UK’s Pinewood Shepperton studio triples profit to £5.4m June 26, 2014 Pinewood Shepperton studios, home to Channel 4’s The Taste, tripled its profit after tax for the last financial year from £1.8m to £5.4m, helped by the release of big-budget films, including Disney’s Cinderella. Pinewood, which recently won the right to expand its site despite widespread local objection to the plans, boasted revenues of £64m, up [...]
Reprieve for Cameron as EU’s leaders agree to vote on Jean-Claude Juncker June 25, 2014 David Cameron has been dealt a reprieve in his bid to block the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker to the role of EU commissioner, after both German chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands said they would back a vote if agreement cannot be reached between European leaders at a key summit this week. [...]
Hacking trial verdict puts David Cameron in dock June 24, 2014 Prime Minister David Cameron faced a crisis of confidence in his judgement yesterday after an Old Bailey jury found his former press secretary Andy Coulson guilty of conspiracy to hack phones. Rebekah Brooks, Coulson’s predecessor as editor at the News of the World, was found not guilty of all four charges she faced. Coulson faces [...]
Labour calls on fiscal watchdog to grill politicians over spending June 24, 2014 LABOUR shadow chancellor Ed Balls is calling on the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to test each spending commitment made by the main political parties in their manifestos in the run up to the general election. In an article today, Balls will make the case for tougher measures to ensure politicians’ promises are as good as [...]
George Osborne’s HS3 high speed rail link criticised as vanity project June 23, 2014 Chancellor George Osborne’s plan for a High Speed 3 rail link between Manchester and Leeds in the north of the country has been dubbed a “costly vanity project” by a leading economic think tank. The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) yesterday accused the chancellor of “concocting” a headline-grabbing plan ahead of the election in 2015, [...]
Air strikes imminent as US tells Iraq to form a government now June 23, 2014 US SECRETARY of state John Kerry has urged political leaders in Iraq to form a new government urgently, warning that the US may not wait to begin air strikes if the decision-making process drags on. The call comes after Kerry met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad yesterday, as militant fighters from the Islamic [...]
Prime Minister should be directly elected, say MPs June 23, 2014 A COMMITTEE of MPs is calling for an overhaul at the top of British politics, suggesting the Prime Minister should be directly elected to improve transparency and accountability. A report out today from the political and constitutional reform committee suggests the Prime Minister is too powerful and not enough is known about his control and [...]
Ed Balls unveils mansion tax and promises to hit the rich hardest June 23, 2014 Labour’s shadow chancellor Ed Balls has announced plans for a mansion tax similar to those already proposed by the Liberal Democrats, promising to hit the wealthy hardest. Labour’s proposal would see those in homes worth above £2m hit with a property tax linked to house prices, not inflation. The scheme would be organised into bands; [...]
Partnership Assurance cuts 100 jobs following annuity overhaul June 23, 2014 INSURANCE group Partnership is to cut 100 jobs, one in five of its current workforce, in a bid to cut costs following the government’s overhaul of the annuities market. The company is trying to reduce its running costs by £21m, about a fifth of its annual operating costs, after chancellor George Osborne announced that Britons [...]
£110bn for UK nuclear clean June 23, 2014 THE BILL for cleaning up the UK’s nuclear waste has reached an estimated £110bn, according to a new report from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The figure represents a £6.6m increase on bill quoted in last year’s annual report, owning to the way the clean up costs are calculated and a rise in the cost of [...]
