Focus On Bloomsbury: House prices are blooming marvellous in this intellectual corner of central London June 16, 2016 Bloomsbury conjures up images of fusty intellectuals like former residents Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, EM Forster and John Maynard Keynes. Home to austere, prestigious institutions like the British Museum, the Royal Portrait Gallery and University College London, it isn’t necessarily somewhere you’d think of moving to. But the recent clamour for central London property has [...]
Euro 2016: Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham representatives feature in team of the tournament after first round of fixtures June 15, 2016 The first round of Euro 2016 fixtures have come to an end and now every team has played, odds have shifted, wayward pre-tournament predictions have been hastily denied and new heroes have emerged. Pre-tournament favourites France, Spain and Germany got off to predictably strong starts, Italy proved their doom merchants wrong and even England raised an eyebrow or two. Less [...]
Old Europe’s poor record on innovation is a harbinger of long-term stagnation – but don’t expect an easy divorce June 15, 2016 The economic debate around Brexit has been disappointing, with far too many of the points focusing on the short term. Would Brexit precipitate a sterling crisis? Well, if it did, at some point the currency would bounce back. Would it tip us into a recession? Maybe, but recessions come to an end. The key economic [...]
Why peers must press for a rethink on HS2 into Euston June 10, 2016 It’s been a rough few weeks for the HS2 project. Within days of winning election to City Hall Sadiq Khan questioned the current plans for HS2's London Terminus. News also leaked that the Cabinet Office, concerned at its exorbitant and escalating cost, is undertaking an urgent review of the whole project. This came after news [...]
Tories clash in Brexit debate, as energy secretary attacks “fantasy” politics of Boris Johnson and Leave campaigners June 9, 2016 Tory infighting reached fevered new peaks during last night's televised referendum debate, with energy secretary Amber Rudd repeatedly claiming that former London mayor Boris Johnson was misleading the public. “Boris is the life and soul of the party, but he's not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening," Rudd said. [...]
At the close: Gushing oil pushes the FTSE 100 higher as miners slip after recent gains June 7, 2016 The FTSE 100 managed a modest rise today, falling back from much bigger gains directly after the open. The blue-chip index added 0.2 per cent to close at 6,284.53. The initial burst came as a result of Royal Dutch Shell earmarking 10 per cent of its oil and gas production assets for sale, which would result in the [...]
Bookies are betting on 2016 being the hottest summer on record June 6, 2016 Sunglasses at the ready: the UK could be about to experience its hottest summer ever, bookies reckon. Ladbrokes oddsmakers put the chances of the UK setting a new temperature high before the end of this month at 1/4, The Sun reported. Meanwhile, it's 6/4 that this summer will be the hottest on record. The news [...]
Oil and gas firms are struggling as the industry braces for fresh job cuts June 6, 2016 The UK oil and gas sector is planning further cost cutting to absorb the impact of lower oil prices, putting more jobs on the line. Almost half (43 per cent) of UK oil and gas firms intend to cut costs, new research from the Bank of Scotland has today revealed. Nearly a third (32 per cent) of businesses [...]
Low fuel prices means it’s cheaper to run a car now than it was in 2013 June 6, 2016 One of a household's biggest bills is being held down by low oil prices. The average annual cost of running a car is around 22 per cent – or £622 – less than 2013, coming in at £2,197.42. The decline is due to the price of petrol at the pump, which makes up almost half of the costs of [...]
Gallery: When Muhammad Ali came to London — rarely seen pictures of “The Greatest” in the Big Smoke June 4, 2016 Muhammad Ali's global status and following is illustrated in the long list of locations to stage his fights that stretches far beyond heavyweight boxing's traditional orthodoxy of Las Vegas casinos or New York's Madison Square Garden. From Bavaria to the Bahamas, from the "Thrilla in Manila" to "The Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire, Ali's [...]