Direct Line with Vladimir Putin: The weird tradition of the Russian President’s annual phone-in April 16, 2015 If you're into Russian politics, tonight is one of the highlights of the political year: Direct Line with Vladimir Putin will air on Russian TV – the Russian President's annual marathon chat show, during which he takes questions put to him by the Russian public for the 13th time. It's an annual tradition dating back [...]
General Election 2015: McCarthy & Stone CEO Clive Fenton wants a retirement housing plan April 15, 2015 ELECTION COUNTDOWN: 21 DAYS TO GO Every day until the final week of the election campaign, we ask a business leader to say what policies would entice them to vote for a particular party. CLIVE FENTON: CEO, MCCARTHY & STONE Every political party claims the chronic housing shortage is critical in the UK, [...]
General Election 2015: Icap boss Michael Spencer could leave the UK if Ed Miliband wins April 15, 2015 High-profile City veteran Michael Spencer threatened to leave the country if Labour wins the General Election, warning that Ed Miliband could be very hostile to businesses. Former Conservative party treasurer Spencer runs inter-dealer brokerage Icap, and said that if business conditions are hit too hard by a Miliband government, he can imagine the board asking [...]
General Election 2015: A Labour government could send Royal Mail boss Moya Greene elsewhere April 15, 2015 She might hail from Canada, but I’d bet that Moya Greene will be keeping a closer eye than many Britons on the outcome of the General Election. Eighteen months after its contentious privatisation, the boss of Royal Mail may face the prospect of a full parliamentary term with UK government ministers behaving as an irritatingly [...]
Zoopla: Labour win in General Election would be bad for housing April 15, 2015 Zoopla, the online property portal, says that a Labour victory in next month’s General Election would be bad for the housing market. The firm believes that the party’s policies could have a particularly negative impact on first-time buyers. Zoopla say Labour’s proposal to restrict banks and building societies that accept deposits under the new Help [...]
Cuba woos US banks as sanctions ease April 15, 2015 Cuba is luring US banks to provide its citizens with financial services on American soil, as President Barack Obama continues to thaw out historically icy relations between the two nations. Since M&T Bank Corp ended its services to Cuba in 2014, the nation has been unable to get an American bank to facilitate financial transactions [...]
TV leaders’ debate: Nicola Sturgeon biggest winner on Facebook from last debate but Cameron still dominates the conversation April 15, 2015 Nicola Sturgeon was the big winner on social media, more than doubling her Facebook interactions following the leaders' TV debate. According to new data released by Facebook, in the six days following the debate which Sturgeon was widely perceived to have won, the number of posts, comments and likes concerning the Scottish first minister rocketed, [...]
Leaders’ interviews: David Cameron faces down accusation that Tories are party of the rich April 15, 2015 David Cameron has taken on the charge that his party is one that stands for the rich. In the second round of leaders' interviews, conducted by Newsnight's Evan Davis, the Prime Minister said the charge of standing up for the wealthy made him "more angry than almost anything else". When asked whether he agreed with some [...]
General Election 2015: Is the Labour Party divided as Chuka Umunna splits with Ed Miliband on 50p tax rate? April 15, 2015 Labour's shadow business secretary has left the door open to a future Labour government dropping the 50p top rate of income tax once the deficit is significantly reduced. The 50p rate was introduced during the dying days of Gordon Brown's government and was later cut by the coalition to 45p. The 50p rate was popular [...]
General Election 2015: Nicola Sturgeon hits out at Ukip manifesto pledge to scrap Barnett Formula April 15, 2015 SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has hit back at Nigel Farage wanting to replace the Barnett Formula. The Barnett Formula is the mechanism devised in the late 1970s that decides how much cash will be doled out to each nation of the UK on the basis of population and which powers have been devolved. Ukip's manifesto [...]