Fears on China and Greece hit US share prices – New York Report July 6, 2015 AVOLATILE session saw stocks falling after China implemented emergency measures to stop a selloff in Shanghai’s market and Greeks resoundingly backed their government in rejecting the austerity terms of a bailout. Equity futures tumbled at the open late on Sunday after Greeks voted “No” to the terms imposed by its creditors. The Dow Jones industrial [...]
Greece’s third bailout deal has been signed – here’s what happens next August 20, 2015 This evening, the head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) signed a contract for Greece's third bailout agreement, meaning a further €86bn (£61bn) of financial assistance will be released to the struggling economy over the next three years. Read more: Greek debt crisis: German lawmakers vote yes to bailout deal The board of governors approved the [...]
Queen’s Speech 2015: Here’s the full transcript May 27, 2015 My Lords and members of the House of Commons. My government will legislate in the interests of everyone in our country. It will adopt a one nation approach, helping working people get on, supporting aspiration, giving new opportunities to the most disadvantaged and bringing different parts of our country together. My government will [...]
Government announces plans around English votes for English laws… on iPads July 2, 2015 Chris Grayling, the leader of the Commons, has announced plans to create a system in Westminster that supports "English Votes for English Laws" – and he added that under the new rules, a new stage of votes will be taken on tablet computers. The government wants to give MPs from English constituencies a new “veto” [...]
A good ancestor: Firms need to take a long, hard look at legacy September 24, 2015 Here in Britain, this year we have been enjoying celebrating 800 years since King John signed Magna Carta. It is the foundation stone for constitutions the world over – and somewhat dwarfs my native New Zealand’s 180 years of constitutional history. The Magna Carta was nothing less than a catalyst which has inspired people [...]
SNP to vote on fox hunting as they play with constitutional fire July 14, 2015 The Scottish National Party’s Westminster MPs will vote against relaxing the fox hunting ban in England, reneging on a pledge not to vote on issues that have no impact on Scotland. Following a meeting which nearly split its 56 MPs, the party confirmed it would team up with Labour to vote against relaxing the ban [...]
Greek debt crisis: ECB will maintain ELA emergency loan support to Greek banks June 28, 2015 The European Central Bank (ECB) will keep supplying Greece with emergency loans to keep the country's banks running after Greek PM Alexis Tsipras called a surprise referendum on its latest bailout deal. “We continue to work closely with the Bank of Greece and we strongly endorse the commitment of Member States in pledging to take [...]
Heathrow is just one decision where the government could be falling short of its infrastructure promises July 3, 2015 The recommendation that Heathrow should have a third runway sent ripples of disbelief among business communities in the UK regions. Not the least of those was the West Midlands. They had hoped that the Davies Commission on the future of aviation would advocate measures that would help rebalance the economy, a frequent promise from Prime [...]
Treasury to cut Bank of England monetary policy committee meetings from 12 to eight July 21, 2015 If you've been getting fed up with months of MPC updates with no change – and let's face it, after six years of the same update, who isn't – then there's some good news. The number of monetary policy committee meetings is about to be reduced to just eight per year, down from 12. This [...]
July Budget 2015: Here’s what Twitter said about George Osborne’s speech July 8, 2015 Before George Osborne even posed for the cameras with Budget box in hand, the pre-Budget buzz on Twitter had already reached 200 tweets per minute – then when he stepped up to the despatch box, that rocketed to more than 1,000 tweets per minute. The biggest talking point of the day was the student maintenance [...]