Commuters face fare hike as taxpayer subsidy is cut August 14, 2012 COMMUTERS are set to come in for a hammering from January next year, when rail companies are next allowed to raise fares. Individual fares will be lifted by up to 11.2 per cent, as part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) plan to shift costs from the Exchequer to the passenger. The cap on regulated [...]
FTSE retreats from 3-month high as ECB’s failure to act disappoints August 2, 2012 BRITAIN’S leading FTSE share index fell yesterday, retreating from a three-month high after the European Central Bank (ECB) failed to deliver widely expected stimulus measures to help tackle the Eurozone debt crisis. ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank would draw up a mechanism in coming weeks to make outright debt purchases to stabilise peripheral [...]
Our decisive central bank has been neutered by regulatory confusion July 30, 2012 THE TREASURY Select Committee has rightly questioned the arbitrary powers of regulators, particularly the Bank of England, over the boards and senior executives of private firms in the financial sector. Despite the mistakes of our cartelised banks, it’s unwise to assume that regulators can run businesses better than boards. Moreover, trends over the last 12 [...]
RAPID RESPONSES July 25, 2012 Green fiasco [Re: UK energy policies are sabotaging industry’s global competitiveness, Tuesday] Tony Lodge gets right to the core of why we can’t climb out of recession. The Climate Change Act, passed as the economy tipped off a cliff, stands as one of the greatest acts of stupidity in living memory. Britain won’t grow if it’s [...]
RAPID responses July 15, 2012 Health solutions [Re: Demographic timebomb will force government to downsize, Friday] There are plenty of other healthcare models to explore to avoid the incipient funding crisis. One is the Singapore model of health savings accounts, which provides direct subsidies to the less well-off and catastrophe insurance to pay for huge one-off costs. Another is the [...]
Decades of hard work and entrepreneurship July 15, 2012 NOT MANY outside the insurance industry know the name Stephen Catlin. But he is one of the most successful UK businessmen. Over the last 30 years, he has turned a two person reinsurance company into a £3.5bn international firm – Catlin Group. The eponymous CEO was crowned UK winner at the Ernst & Young World [...]
Miners lead the FTSE 100 upwards in the hope of economic stimulus July 3, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index hit two-month highs yesterday, extending gains into a third session as investors readied for more economic stimulus after surprise action last week at an EU summit to tackle the festering Eurozone debt crisis. But traders said the rally could be short-lived and the market may face downward pressure starting next week [...]
The pensions industry must act to avert the looming UK capital crisis July 1, 2012 OVER the next few decades, the UK’s public finances face being crushed by the costs of preserving our pensioner population. In parallel, our domestic supplies of capital will likely be depleted, exacerbated by a shrinking savings pool. Japan’s once legendarily high savings rate is expected to turn negative this year, as pensioners spend their savings. [...]
Cameron must back Gove for the sake of Britain’s children June 21, 2012 FOR the first time in living memory, Britain has a government that is on the brink of delivering huge improvements to the state education system. Michael Gove, the secretary of state, has a masterplan: he wants to axe GCSEs, replace them with much tougher O-Levels, introduce an alternative vocational qualification and sweep away the national [...]
UK real incomes fall at quickest rate in 30 years June 14, 2012 THE AVERAGE UK income fell at the fastest rate since 1981 last year as inflation eroded real earnings, according to statistics out yesterday. The median income fell 3.1 per cent to £419 a week after inflation and before housing costs, according to the Department of Work and Pensions. The drop in 2010-11 compares with slow [...]