UK time bomb as population grows older December 9, 2010 TWICE as many “very old people” (aged 85 and over) are living in Britain compared to 25 years ago, government figures revealed yesterday. And there are now more pensioners than children (under 16), as population ageing takes it toll. Since 1984 the proportion of British people under 16 fell by two per cent, and the [...]
MPs: Labour wasted £1bn on PFI projects December 8, 2010 ALISTAIR Darling, the former chancellor, wasted over £1bn by using the private finance initiative (PFI) to fund a series of vote-winning projects in the run up to the election, according to a report by an influential group of MPs. The Public Accounts Committee found the taxpayer had to pay an extra £1bn for PFI deals [...]
Twin imposters triumph and disaster lurking December 5, 2010 So here we are just a few weeks before Christmas and those twin imposters triumph and disaster lurk behind every corner. England lose a brilliant World Cup bid that they could never win, only for the cricket team to comprehensively outplay Australia and take control in the Ashes. On Coronation Street four actors will lose [...]
The sweet seller’s son who wants to hold the chancellor to account November 28, 2010 VISITING Andrew Tyrie’s office is like being called to see the headmaster in an old-fashioned boarding school. The chairman of the Treasury select committee occupies a grand corner office in Westminster’s Norman Shaw North building, the former Scotland Yard HQ that now provides office space for MPs. Appropriately enough, Tyrie begins with a history lesson, [...]
North Korea adds fuel to global fears November 23, 2010 AS if a sovereign debt crisis were not enough, along comes North Korea, the roguest of rogue states, and suddenly it seems as if South East Asia could be on the brink of war. North Korea is the single most evil regime in the world, a despotic, idiotic and inhumane communist totalitarian state which has [...]
Twenty per cent off property in paradise November 18, 2010 IT FEELS wrong to be delighted by the financial crisis, doesn’t it? But if you were reclining on a sun-lounger in 30°C heat with a sparkling ocean stretching out in front of you, it would be difficult not to. Especially if you had managed to buy a Caribbean dream home on the cheap. The numbers [...]
The man who is set to bring more luxury to London’s five-star hotels November 14, 2010 LONDON’S five-star hotel market is set to take off over the next six months and a septuagenarian Maltese businessman called Alfred Pisani will be at the heart of the glamorous action. His £300m luxury Corinthia Hotel London, on Whitehall Place, is being completed and will take its first paying guests in April 2011. It is [...]
The commercial property king who says the City is ready for take-off November 2, 2010 Land Securities’ chief executive leaps from behind his desk, bounding across his seventh floor office overlooking Trafalgar Square as he welcomes City A.M. – after years of stagnation, the country’s biggest property developer is on the move again – and it certainly seems to have put a spring in Francis Salway’s step. Last week, the FTSE [...]
The housebuilder who is ready to take the long road back to recovery October 31, 2010 DESPITE the generally depressed state of the housebuilding and residential property market, Taylor Wimpey’s chief executive Peter Redfern says he is pretty pleased with business. But sitting in the boardroom of his London office, his mood appears more reflective than upbeat. “Prices are very stable at the moment,” says Redfern. “Stable is good for us. [...]
No cure for cancer and no jetpacks: the twenty-first century is a bust October 24, 2010 BUSINESS FEATURES EDITOR PULLING a dollar from his wallet, Peter Thiel, the 43-year old co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, flaps it to make his point: “Giving people freedom with money is really something deep and fundamental. Government may still have a monopoly on printing these notes, but so long as you [...]