Labour clings on to crucial marginal in south Birmingham May 6, 2010 LABOUR HOLD Swing unknown LABOUR claimed a victory in bellwether marginal Edgbaston despite a call for a recount by the Tory party. Incumbent Gisela Stuart appeared to have hung onto the seat by the skin of her teeth despite most analysts marking it as a racing certainty to fall to the Tories. The recount on the [...]
Harlow seat scooped up by Tories’ Robert Halfon May 6, 2010 CONSERVATIVE GAIN Swing 5.9% HARLOW, the bellwether Essex constituency formerly held by defence minister Bill Rammell, last night fell to the Tories with a 5.9 per cent swing. The Conservatives’ Robert Halfon – who lost out to Rammell by a whisker in 2005 – secured 44.9 per cent of the Harlow vote, well above his [...]
Kingswood falls to Tories in 9pc swing May 6, 2010 THE TORIES last night won the constituency of Kingswood with a swing of 9.4 per cent, a massive swing that would almost certainly give them a majority if replicated across the UK. Chris Skidmore, a journalist and historian that teaches part-time at Bristol University, overturned a majority of 7,873 or 14 per cent, which was [...]
LONDON TURNS OUT IN FORCE TO WATCH FINAL ELECTION SHOWDOWN May 6, 2010 FITTINGLY for one of the most important elections in this country’s history, turnout smashed expectations yesterday – and we’re talking of the bars, pubs and restaurants of London, rather than of the polling stations. The City, eager to know what the next government will have in store for them, flocked to parties as the results [...]
US shares crash over fears of Greek plague May 6, 2010 WALL Street suffered its biggest intraday stock market collapse yesterday as a trading error at a major firm reportedly exacerbated the reaction to fears of a sovereign debt crisis. In a frantic thirty minutes of trading, the Dow Jones plunged by more than nine per cent – its worse fall since 1987 – before starting [...]
Blackstone to buy Fidelity National in $10bn buyout deal May 6, 2010 PRIVATE equity firms led by Blackstone Group, together with TH Lee and TPG, are in talks to buy Fidelity National Information Services, which, if the deal goes ahead, would rank as the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis, sources said yesterday. The groups, Blackstone, THL and TPG, would all invest equally in an offer for [...]
Andy Clarke set to land Asda chief executive role May 6, 2010 ASDA is tipped to promote its chief operating officer, Andy Clarke, to the top job next week following chief executive Andy Bond’s decision to step aside. Clarke is understood to have been selected ahead of several internal candidates including Darren Blackhurst, Asda’s punchy trading director. Blackhurst has now resigned after five years at the Wal-Mart [...]
Paulson and Geithner say complacency caused crisis May 6, 2010 The US was unprepared for the 2007-2008 financial crisis, underestimated its seriousness and lagged in coming to grips with the damage, ex-Treasury chief Henry Paulson and current Treasury chief Tim Geithner said yesterday. Speaking to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Geithner, who took over the Treasury in early 2009 after serving in the powerful position [...]
Iceland arrests former Kaupthing chief executive over debt crisis May 6, 2010 THE former chief executive of the collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing has been arrested. Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson is suspected of embezzlement, trading irregularities, and other breaches of banking laws, the special prosecutor’s office has said. Kaupthing was the largest of the three Icelandic banks which collapsed within a week in October 2008 under a mountain of [...]
Cadbury deal helps Kraft to boost profits May 6, 2010 KRAFT Foods posted higher-than-expected quarterly sales and profit after its acquisition of chocolate maker Cadbury as sales beat expectations. But the largest North American food maker also said yesterday it expected full-year earnings of $2 a share, below analyst estimates of $2.06 a share. Reported profit was $1.89bn, or $1.16 a share, including discontinued operations [...]
