The £4.2m CMA sledgehammer over drip pricing that is totally out of proportion Opinion There’s a particular kind of institutional vanity that mistakes noise for impact. It’s particularly prevalent in Whitehall and abundant especially in those – like many in our government today – who have only ever worked in the bureaucratic state or legal profession. The CMA’s triumphant announcement this week — it’s very first fine under the [...]
Starmer not told Mandelson was denied security clearance Politics Lord Peter Mandelson was denied clearance in a confidential security vetting process after he had already become ambassador to the US yet a rarely-used power was used to keep him in the post, it has been reported. Mandelson reportedly failed to pass a confidential security-led vetting process following initial Cabinet Office checks, which were mostly [...]
UK suffered biggest unemployment surge in G7 Economics UK unemployment rose at a faster pace than any country in the G7, the OECD has said, with a sharp rise in joblessness particularly damaging for the youngest people. Unemployment levels across the country rose sharply by 0.8 percentage points over the year to 5.2 per cent between the last three months of 2024 and [...]
Britain is underestimating the power of trade April 16, 2026 New figures show the UK conducts more than £5bn of trade every single day, yet we barely celebrate it, writes Carl Richardson.
UK rejoins Erasmus: British students to study across Europe from 2027 April 16, 2026 Six years after Brexit, British students will soon be able to study and work across Europe again, as the UK formally re-joins the Erasmus programme. The legal text, signed in Brussels on Wednesday, is intended to bring the UK back into the programme in 2027 after the UK pulled out of in December 2020 as [...]
Drop the drip pricing: Consumer watchdog snarls at sneaky fees added late in online bookings April 16, 2026 Online consumers hit by ‘drip pricing’ – when last-second, unavoidable costs are added at the checkout – may be about to save some cash, as websites levying such ‘sneaky fees’ move to the forefront of a crackdown from regulators. The Competition and Markets Authority announced its latest action against this illegal-but-widespread practice yesterday. It slapped [...]
‘Vicious and damaging’: Council tax overhaul set to end decades of financial ruin fears April 16, 2026 Brits will be granted more time to settle outstanding council tax bills under fresh reforms, ending decades of “vicious” collections which have left many on the brink of financial ruin. The shake up to the administration of bills sparks the first changes since 1993, after the lack of updating to fit modern needs and shifting [...]
UK economy jumped above forecasts before Iran war April 16, 2026 The UK economy was growing ahead of expectations before the war in the Middle East erupted, official data has shown. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said GDP grew by 0.5 per cent over February, though City analysts have suggested the figures are “too good to be true” given trends seen in recent years. In [...]
Reeves says diplomacy is ‘best economy policy’ as UK tax burden to mount April 15, 2026 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that de-escalating the war in the Middle East is the “best economic policy” to protect growth as the International Monetary Fund showed the UK tax burden was set to deepen at a faster pace than any country. Speaking at a CNBC event in Washington, Reeves doubled down on her attacks [...]
Standard Life’s Briggs warns ‘retirement adequacy is a genuine concern’, as £2bn Aegon deal unveiled April 15, 2026 The boss of one of the UK’s largest pension providers has spoken out on the state of the nation’s retirement financing on the day he unveiled a blockbuster industry takeover. Andy Briggs, chief executive of Standard Life, told City AM that “retirement adequacy is a genuine concern” and pointed to further potential dealmaking. He noted [...]