We spoke too soon: Now maintenance and engineering workers are striking over Night Tube May 24, 2016 Thought a deal had finally been reached to launch Night Tube? Think again: the RMT union has confirmed that there's going to be a strike over the new 24-hour service – by maintenance and engineering workers. The much-maligned service was finally given a launch date of 19 August yesterday following months of delays while drivers' unions [...]
Now you can live in the apartment where D-Day was planned – if you have a cool £4.7m May 24, 2016 It's the ultimate piece of war memorabilia: an apartment in the building that served as a base for the Special Operations during the planning of D-Day has just gone up for sale. The only catch? You'll need a cool £4.75m to live in it. The five-bedroom duplex apartment is in Montagu Mansions, used as a headquarters [...]
CYBG: PPI pushes on for the UK’s latest challenger bank May 24, 2016 Clydesdale Yorkshire Bank, one of the UK's latest challengers after it was spun-off by National Australia Bank earlier this year, said net interest margin rose in the six months to the end of March – but it reiterated that PPI is still taking its toll. Read more: Public hungry for challenger banks, research finds The figures [...]
Card is king? The UK is closer than ever to being a cashless society May 23, 2016 The old adage that cash is king is about to be kicked into the long grass, new research suggested this morning – with card payments about to whoosh ahead of cash payments. A study by Payments UK found although cash is still the biggest method of payment – some 45 per cent of all UK [...]
Rolls-Royce’s credit rating has been downgraded by Standard and Poor’s May 20, 2016 Shares in Rolls-Royce remained buoyant this afternoon, even after one of the world's largest credit ratings agencies downgraded it. In a statement this afternoon, Standard & Poor's (S&P) said it was lowering the embattled engineer's long-term corporate credit and related debt ratings to A-, from A, while it lowered its short-term corporate credit rating from A-2 [...]
A trainspotter’s paradise? This converted Great Northern railway station in Lincolnshire has gone on sale – and comes complete with a train and a section of track May 20, 2016 What do you buy the trainspotter who has everything? How about their own station? A converted Great Northern railway station in Rippingale, Lincolnshire, has been put up for sale by its owner. For £600,000, not only do you get a three-bedroom house and 1.2 acres of land – but you'll also get a section of track, and [...]
Brent crude oil price edges away from $50 a barrel May 20, 2016 Brent crude edged away from the $50 mark in early afternoon trading, despite worries about the situations in Canada and Nigeria sent investors into a buying frenzy. Brent crude was down 0.4 per cent at $48.60 at lunchtime, while WTI crude – the US benchmark – was down 0.2 per cent, at $48.04. That was a reversal of gains in [...]
Industrial orders: Maybe things aren’t so bad in the manufacturing sector May 20, 2016 Data around the manufacturing sector has been pretty disappointing in recent months, with the likes of the ONS suggesting the sector has actually fallen into recession. But figures out this morning from CBI suggested the industrial sector – of which manufacturing makes up a large part – is actually doing pretty well. The CBI's Industrial [...]
Here’s what cigarette packaging will look like from tomorrow May 19, 2016 It's official: big tobacco has been told to back off and new plain packaging rules are due to come into force tomorrow. After a landmark ruling this morning, cigarette companies will be forced to package their products in a dirty green box (somewhere between olive and khaki), complete with those gruesome warnings about what their [...]
From principles to communication: Six ways to transform your team’s performance May 19, 2016 In today’s world the role of a leader is to create a high performance environment where success is inevitable. Effective team working doesn’t happen by chance or by using a strategy of hope. As a leader you have to create your team and then sustain high performance. The secret of building a high performance team [...]
