WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS (AND SOME OF THE BLOGS) SAY TODAY May 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ELECTION ENDS IN HUNG PARLIAMENT David Cameron was facing the prospect of a constitutional stand-off with Gordon Brown on Friday morning over who would get the keys to Number 10 as a hung parliament in the UK appeared inevitable. The Conservative party leader insisted that Labour had “lost its mandate to govern” as [...]
TRAPPINGS OF SUCCESS COME IN ALL GUISES May 7, 2010 WELL, well; what a difference 24 hours can make. This time yesterday, we had a perma-grinning David Cameron hopping about the country like a kangaroo on speed, the impeccably-dressed Samantha at his side, while the blue camp awaited their chance at a Tory majority, hearts in mouths. We had Nick Clegg bouncing around like an [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK May 7, 2010 WHILE most City types sipped champagne at the election night parties last night, this group of businessmen decided to play it a little quieter and headed to the opulent Buddha Bar on Victoria Embankment for low-key celebration. Perhaps keen to get back to their screens bright and early for the start of a chaotic day’s [...]
An election in City A.M. front pages May 7, 2010 December 2009: We carried an exclusive interview with Gordon Brown on the day of the pre-Budget report, where he defended the controversial bonus tax on banks. February 2010: Nick Clegg revealed that his party would try to ban all bank bonuses if in government, although he later said this would only apply to board members [...]
A bizarre night of telly to match the result May 7, 2010 BOB Hope memorably described the Oscars as “two hours of entertainment spread out over four hours”. You have to wonder what he’d have made of election night TV, which started when polls closed last night and is still going on. David Dimbleby presided over his eighth election night for the BBC, holding forth in a [...]
RBS boosted by upturn in the economy May 7, 2010 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has narrowed its losses after a massive shake-up, it said in a trading statement today. The bank’s statutory first-quarter net loss fell to £248m from £902m in the same period last year. The UK taxpayer owns 84 per cent of RBS after it was bailed out in a government emergency [...]
HSBC claims success as US business returns to profit May 7, 2010 HSBC said today that underlying profits in the first three months of this year were well ahead of a year ago, boosted by a sharp fall in bad debts, especially in the US. Europe’s biggest bank said its bad debts fell to their lowest level for more than two years and the improvement returned its [...]
Credit Agricole is the latest to reveal its Greek debt exposure May 7, 2010 FRENCH bank Credit Agricole revealed a total £2.17bn corporate exposure to Greece today, as debt worries continued to undermine bank and insurance shares. Credit Agricole said its insurance unit had slightly less than £347m in exposure to Greek sovereign debt and its interbank risk exposure was £156m. Credit Agricole shares fell 5.3 per cent in [...]
ITV warns of an uncertain time ahead May 7, 2010 ITV, the commercial broadcasting group, has warned investors that the outlook for the second half of the year – post the election – was “highly uncertain” after disclosing that revenues for the first half were up by a healthy six per cent. The group, which is now headed by former Post Office chief Adam Crozier, [...]
Minerva in City office boost May 7, 2010 PROPERTY company Minerva said today that the City office market is improving as it revealed that almost half the space in its centrepiece development had already been let out. The 560,000 sq ft St Botolph Building – on schedule to be opened later in the summer – is one of the largest developments in the [...]
