The UK is getting less corrupt (and, FYI Fifa, it beat Qatar and Russia) December 3, 2014 Good news for those Britons who don’t include bribery among our hobbies. The UK is getting less corrupt. That’s according to the annual Transparency Index, which was published today. In 2014, the UK was ranked 14th with a corruption score of 78. Last year it got 76 and the year before it was 74. The [...]
LighterLife slammed over excessive weight loss adverts December 3, 2014 Dieting group LighterLife has been slammed for promoting weight loss programmes that go against “good medical and nutritional practice”, thus breaking advertising code. LighterLife was investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority for a number of social media posts – one featuring the actress Denise Welch with text claiming that “Denise lost 2st in just [...]
Boris Johnson and the Malaysia Airlines mile-high “head butt incident” with drunk passenger December 3, 2014 London Mayor Boris Johnson may be used to a political dust up, but he was faced with what sounds like a rather more physical session on his flight home last night. Johnson, who has been in Malaysia as part of a tour of Asia, was flying from Kuala Lumpur when a fellow passenger started to [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Stamp duty, business rates, banking profits and tech firm taxes. How has industry responded? December 3, 2014 There were a number of surprises in George Osborne's final Autumn Statement before the general election, many of which are solidly aimed at middle class voters. Bankers taxes are being limited, multinational tech firms are going to have to pay more taxes and stamp duty slabs have been scrapped. The squeezed middle and chattering [...]
Here is everything we know about the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine December 3, 2014 Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has confirmed there has been an accident at one of the country’s major nuclear power plants today. The reactor affected is Zaporizhia NPP – the largest power plant in Europe, which is in the South East of the country. “I know that an accident has occurred at the Zaporizhia NPP,” Yatsenyuk said. Ukraine’s energy [...]
These five charts show why Russia is edging towards recession December 3, 2014 It's not been a good year for Russia. Yesterday the country revealed it had lowered its growth forecasts, and is now expected to enter recession in the first quarter of 2015 – the first time in five years. The deputy economic development minister Alexei Vedev announced the drop – from 1.2 per cent growth [...]
Sir Clive Sinclair is crowdfunding a new ZX Spectrum computer December 2, 2014 If you were around in the 1980s, you will know how truly immense this news is. Sir Clive Sinclair is crowdfunding to create a new ZX Spectrum. For those who don't, Sinclair was behind the Spectrum range – one of the first mainstream home computers in the UK, which rivalled the likes of the [...]
Goodbye Christmas jumpers – hello Christmas suits? The must-have self-purchase for 2014 revealed. Maybe December 2, 2014 Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a novelty outfit of some sort. The Christmas jumper has been a long-time favourite but, as with the Shoreditch beard that has grown in popularity over a similar period, it's safe to say we've now reached peak-jumper. Last year every retailer from Tesco to John Lewis jumped on the [...]
HIV evolving into a “milder” form December 2, 2014 HIV is being “watered down” as it evolves, and could eventually become “almost harmless”, a major study by the University of Oxford has found. The disease, which is thought to have infected around 35m people worldwide, is taking longer to cause Aids, and could eventually become less deadly and less infectious, the scientists believe. [...]
Black Friday powers John Lewis’ best week ever December 2, 2014 John Lewis has reported its best-ever week for sales in its 150 year history, thanks to the power of Black Friday. The sales bonanza, which the department store had invested heavily into, resulted in sales of £179.1m, up 21.8 per cent year-on-year, and 56.8 per cent up on the previous week. It easily [...]
