UK labour market: The UK is working more hours than ever before, as wage growth slides December 16, 2015 UK workers toiled for more than a billion hours per week between August and October, figures published today showed – which means the UK is working more hours than ever before. Labour market statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the employment rate hit 73.9 per cent during the period, the highest since records began [...]
Conservative MPs live longer (unless you’re leader) but all politicians live longer than the rest of us December 16, 2015 How tough is the rough and tumble of political life? Not that bad, really. It turns out the long hours, highly demanding work load and high-vis jacket wearing doesn't take as much of a toll as you might think. MPs are likely to live longer than the rest of us, eking out an extra four years on [...]
Has Tim Peake given you the space travel bug? Here’s what it takes to be an astronaut with Nasa December 16, 2015 If you felt a surge of jealousy while watching Tim Peake make his way to the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday, worry no more – Nasa has just opened applications for its latest space programme. And this time, you could end up travelling to Mars. The bad news is that its most recent application process was anything to [...]
Christmas gifts 2015: Sales of BBQS, board games and prosecco gummy bears are on the up at John Lewis, but the halls will be decked in more muted colour themes December 16, 2015 One of our favourite tipples has proven popular in a more unusual format, with sales of prosecco flavoured gummy bears bouncing 106 per cent week-on-week at John Lewis, the retail giant said today. Meanwhile, post-Christmas lunch entertainment might be a low-tech affair, with sales of board games rolling in 183 per cent higher year-on-year. And December this year has [...]
From a stuffed eagle to that Aquascutum suit: How Margaret Thatcher’s final asset selloff made £3.3m December 16, 2015 Whatever your views on Margaret Thatcher, it's hard to deny that, given her penchant for privatisations, she'd be proud of this one. An auction of her personal effects – from her blue velvet wedding dress to that handbag – has raised £3.3m. Read more: Thatcher is the most influential woman of the past 200 years Auction [...]
The UK’s busiest stations: Waterloo welcomes largest number of passengers while Stratford rockets and London Bridge declines December 16, 2015 If you feel like Waterloo station is a little busy these days, you'd be right. Once again, it has been crowned the country's busiest station, with an astonishing 99m passengers passing though its doors over the past year, new figures reveal. Stations across the countries are becoming busier than ever, and overall passenger numbers grew by 4.5 per [...]
Amazon warns hoverboard buyers to throw them away over safety fears December 16, 2015 Amazon has warned shoppers who have purchased hoverboards to throw them away, a day after it pulled them from sale over safety concerns. The devices, which are in fact self-balancing scooters, had been pegged as one of the most popular gifts to give this Christmas. However, many of the devices do not adhere to safety [...]
Fed rate hike: What you need to know about ahead of Janet Yellen’s big decision on US interest rates, from why it’s important to when it’s announced December 16, 2015 The world is waiting on tenterhooks for the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting, with the US central bank widely expected to announce its first interest rate hike in nearly a decade tonight. Barring “unanticipated shocks”, Fed members are expected to vote to lift rates by quarter to half a percentage point from their current historic low. After [...]
Christmas gifts 2015: Almost half of UK adults have at least one relative living abroad and 16 December is expected to be the day we are most likely to send money overseas December 16, 2015 Business has become more global but it turns out the same is true for family matters. A study out today from the Post Office International Payments has found that 41 per cent of UK adults now have at least one relative living overseas. So, if you've found yourself grappling with last postage dates for overseas for [...]