little reason to celebrate US call to not raise UK tariffs August 13, 2020 Major UK business advocacy groups have said the US’ decision to not slap more tariffs on British goods is no cause to celebrate as businesses continue to feel the pinch from existing measures. The US made the decision today to not impose planned punitive tariffs on £5.75bn of British goods as a part of a [...]
Staff at M&S sandwich supplier self-isolate after coronavirus outbreak August 13, 2020 Nearly 300 people have tested positive for coronavirus after an outbreak at a food plant in Northampton. A local council representative told the BBC that 297 people had tested positive, after Greencore in Northampton started “proactively testing” workers. Northampton is one of 29 regions in England to be put on a watchlist for a potential [...]
New test and trace app will not alert one in three people after a positive test August 13, 2020 Almost one-third of people who should be alerted by someone else’s positive coronavirus test through the new NHS Test and Trace app will not receive a notification. The new app is being trialled in the Isle of Wight and Newham, East London, after the original one was scrapped during the testing phase. The app will [...]
The cold blast of popular opinion: ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s takes on the home secretary August 13, 2020 It was a young political journalist who summed up one of the oddest political storms of the summer so far when she tweeted on Wednesday: “Who had ‘MP argues with ice cream company’ on their 2020 bingo card?” In case you missed it, the story in brief: Priti Patel, the home secretary, has been making [...]
Forecasting the US election: should investors prepare for a new president? August 13, 2020 | City Talk Our analysis shows that the US presidential race may be closer than it first appears, but investors should at least be questioning what a Biden win will mean for markets and policy. When it comes to forecasting the US election, on the face of it both macro modelling and polls point to a comfortable win [...]
Sadiq Khan pleads with PM to save struggling West End August 13, 2020 Sadiq Khan has called on Boris Johnson to rescue London’s West End as central London businesses struggle to rebound from the coronavirus crisis. Khan wrote to the Prime Minister today, after lobby group The New West End Company predicted that there would be a £5bn drop in retail sales for the district this year. The West [...]
UK says US whisky tariff ‘in nobody’s interest’ in trade deal talks August 13, 2020 The UK has said it will step up demands for the US to drop tariffs on goods such as single malt Scotch whisky after the industry warned a decision by Washington to retain the levy was putting its future at risk. The US government yesterday vowed to maintain 15 per cent tariffs on Airbus aircraft [...]
Six per cent of people in England may have already contracted coronavirus August 13, 2020 Over 3.4m people in the UK may have already contracted coronavirus, a new study from Imperial College has shown. In the world’s largest home antibody testing programme, over 100,000 volunteers tested themselves at home using a finger prick test between 20 June and 13 July to check if they have antibodies against the virus. The [...]
Our university sector was broken long before Covid-19 August 13, 2020 UK higher education has reached a dead end. In the short term, the Covid-19 pandemic has created a huge hole in the current income of institutions, amounting to several billion pounds. In the longer term, Covid will probably result in a sustained decline in several sources of university income, above all fees from overseas students. [...]
More than 3m older people can’t downsize due to lack of suitable housing August 13, 2020 More than 3m people in the UK over the age of 65 want to downsize to a smaller home but can’t due to a lack of suitable housing and a competitive market. Ahead of the Autumn Budget, a report by Homes for Later Living called for ministers to set a goal of building 30,000 retirement [...]