Cameron calls on insurers to cut premiums February 13, 2012 DAVID Cameron will today announce plans to reduce insurance premiums by cutting red tape, reducing legal bills and tackling the high number of spurious claims. Proposals include a plan to reduce the number of whiplash claims by enforcing a higher evidence threshold for injuries and cutting the £1,200 fee that lawyers can earn for small [...]
Cameron calls on insurers to cut premiums February 13, 2012 DAVID Cameron will today announce plans to reduce insurance premiums by cutting red tape, reducing legal bills and tackling the high number of spurious claims. Proposals include a plan to reduce the number of whiplash claims by enforcing a higher evidence threshold for injuries and cutting the £1,200 fee that lawyers can earn for small [...]
Chasing good returns in Wonderland February 23, 2012 CURIOUSER and curiouser,” says Alice, after eating a cake that causes her to grow suddenly to the height of a giant. It is no wonder that RBS’s beleaguered boss Stephen Hester is starting to feel like his bank operates “in an Alice in Wonderland world”, as he put it yesterday. Unlike Alice, he has managed [...]
All aboard: the QM2 does the Atlantic in style June 10, 2012 LEAVING the glamorous glitzy Big Apple on a big glitzy ship felt right. Berthed in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the sharp-prowed Queen Mary 2 looked both huge and majestic. On our taxi ride to the terminal our driver bypassed the anti-capitalist demonstrators in Wall Street, so named for the barrier the Dutch built in the [...]
The week ahead: Oil, gas, defence and UK interest March 4, 2012 Today Petrofac, a solutions provider to the oil and gas industry, announces full year results today. The first set of results after a restructuring exercise in 2011 could see a hike in profits. Petrofac has recently been awarded an Iraqi oilfield project, building on its presence in the region. Glencore is announcing its full-year numbers [...]
FTSE Flat as Greek bailout gets the nod February 21, 2012 THE FTSE 100 was broadly flat this morning as Eurozone leaders agreed a second bailout for Greece after weeks of tortuous negotiations. Investors overall were encouraged by the move but there were still fears that the €130bn lifeline was only a short term fix for Greece which is drowning in debt. The deal was largely [...]
Vince Cable’s vision for UK plc neglects liberty March 14, 2012 VINCE Cable, the business secretary, wrote to the Prime Minister last week, lamenting the lack of a clear economic “vision”. He thinks the government must decide “how we will earn our living in the future.” By “we”, Cable was not referring to David Cameron and himself. How they will earn a living is clear, at [...]
FTSE resilient despite Greek deal fears March 7, 2012 The FTSE 100 proved resilient this morning as strong corporate results shored up the index despite falls on other markets across the globe. European shares overall steadied after two straight days of losses as investors braced for news on whether Greece would succeed in restructuring its huge debt pile. The Greek bond swap deal must [...]
Luxury by the racetrack at Ellenborough Park March 4, 2012 IT’S hard to know which view to admire more: the grand sweep of Ellenborough Park’s main house, which began life as an sixteenth-century manor, or the view from that house of Cheltenham racecourse. The rails are so close that a decent pair of binoculars could almost save you buying a ticket to the club enclosure. [...]
Luxury by the racetrack at Ellenborough Park March 4, 2012 IT’S hard to know which view to admire more: the grand sweep of Ellenborough Park’s main house, which began life as an sixteenth-century manor, or the view from that house of Cheltenham racecourse. The rails are so close that a decent pair of binoculars could almost save you buying a ticket to the club enclosure. [...]