Woman suffering life threatening injuries, three others injured, after West London knife attack May 20, 2016 One woman has sustained "life-threatening" injuries and three others injured during an apparently unprovoked attack in west London this morning. Officers were called to The Avenue, in Hampton just after 10:30am, where they found three women suffering from knife wounds in a Sainsbury's car park. A fourth woman was subsequently found at a nearby property – she was [...]
Liverpool Airport wasn’t technically evacuated – but passengers have been removed from departure lounge due to problem with scanning machine May 20, 2016 Liverpool Airport was not technically "evacuated", but passengers have been asked to leave the departure lounge after a technical problem with scanning machines. The airport said passengers are currently being re-screened and there is no threat to passenger safety. Large numbers of holidaymakers had to leave the main airport building after the glitch. Manchester Evening News [...]
Here is how banks can better compete for, and profit from, SME business May 20, 2016 SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy, generating roughly half of all private sector turnover and employing around 60 per cent of the UK workforce, according to the Federation of Small Businesses. For banks, then, addressing the needs and expectations of this fast-growing and influential segment must be high on the agenda. The good news? [...]
EU referendum: Phone polls back Remain far more than online polls but contain too high a percentage of graduates, says YouGov May 20, 2016 The ability of phone polls to accurately predict the outcome of the EU referendum has been called into question by YouGov, which states they include too high a percentage of graduates. To give some context, there's been wide discrepancies between online and phone polling in the buildup to the vote, with phone polls putting Remain comprehensively ahead but online [...]
These three charts show how we use the internet now May 20, 2016 More Britons than ever used the internet in the last three months, according to newly-released data from the Office for National Statistics. Almost 46m adults accessed the internet in the last quarter, accounting for 87.9 per cent of all UK adults, a modest jump on 86.2 per cent in 2015. The percentage of Britons who had never used [...]
Industrial orders: Maybe things aren’t so bad in the manufacturing sector May 20, 2016 Data around the manufacturing sector has been pretty disappointing in recent months, with the likes of the ONS suggesting the sector has actually fallen into recession. But figures out this morning from CBI suggested the industrial sector – of which manufacturing makes up a large part – is actually doing pretty well. The CBI's Industrial [...]
EU referendum: Ryanair extends “Fly Home to Vote Remain” sale in response to being accused of breaking election law and anti-bribery rules by Vote Leave May 20, 2016 Ryanair has doubled down on its offer of cheap flights back to the UK in order to encourage people to vote Remain after Vote Leave complained to the police about the campaign. Vote Leave, the designated Out campaign group, said that Ryanair's offer of cheap flights to expats who want to vote to remain in the [...]
French government has competition concerns over London Stock Exchange merger – and tells European Commission: “Get involved” May 20, 2016 The London Stock Exchange’s proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse has today come under further political pressure, with France’s government expressing competition concerns. Since the details of the £21bn merger were set out in March, the deal has come under scrutiny from politicians in both the UK and Germany. Read more: Here are the next "hurdles" facing [...]
Contactless card payments are still on the up, but customers aren’t completely sold on them yet May 20, 2016 Contactless payments have more than doubled in the last year from one in 16 transactions to one in seven, but consumers are still not fully sold on them, according to new research. A survey of 2,000 adults by Defendernote indicated that almost a third (30 per cent) said bank customers should reserve the right to [...]
S&P: Energy firms drive corporate defaults to highest since post-financial crisis May 20, 2016 The commodity crunch helped push the number of firms defaulting on their debt to the highest level since 2009, according to credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's. Energy and natural resources companies accounted for more than half of the 72 corporate defaults so far this year. Of these, 29 were in the struggling oil and gas sector, while 12 came [...]