School reform’s biggest winners are the poor August 25, 2016 At the height of the last government, an online petition was launched calling for the then education secretary to resign. “Remove the elitist Michael Gove from office” it screamed. “Gove who has experienced private school education and Oxbridge is completely out of touch”. Like so much cyber activism, it was nonsense. For as today’s GCSE results [...]
Option Zero: Why Britain should embrace unilateral free trade post-Brexit August 25, 2016 Sherlock Holmes said that, when you’ve exhausted all other possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. In last week’s column I explained why the assumed roads forward for Brexit (the Norwegian, Swiss, Turkish and conventional World Trade Organisation tariff models) all had major stumbling blocks and should be seen as non-starters. This week [...]
Free movement is gone – but business can still persuade the public of the benefits of migration August 25, 2016 Britain may have a new home secretary and a new PM, but the quarterly immigration figures, out today, look set to tell the same old story. The government remains nowhere near meeting its “tens of thousands” net migration target and new polling shows the public doesn’t think it’s likely to. But business voices hoping Amber [...]
Thorpe Park tempts pensioners with special offers to hop on rides August 25, 2016 Thorpe Park has introduced a discounted pass for pensioners after the theme park saw a four per cent year-on-year increase from visitors aged 65 and over. However, a survey by Thorpe Park found that 26 per cent of pensioners said they felt discriminated against due to their age when taking part in leisure activities in [...]
Theresa May warned lower migration could trigger recession August 25, 2016 The prime minister has been warned cutting migration could push the UK into recession and trigger a prolonged economic slowdown. As new figures are set to show net migration still running at more than three times the government’s “tens of thousands” target, experts lined up to slam Theresa May’s commitment to cut the number of new [...]
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) proposes new ways to crack down on offshore tax evasion August 24, 2016 The taxman today laid down the law, announcing plans for tougher new sanctions for offshore tax evasion. Under the proposals announced by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), those who do not volunteer to pay outstanding taxes from offshore investments and accounts could be slapped with penalties up to three times the tax they were trying to evade. The [...]
“Executional rigour” fails to save HP shares from after-hours plunge August 24, 2016 HP thinks it has the laser vision needed to continue printing out profits, as the technology giant revealed today its earnings per share had beaten its previously stated outlook. The company reported diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations of $0.49 for its third quarter of the year, safely above its previously provided outlook of $0.40 [...]
Royal Bank of Canada bumps up dividend as income increases August 24, 2016 Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has today announced a boost to its income, along with a slightly sweeter dividend for its third quarter of its financial year. RBC revealed net income of CA$2.9bn (£1.7bn) for the three months to the end of July, an increase of 17 per cent on CA$2.5bn the year before. Meanwhile, diluted earnings per share were reported [...]
Yes, it really is as hot in your office as you think it is August 24, 2016 If you feel like you've been melting at your desk today, take heart – much of the south east has probably been feeling the same way. Temperatures sailed past the 30 degrees Celsius mark in some parts of the country today, with Gravesend clocking up the hottest temperature of the year so far. Early figures show that [...]
Here’s why RBS has told thousands of clients to get a move on and find another bank August 24, 2016 Most banks fight tooth and nail to hang onto clients, but one industry player has a very good reason for telling a certain group of customers they need to find somewhere else. RBS has written to Global Transaction Services (GTS) clients who will be affected when the bank shuts down certain offerings at the end of the year to gently [...]