A Home Office that can’t handle Windrush is not fit for purpose April 19, 2018 Leading MEP Guy Verhofstadt is a troublemaker when it comes to Brexit, set on making life difficult for Britain as it leaves EU, often via the medium of Twitter. The vast majority of the time, his insights into UK politics should be taken either with an industrial container of salt, or better yet ignored completely. [...]
Facebook will ask Europeans and Canadians to allow it to use facial recognition technology on them April 18, 2018 Facebook said it will start asking European and Canadian users to let it use facial recognition technology in its latest move to become more transparent regarding users’ privacy. A blog post posted late yesterday by Erin Egan, VP and chief privacy officer, policy, and Ashlie Beringer, VP and deputy general counsel, said: We’ve offered products [...]
Lloyds Banking Group to cut 305 jobs and close 49 branches across the UK as customers switch to digital banking April 17, 2018 Lloyds Banking Group is cutting 305 jobs as part of plans to close 49 branches across the UK, as customers increasingly opt for digital banking rather than going into branches. The cuts are predominantly across its branch network, and will affect some other central functions too. Read more: Former Lloyds Banking Group boss wins £1.35m [...]
GBPUSD: British real wages are officially rising again but sterling falls back against the US dollar after growth misses expectations April 17, 2018 Britons’ pay packets grew by 2.8 per cent in the year to February, officially ending a year of real wage falls as salary increases have finally overtaken price rises. The Office for National Statistics today reported that average weekly earnings for employees in Great Britain increased by 2.8 per cent, both excluding and including bonuses. [...]
GBPUSD: Sterling reaches new post-Brexit-vote high against US dollar as traders wait for key wages data April 17, 2018 The pound rose to another post-Brexit-vote high this morning against the dollar as US President Donald Trump talked down the greenback and traders anticipated wage data to confirm a course for a rate hike next month. Sterling traded at highs of 1.4373 this morning, its highest point since 23 June 2016 when the vote to [...]
Our CANZUK friends should be welcome in post-Brexit Britain | City A.M. April 16, 2018 The flags around Parliament Square are up, the hotels, bars, restaurants, and meeting rooms of the City are fully booked, as the heads of 53 Commonwealth governments fly into town. But while we’re rolling out the red carpet for visiting dignitaries, there’s a chillier welcome to their citizens. Britain has never quite found its role [...]
London Stock Exchange Group appoints Goldman Sachs veteran David Schwimmer as its new chief executive April 13, 2018 The London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) has appointed David Schwimmer, a longtime Goldman Sachs banker, as its new chief executive. Schwimmer will join the group on 1 August, succeeding Xavier Rolet, who left amid a bitter public row with an investor to oust the group’s chairman, which was sparked by the announcement in November 2017 [...]
“People can judge me on whatever basis they like” – departing SFO director David Green says final farewell April 13, 2018 The view of Trafalgar Square surrounding David Green’s office is one he will miss. The departing director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has enjoyed the architecture for the six years that he has been in, and reshaped, the role that has attracted – perhaps surprisingly – a fair amount of political drama. Green has [...]
OPCW backs UK on Salisbury nerve agent attack April 12, 2018 The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has backed the UK over Salisbury, confirming that the samples it has tested met “the identity of the toxic chemical” named as Novichok by the government. The nerve agent – which the OPCW did not name in its statement – hospitalised former double agent Sergei Skripal, [...]
EU’s statistics office prepares for post-Brexit world with new measures without UK April 10, 2018 The European Commission’s statistics office, Eurostat, today announced it will create new figures for its most important data excluding the UK ahead of Brexit. With less than a year to go until the UK leaves the EU, Eurostat said it will publish numbers for the EU28 without the UK for indicators like GDP, unemployment, and [...]