London Bridge delays expected until 1pm as signalling failures, broken down train continue to disrupt train services January 6, 2016 Commuters going to – or through – London Bridge were stuck with severe delays this morning as signalling problems played havoc with Southeastern services. Trains were being delayed by as much as an hour with Southeastern saying some services would be diverted to "other London stations". The train operator initially said disruption would last until 9am, but [...]
RMT ballots members over yet another Night Tube strike as Aslef ramps up the fighting talk January 6, 2016 Tube maintenance workers are to be balloted over potentially more strike action over the Night Tube and pay, after union representatives rejected the offer on the table. RMT said its reps had "overwhelmingly" dismissed the new deal, saying it mirrored proposals that had already been thrown out by workers on the rest of the Tube network. [...]
Angela Merkel’s Berlin office reopened after German police give all-clear over suspicious package January 6, 2016 German police have given the area around chancellor Angela Merkel's office the all-clear after a suspected suspicious package was found to be harmless. The area around the chancellery in Berlin was cordoned off for a couple of hours while police assessed the situation this morning. The object was found during a routine security check at the entrance to [...]
WPP subsidiary Grey Group buys South Korean digital agency Vinyl I-Co January 6, 2016 WPP subsidiary Grey Group has taken a majority stake in South Korean creative digital agency Vinyl I-Co for an undisclosed sum. The business, which was set up in 2000, incorporates new media technology in its design process and boasts clients including L'Oreal, Microsoft, Nike and Samsung. It employs 70 people and last year reported revenues of 12.8bn Korean [...]
Solid John Lewis Christmas trading not enough to nudge profit expectations up January 6, 2016 The John Lewis Partnership has reported a solid Christmas period, with sales across the group up 4.1 per cent for the six weeks to 2 January to £1.81bn – but it's not enough to shift the group's full year decline in profits. The figures The department store business was the strongest driver of growth, with sales up [...]
London weather: Storms make December wettest month on record while 2015 is sixth wettest year in a century January 5, 2016 You weren't imagining it: December really was the wettest month on record, rounding off an exceptionally rainy year. In fact 2015 was the sixth wettest year in more than a century, since the Met Office's records began in 1910. Scotland, northern England and Wales all experienced record-breaking December rainfall, while for central and southern England it was [...]
Hertfordshire police station evacuated and army called in after member of public brings suspected WWI bomb to Hoddesdon station January 5, 2016 A Hertfordshire police station was evacuated and the army called in to assist after a member of the public brought a suspected bomb from the First World War into the station. The Hoddesdon station was shut off, with a 200m cordon put in place around the area after a man reportedly brought the device into the [...]
Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Asda and Sainsbury’s: What to expect from the supermarket sector’s Christmas results January 5, 2016 Supermarkets were going for broke this Christmas, after a poor year of trading for the likes of Tesco, Morrisons and Asda, with Sainsbury's the only one of the Big Four in growth in the run-up to the festive period. But with challengers Lidl and Aldi stealing market share from the price conscious, while Marks & Spencer and [...]
HSBC website down again: Bank promises to waive fees after suffering second day of disruption to online services – here’s what to do January 5, 2016 Update: HSBC has promised to waive any charges incurred because of issues with its online services, as outage continued for the second day in a row. Customers complained this morning that the bank's internet services were still down as of 8am this morning and throughout most of the day, with some claiming that they risked fines for unpaid [...]
Malaysia Airlines has banned checked luggage to London, Paris and Amsterdam because of strong winds January 5, 2016 Malaysia Airlines has told passengers they are not able to take on checked in luggage for flights to London, Paris and Amsterdam because of "temporary unseasonably strong head winds". Instead of their usual allowance, those flying economy will be able to take just one piece of luggage weighing seven kilos while business and first class [...]
