BAA passenger numbers fall in ash cloud chaos May 10, 2010 BAA has said that the volcanic ash disruption cut its passenger numbers by more than a fifth last month. The airport operator said passenger traffic in April was down 22.7 per cent on the same month last year. UK airspace was closed for six days in April because of the threat posed by the ash [...]
British Gas profits fuelled by freezing winter May 10, 2010 BRITISH Gas has seen profits rise in the first quarter of the year after the freezing winter saw households using more heating. Parent company Centrica said that gas usage was seven per cent higher than in the same period in 2009. Electricity consumption also up two per cent and British Gas is expected to turn [...]
Market awaits as politicians haggle May 9, 2010 MARKETS will teeter on the brink today, after the Tories and the Liberal Democrats walked away from coalition talks without striking a deal. Negotiators from both parties emerged from the cabinet office after seven hours of discussions, with little detail on progress. Shadow foreign secretary William Hague, leading negotiations on behalf of the Tories, said [...]
Markets up as €750bn EU emergency fund agreed May 9, 2010 MARKETS across Europe jumped up to three per cent after opening folllowing a European loan guarantee deal to stop the Greek rot spreading. The FTSE was up one per cent despite uncertainty over the political leadership of Britain after last week’s election ended with a hung parliament. But the record European deal overshadowed UK politics [...]
New politics even worse than the old May 9, 2010 IF that’s the new politics, I already miss the old kind, warts and all. What we witnessed yesterday was embarrassing: groups of exhausted men meeting in secret locations in Whitehall; behind-the-scenes discussions about the future of the country, with everybody tearing up their manifesto promises; and all the while Gordon Brown, who has been humiliatingly [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 9, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES GARDNER TO TAKE CONNAUGHT ROLE Connaught will today announce Sir Roy Gardner as its new non-executive chairman in a move the social housing maintainance group hopes will stabilise the business after a turbulent six months. The group, which mends leaky pipes in council houses and sweeps roads, was hit by the sudden resignation [...]
Nokia broadens row with Apple May 9, 2010 Nokia, the world’s top handset maker, has broadened its patent fight with Apple to include the iPad, deepening the bitter legal disputes between the two smartphone rivals. Nokia on Friday filed a complaint in the Federal District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin, alleging Apple’s iPhone and iPad 3G products infringe five of its [...]
Euro firms write off €300bn May 9, 2010 European companies wrote off debt of €300bn (£261bn) in the last year because of late payment, according to a report by Swedish credit management company Intrum Justitia. The figure, which is the equivalent of the total debt of Greece, has put many small companies’ livelihoods in jeopardy. The report says the amount of written-off debt [...]
Dubai Holding hires advisers May 9, 2010 Companies from Dubai Holding, a conglomerate owned by the emirate’s ruler, have hired advisers including Deloitte, KPMG and PwC as they consider a multibillion dollar debt restructuring.
Brown in one last desperate throw of dice May 9, 2010 GORDON Brown was last night desperately clinging to hopes of forming a grand anti-Tory coalition, with the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish and Welsh nationalists and other left-leaning MPs. He held a secret meeting with Nick Clegg yesterday afternoon to try and sell the idea, offering significant concessions on voting reform in a bid to woo the [...]
