US presidential election: More people are searching for Deez Nuts than for Hillary Clinton – or even Donald Trump August 22, 2015 More people are interested in Deez Nuts than Hillary Clinton, according to Google. Not only is the high school student trolling the entire American presidential election under the pseudonym “Deez Nuts” unexpectedly surging in the polls – search interest in him has also become higher than in Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Deez Nuts has [...]
Public sector borrowing: Government finances show a July surplus for the first time since 2012 – these five charts show the state the UK’s finances are in August 21, 2015 Figures published this morning showed the government's finances moved into surplus for the first July since 2012, with public sector net borrowing showing a surplus of just under £1.3bn, a fall in borrowing of £1.4bn compared with the same period last year. That's partly down to tax receipts, which rose to £7.8bn in July, £1.2bn [...]
Chancellor George Osborne’s tax breaks for British film industry given go-ahead by EU August 21, 2015 A new higher rate of film tax relief has been given the go ahead by the European Union. The scheme, first announced in the March Budget, will enable film companies to claim tax relief of 25 per cent on production costs. Chancellor George Osborne confirmed that the EU had agreed the move this morning. "British [...]
Jeremy Corbyn will apologise for Iraq War on behalf of Labour if he wins leadership contest August 20, 2015 Labour leader frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn has promised to apologise for the Iraq War on behalf of the party if he becomes leader. Corbyn will issue a statement saying sorry for the invasion of Iraq if he wins the battle to succeed Ed Miliband as party leader in the hotly contested race. He told the Guardian: [...]
Political meddling threatens London City Airport’s future: It’s a depressingly familiar story August 20, 2015 The latest twist in the London City Airport saga was laid out in these pages yesterday, with the news that a number of international parties are looking to bid for the site. But any sale, and the future of the airport, is heavily dependent on its prospects for growth. Those growth prospects ought to [...]
George Osborne wants to build more homes in the countryside August 20, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne wants to reform planning laws and make it easier for villages to build new houses. The chancellor said more people are moving to the countryside with rural areas of England experiencing net internal migration of more than 60,000 a year. "This government is determined to support the millions that already choose a [...]
London City Airport expansion plans stay grounded following Mayor Boris Johnson’s U-turn August 20, 2015 The battle for London City Airport is heating up. Less than a month has passed since its owners Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Oaktree Capital put the site to the east of the capital up for sale with a price tag of around £2bn. But already two heavyweight bidders have emerged, including one of the [...]
Jeremy Corbyn’s latest wheeze: Labour leadership front-runner calls for a national maximum wage August 19, 2015 Labour leadership front-runner Jeremy Corbyn has made a radical call for a national maximum wage. “There ought to be a level of a maximum,” Corbyn told The Herald newspaper in Scotland. “Why is it that bankers on massive salaries require bonuses to work while street-cleaners require threats to make them work? “It’s a kind of [...]
As building societies pile on the pressure, Andrew Tyrie warns George Osborne against new bank surcharge August 19, 2015 The chairman of an influential parliamentary committee has urged chancellor George Osborne to make sure that a new tax on banks does not reduce competition in the market. Read more: Osborne facing pressure from building societies over "perverse" bank surcharge Andrew Tyrie, who chairs the Treasury Select Committee, said today that there was a danger of "unintended consequences" [...]
Britain’s “making” revolution could solve our productivity puzzle August 19, 2015 It is now indisputable that the UK’s, and in particular London’s, economic recovery are well underway. But as Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, has rightly pointed out, challenges remain, and the most important of these is productivity. Contrary to popular assertions, productivity in the UK economy remains quite high in comparison [...]