Four-year government plans miss the target November 8, 2010 THEY are calling it a revolution. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have announced a rejection of Labour’s target culture, offering instead four-year departmental business plans, opened up for public scrutiny and updated by regular progress reports. The ministerial statement claims this will “change the nature of government”, but this does not look like the accountability [...]
Largest ever UK visit arrives in China November 8, 2010 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable and Chancellor George Osborne have arrived in China in the UK’s biggest ever delegation to the world’s largest emerging economy. The aim is to conduct talks furthering trade between the UK and China and includes 50 businesspeople as well as five cabinet ministers. Yesterday, Cable’s department claimed that British firms had [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD PEOPLE ON UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS BE FORCED TO DO VOLUNTEER WORK? November 8, 2010 BARRY KEANE | EQUUS ”It’s a fantastic idea. If people aren’t willing to contribute something voluntarily when they are on benefits, I see nothing wrong with a reduction in benefits. That is, providing it doesn’t eat into their time that needs to be spent on looking for a job.” DUNCAN CRAIG | FREELANCE INSURANCE PROJECTS [...]
Drop in mining stocks takes a toll on the FTSE but Rolls-Royce begins to recover November 8, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares fell yesterday as mining and energy stocks tracked lower commodity prices, while financials eased on Basel III and sovereign debt concerns. Rolls-Royce rose 2.7 per cent after the engine manufacturer announced progress in understanding the cause of the failure of a Trent 900-powered A380 Qantas flight on 4 November, adding the incident [...]
Wall Street falls as banks and strong dollar weigh November 8, 2010 WALL Street retreated from a two-year high yesterday, weighed down by financial stocks and a stronger dollar. The broad S&P 500 has risen five straight weeks, supported by the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy $600bn of treasuries to lower interest rates and reinvigorate a sluggish economy. With those gains, traders said most S&P sectors were [...]
Sanofi insists investors will decide on bid November 8, 2010 French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis said it had called on bid target Genzyme bosses not to use defensive tactics to block a takeover of the US biotech but to let shareholders decide on its $18.5bn (£11.4bn) offer. Sanofi chief executive Chris Viehbacher said in a letter to Genzyme boss Henri Termeer published yesterday that the board should [...]
Royal Mail gets green light for stamps to rise from April November 8, 2010 ROYAL MAIL has been given the go-ahead to hike stamp prices under lighter-touch regulation announced by the postal regulator. Postcomm will allow the operator to increase prices on stamped mail by up to 10 per cent from next April, which could see the price of a first class stamp rise by 5p to 46p if [...]
BAE Systems’ sale of aerospace unit attracts General Electric bid November 8, 2010 AN AUCTION for BAE Systems aerospace unit has advanced to the second round and attracted bids from heavyweights including General Electric, Eaton and Honeywell International. The companies are among a handful of suitors that put in a second round of bids for BAE’s platform solutions business by the deadline of 29 October, after the initial [...]
Exports give German GDP growth hope November 8, 2010 German exports soared in September while industrial output faltered, indicating Europe’s largest economy will post solid if unspectacular third quarter growth later this week as the recovery eases. Exports grew twice as fast as expected in September, up 3.0 per cent on the month when seasonally adjusted, and the trade surplus reached its widest in [...]
McDonald’s US unit weakens November 8, 2010 McDonald’s yesterday reported a weaker-than-expected rise in October sales at US established restaurants as high unemployment keeps plaguing the world’s largest hamburger chain’s key domestic market. October sales at restaurants open at least 13 months were up 5.6 per cent in the US but missed some analysts’ estimates. Despite the macroeconomic weakness that has dented [...]
