CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TIPPING February 20, 2012 THE pick of Tuesday night’s Champions League action sees an under pressure Chelsea side travel to one of the toughest grounds in European football, the Stadio San Paolo. Andre Villas-Boas was supposed to be the new Jose Mourinho but as yet, he’s been unable to get his Chelsea team anywhere near the heights that their [...]
Oil surges on Iranian fears February 20, 2012 OIL prices surged yesterday after a defiant Iran banned sales to Britain and France, amid growing fears over the country’s nuclear ambitions. Brent crude nudged over $121 a barrel – the highest level for eight months – as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Tehran to assess first hand the Islamic Republic’s controversial [...]
Talks over Greek deal drag into small hours February 20, 2012 TALKS over a Greek bailout spilled into the early hours of this morning as negotiators edged closer to a deal to cut Greek debt to a sustainable level. Japanese markets opened lower after hours of wrangling in Brussels were yet to produce a deal. Minister did agree on measures expected to reduce Greece’s debt to [...]
Laws: target high earners February 20, 2012 DAVID LAWS, the former chief secretary to the Treasury, has mounted pressure on the chancellor George Osborne to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000 in next month’s Budget, saying it was time to signal the end of austerity on household budgets. Laws told BBC’s Newsnight yesterday that the Liberal Democrats would fund the move [...]
Cameron needs to refocus his efforts February 20, 2012 THE reformist credentials of this government are looking increasingly shaky. The only area where real change is taking place is education: Michael Gove, the secretary of state, and his uber-competent team, are pushing through a revolution, liberating state schools from local authority control, allowing new schools to be set up by outsiders, improving standards and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 20, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES US CORPORATES SHY TO OFFER GUIDANCE US companies are more uncertain about the future than at any point since the financial crisis, with just one in five of the country’s biggest corporations making any predictions as they published fourth-quarter results. TRANSOCEAN WILL NOT PROPOSE A DIVIDEND Shares in Transocean, the owner of the [...]
May splits Border Agency February 20, 2012 THE UK Border Agency is to be dismantled, after a critical report found hundreds of thousands of people had been allowed into the country without full security checks. Home secretary Theresa May told parliament yesterday that the UK Border Force, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the borders, would be split from the wider Border [...]
Directors cautious over economy February 20, 2012 Over a third (35 per cent) of company directors see a high or very high risk of the UK falling into recession this year, according to an Institute of Directors survey released today. The survey, which questioned 1,000 business leaders, found 53 per cent thought there was a moderate risk of recession while 11 per [...]
PM committed to NHS reforms February 20, 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday pledged to push ahead with controversial NHS changes after his health secretary Andrew Lansley was heckled outside Downing Street. Their meeting was to discuss proposals in the Health and Social Care Bill, which aim to give GPs greater control of the NHS budget and open up the health service to [...]
Vista wades into Temenos deal for Misys February 20, 2012 A BIDDING war has erupted over Misys following news of a potential £1.2bn offer for the British software company less than two weeks after Temenos announced its plans for an all-share merger. Vista Equity Partners, officed in San Francisco, Chicago and Austin, is thought to have offered 360p per Misys share – a 16 per cent [...]
