Inflation fears as tax on pasties bites March 28, 2012 GEORGE Osborne’s pasty tax and other hikes in VAT will push up the cost of living even further, according to official figures out yesterday, while new data suggests higher wages could also be about to stoke inflation. The tax on hot food sold in retail outlets, along with higher duties on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol, will [...]
PM fuels panic as drivers are urged to fill up March 28, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT was accused of provoking panic yesterday after ministers urged motorists to stockpile petrol ahead of possible fuel tanker strikes. David Cameron chaired a meeting of the Cobra committee, normally only convened in times of emergency, to discuss how to keep supplies going. Downing Street later insisted that while “motorists should consider keeping their [...]
Facebook nears float as it stops secondary trading March 28, 2012 FACEBOOK will suspend trading of its shares on the secondary market from next week in a sign the social network is inching closer to its mammoth IPO, expected in May. The Menlo Park-based company is said to have asked grey market operators to halt trades of Facebook shares to avoid valuation churn while it sets its [...]
Not just pasties: Inflation will remain too high for comfort March 28, 2012 FOR a Prime Minister whose only private sector job was working in public relations, it is astonishing how bad his government’s communications skills have become. From implausible anecdotes about their pasty eating habits to panic-mongering about petrol shortages, David Cameron, George Osborne and Francis Maude, the cabinet office minister, have been blundering as if there [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 28, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES OSBORNE BATTLE OVER WELFARE CUT Plans by the chancellor to take £10bn a year, or almost £1 in £20, out of the welfare budget are being openly resisted by the department for work and pensions in the first sign of government infighting over the coming spending round. George Osborne made clear in last week’s [...]
Corruption risk from foreign aid target, say Lords March 28, 2012 DRIVING up the government’s foreign aid budget risks stoking corruption in poor countries, an influential House of Lords committee has found. The department for international development (DfID) must “do more to tackle corruption” that stems from British aid, the Lords’ economic affairs committee will argue today. “DfID detected only £1.2m of fraud in its £7.7bn [...]
IPO success for food firm Annie’s March 28, 2012 Shares in Annie’s surged 89 per cent on their first day of trading yesterday despite the organic food company pricing its IPO above a boosted price range. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Annie’s had the best debut performance since LinkedIn’s shares soared 109 per cent when the website floated for $45 last May. [...]
BlackRock backs Glencore-Xstrata March 28, 2012 BlackRock yesterday came out in support of Glencore’s planned £21.3bn bid for Xstrata. The merger, which would create the world’s fourth-largest mining company, has been widely criticised with Standard Life, Schroders and Allianz Global all publicly coming out in opposition. But speaking in Hong Kong yesterday, fund manager Catherine Raw, who helps manage BlackRock’s World [...]
Price of mobile roaming to be capped by EU March 28, 2012 THE COST of using a mobile phone abroad will be significantly cheaper from this summer after the European Union yesterday announced it would cap roaming charges. Effective from 1 July, subject to approval, the cost of downloading one megabyte worth of data will be no more than 59p from this summer and is set to drop to [...]
Shawbrook to ramp up lending after buying asset finance firm March 28, 2012 SHAWBROOK, the new business bank chaired by former RBS boss Sir George Mathewson, is set to grow this year after snapping up an asset finance business from the administrators of Icelandic lender Kaupthing. It has bought Singers Asset Finance, a major provider of finance to NHS trusts and small and medium sized enterprises, which did not [...]
