CBI May retail sales balance much stronger than expected May 29, 2012 British retail sales grew at their fastest pace in over a year in May and much more strongly than expected, helped by strong sales of clothing and durable goods, a survey by the Confederation of British Industry showed today. The CBI monthly distributive trades survey’s reported sales balance rose to +21 from -6 in April, [...]
Osborne foiled over pasty tax May 28, 2012 GEORGE Osborne, the chancellor, was forced into another embarrassing U-turn last night as he watered down his controversial “pasty tax”. Osborne had hoped to iron out quirks in the tax system when he set out plans in his March Budget to extend VAT at 20 per cent to hot takeaway food – but failed to [...]
PM and King make plans for Grexit May 28, 2012 TOP GOVERNMENT and Bank of England figures met yesterday to bash out a plan of action in case of a Eurozone breakup, as the crisis in Greece and Spain intensifies. Prime Minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne met Bank boss Mervyn King and Financial Services Authority head Adair Turner to decide how the authorities [...]
Closure looms for critical link in London’s oil supply May 28, 2012 THE Essex oil refinery that also supplies around a fifth of the fuel requirements of London and the south-east is to close, after PwC yesterday announced that it had failed to find a buyer at the £625m price necessary to sustain the site. However, concerns over London’s petrol supply as a result of the closure [...]
Osborne’s U-turn comes as UK celebrates tax freedom day May 28, 2012 CONGRATULATIONS: you’ve just started to work for yourself. Today is tax freedom day, the day when Britons stop working for the chancellor and start working for themselves. The Adam Smith Institute has calculated that for the first 149 days of the year, every penny earned by the average UK resident will be taken by the [...]
Man jailed for drug scam that cost Reckitt £2m May 28, 2012 A CODEINE addict whose drug-swapping scam ended up costing Reckitt Benckiser £2.4m in a huge recall of Nurofen Plus packets was yesterday jailed for 18 months for causing a public nuisance. Christopher McGuire sparked panic last August when strips of anti-psychotic drug Seroquel were found in packets of the pharmacy-only painkiller Nurofen Plus. Reckitt spent [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 28, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Disclosure reprieve for activist investors Activist investors appear to have won at least a reprieve from new regulation that would force them to declare their hand earlier when building a stake in a company. The passage of the Jobs Act by Congress in March has forced the Securities and Exchange Commission to delay [...]
Clegg: Tories bowed to Murdoch May 28, 2012 Britain’s political class competed to “bow and scrape” before media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will say today, in comments aimed at setting his Liberal Democrats apart from the country’s two other main parties. The Lib Dems have had relatively few dealings with Murdoch and his News Corp media empire, which paid [...]
Warsi fights back over expenses May 28, 2012 Baroness Warsi has asked the Lords Commissioner for Standards to examine allegations she claimed for accommodation while staying rent free with a party colleague. It has been alleged that the Tory party co-chairman received allowances of £165.50 a night at a time when she was staying at a friend’s London flat. “I take these allegations [...]
Oligarch leader of BP’s Russian venture quits May 28, 2012 THE BILLIONAIRE head of BP’s partner in Russia resigned yesterday, putting the oil giant’s relationship with TNK-BP under further strain. Mikhail Fridman, the chief executive of TNK-BP and a key investor, will stand down at the end of June for personal reasons, the firm said. But sources close to Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), the group of oligarchs [...]
