Eco and a worthwhile investment December 11, 2012 The LAST time I whizzed about in an EV here was in the scooter-like Renault Twizy, which, though great fun, only seats two. This Mia Electric car – a plug-in, zero emission car with a 80 mile range – from a new French manufacturer of the same name, has three seats or, in the longer [...]
Rapid responses December 10, 2012 Classroom politics [Re: Lessons from Finland: How we can reform maths teaching in schools, yesterday] While I respect professor Burghes’s work, I disagree with his opinion. The greatest threat to maths education in Britain is not poor teachers or a rigid curriculum. It is the huge scale of recent political involvement in how children are taught. Standards [...]
How Londoners are driving away from the rest of Britain December 9, 2012 THOSE of us who work or live in London often have rather different habits than the rest of Britain. Transport is a case in point. No less than 51 per cent of the distance travelled every year by UK residents is as a car driver, and another 27 per cent as a car passenger. Rail [...]
London cabs to get free Wi-Fi December 9, 2012 FREE Wi-Fi will be arriving in London’s taxis in the coming months after a local startup gained the all-clear from Transport for London to hand out its technology to the capital’s cabbies. Entrepreneur Richard Corbett’s Eyetease will offer 15 minutes of free internet access following a short advertising video. Corbett said over 500 taxi drivers [...]
Our at-a-glance guide to Osborne’s mini-Budget December 5, 2012 THE UK ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ■ The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has revised down its forecast for UK growth and revised up its forecast for public sector borrowing. It says the government is no longer likely to meet its target of reducing debt as a proportion of GDP in 2015-16, breaking its supplementary fiscal rule. [...]
Stagecoach is on track with 39pc profit rise December 5, 2012 SHARES in Stagecoach rose 5.9 per cent yesterday to 308.7p after the bus and train operator posted a 39 per cent rise in half-year profit. The firm said revenues rose 8.5 per cent to £1.4bn in the six months to the end of October, pushing pre-tax profit from £88.7m to £123.7m. Stagecoach’s train business, which [...]
Building firms offer a cautious welcome to the revamped PFI December 5, 2012 COMPANIES yesterday gave a lukewarm reaction to a new plan to privately fund infrastructure projects, replacing the controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI). In a widely-trailed move, George Osborne said the new PF2 scheme will try to attract more money from long-term investors such as pension funds, to ensure PF2 has a more stable funding structure [...]
No information on the next stage of HS2 until new year December 5, 2012 THE HIGH Speed 2 rail link was among the transport plans to be left out of the Autumn Statement yesterday, with the chancellor stating that details on the second phase of the route have been delayed until next year. The £33bn HS2 proposal will link London to Birmingham, and later Leeds and Manchester. A decision [...]
What does the chancellor’s budget mean for you? December 5, 2012 Catherine Gannon, 50 Managing director of law firm Gannon Having started her own business 10 years ago, she earns around £100,000, though says this is getting more difficult to achieve, and while she has a share portfolio, she doesn’t have much in the way of a pension plan. Lives with her two children aged 10 [...]
Boris calls for renegotiation of deal with EU December 4, 2012 BORIS Johnson yesterday called for Britain to renegotiate its relationship with the European Union, saying he wanted a new deal based solely on trade agreements that would be put to the public in a national referendum. “Boil it to down to the single market, that’s the great achievement of the European Union, I think we [...]