We will not apologise for defending British worldbeaters like AstraZeneca May 5, 2014 Amid the speculation surrounding the potential takeover of UK pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca by Pfizer, some facts are now known. Pfizer made an approach to take over AstraZeneca on 5 January 2014. The deal valued the company at around £60bn, which AstraZeneca rejected. On 26 April, Pfizer made a second approach, which AstraZeneca also rebuffed. A [...]
Shares in bookies crash as Osborne hikes taxes on betting machines March 19, 2014 Some of Britain's leading bookmakers are taking a beating after George Osborne announced that the tax on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) would be raised from 20 per cent to 25 per cent. Shares in Ladbrokes have crashed by 12 per cent while William has suffered a decline of six per cent. Investec specialist bank [...]
London is a global hotspot for “tech for good” and these 19 startups are going to change the world December 4, 2014 London is the leading city in the world for creating technology for social good, with 19 of the top 100 so-called “tech for good” startups, products and inventions, coming from the capital. A teddy that can read childrens vital signs to help make a diagnosis, a device that means your iPhone can detect malaria and [...]
Miliband: I will break up high street banks January 16, 2014 LABOUR leader Ed Miliband will today confirm his plan to break up some high-street banks in an attempt to increase competition. In a speech at the University of London this morning, Miliband will claim that Britain can only earn its way out of the cost-of-living crisis by reforming the banks and building a new economy [...]
Where is the richest place in Europe? Inner London came out top October 14, 2014 In the depths of the crisis, one small area of the UK held out: Inner London was still the richest place in the EU. Eurostat, the body that collates data about the European Union, has compiled stats on different economic measures to allow for a comparison of different regions. The data showed some big disparities: [...]
New dictionary words: How well do you know this year’s finance entries? October 24, 2014 Hear ye, hear ye, financial wordsmiths – the 12th edition of the Collins English Dictionary was out yesterday, and with it 50,000 new words to add to your Scrabble repertoire. The financial crisis has definitely taken hold at Collins HQ, with 14 new financial additions to the dictionary, including Fed chief Janet Yellen's ever-popular "taper" [...]
The billionaire philanthropist: Chemical magnate Jon Huntsman talks egg boxes and saving lives January 4, 2015 Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” That is what Jon Huntsman Senior, the self-made billionaire who has given away over 80 per cent of his wealth, said to me when I asked him what message he would like to send to today’s wealthy. [...]
Ed Miliband promises minimum wage rise should Labour win next general election September 21, 2014 Ed Miliband has promised an increase in the national minimum wage to £8 per hour should his party win at the next general election. The Labour leader has said it is "not good enough" that one in five people in the UK "are in low pay". Ahead of the Labour party conference in Manchester this week, [...]
Labour calls for showdown with betting machines January 7, 2014 The Labour party will use an opposition day on Wednesday to force a vote on its plans to crack down on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). The machines allow players to bet on a variety of games, with payouts reaching as much as £500. Labour leader Ed Miliband has attacked FOBTs labelling them as "dangerously [...]
Selling public land is just the start: Three steps to solve London’s housing crisis November 19, 2014 WE HAVE got to the stage that, if you don’t know there’s a serious housing shortage in London, I’d assume you must be living in a cave. This shortage comes with increasingly obvious social and economic ramifications. London First recently published research showing that more than half of workers (56 per cent) have difficulties paying [...]