Portugal to cut spending further after budget deal November 2, 2010 Portugal’s government will cut 2011 spending further to ensure it meets its budget deficit target after a deal with the opposition to pass an austere 2011 budget, Prime Minister Jose Socrates said yesterday. The deal hammered out last Friday included concessions by both the minority government and the main opposition Social Democrats (PSD). This created [...]
Portugal to cut spending further after budget deal November 2, 2010 Portugal’s government will cut 2011 spending further to ensure it meets its budget deficit target after a deal with the opposition to pass an austere 2011 budget, Prime Minister Jose Socrates said yesterday. The deal hammered out last Friday included concessions by both the minority government and the main opposition Social Democrats (PSD). This created [...]
Q&A: BUYING May 27, 2010 Camilla Dell MANAGING PARTNER AT BLACK BRICK Q.Dear Camilla, Hips were originally introduced to protect buyers, now that they have been abolished what protection do buyers have? A. HOME Information Packs (Hips) were initially put in place to help buyers find out important information about the properties they were buying and to stop sales falling [...]
Forget south africa; the world cup is coming to bishopsgate June 8, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland has clearly been keeping an ear out for all the sage words of wisdom dropping from the sky over the World Cup. The four-yearly event is one of the most sought-after corporate hospitality gigs in the calendar, but RBS, mindful of that taxpayer bailout it received during the crisis, isn’t biting. [...]
Swedes should act to weaken krona April 20, 2010 AFTER rushing to cut interest rates at the peak of the financial crisis, the next challenge for central bankers is when to start the tightening cycle. The National Bank of Australia has already taken the plunge and hiked rates twice this year, while last month Sweden’s central bank signalled it would raise interest rates in [...]
A Lab-Lib deal would be terrible for Britain May 7, 2010 AMONG all of the uncertainties of our first hung Parliament in 36 years, a few definite trends can now be discerned. The first, and most important, is that we are now in coalition talks. Gordon Brown wants to cling to power and do anything he can to create a coalition with the Lib Dems and anybody [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 22, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MOD TALLIES COST OF CUTTING PROJECTS The Ministry of Defence has instructed its equipment managers to calculate the cost of cancelling all individual programmes in the latest sign of the budget squeeze it faces. The directive, issued in the past two weeks, underlines that no programme, even if under contract with industry, is [...]
City favourite banking on a revamp March 22, 2010 IT’S hardly as if the City’s been short of “sign of the times” changes, but another came late last year when Prism, the Harvey Nichols outpost that was one of the Square Mile’s grandest and most lauded fine-dining restaurants, was reborn as a brasserie and bar. That meant a back-to-basics menu emphasising cosy ingredients including [...]
Going underground to extend your home March 25, 2010 IT seems we Britons are spending more and more time down under – in our basements, that is. No longer storerooms for junk, these subterranean spaces are increasingly becoming part of our homes, and their uses increasingly varied, with owners busy moulding cinema rooms, saunas, gyms, even golf simulator rooms. And that’s just in your [...]
REVOLUTIONISING the runabout March 16, 2010 OFTEN it’s the least exciting cars that are the most surprising. Testing an eco model from the most traditionally conservative car segment – the Supermini or B segment – promises to be, if not dull, then certainly a pedestrian experience. Yet, in a difficult car market, the Supermini segment is where all of the action [...]