Oil, childcare and mortgages: Last hurrah for Scottish independence campaigns as leaders go head to head on Mumsnet September 10, 2014 The two faces of the Scottish independence campaigns got their final chance to go head-to-head today – on women's networking site Mumsnet. While Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling kept references to "Darling Son" and "Darling Daughter" to a minimum, they did broach topics including the impact separation would have on mortgages and childcare. There was [...]
Shock as Britain’s Lord Hill gets senior EU financial services job September 10, 2014 New EU president Jean-Claude Juncker has appointed relative unknown Lord Hill of Oareford to oversee Europe's financial services sector – one of the most prized jobs on the European Commission. The announcement came as rather a surprise – the UK government had expected Hill to be given a relatively junior economic role. It [...]
Is this the UK housing market’s new “normal”? Barratt share price up as revenues rise 21pc September 10, 2014 The UK housing market has returned to "normal seasonal trends" in 2014 after the frenzy created by the launch of Help to Buy last year, Barratt Developments said this morning while posting a 21.1 per cent rise in annual revenues. Revenues at the housebuilder rose to £3.1bn for the year to the end of June, up [...]
Santander share price falls as it announces chairman Emilio Botín has died September 10, 2014 Emilio Botín, executive chairman of Banco Santander, has died of a heart attack the company has announced. Shares in Spain's largest lender fell more than 2 per cent in early trading as the bank said its remuneration would meet later today to start the hunt for a new chairman. Botín, known to employees as 'El Presidente', [...]
London property: 12ft wide house that hasn’t even been built yet goes on sale for £500,000 September 9, 2014 After last week's 7ft house (a snip at £235,000) comes a new competitor for the title of "most number of rooms squeezed into smallest amount of space" – this 12ft wide house in South London. It isn't due for completion until the beginning of next year, but that hasn't stopped its developers from putting it up [...]
Why Richard Branson isn’t afraid to fail: Four Virgin businesses that didn’t work out September 9, 2014 It was only a year ago that Richard Branson was prancing around in a red kilt at the launch of Little Red, his domestic airline for the UK, which was designed to provide competition after British Airways owner International Airline Group acquired BMI. Since its launch, though, Little Red has been dogged by rumours [...]
Is this the end of Little Printer? Berg announces it’s “wrapping up” September 9, 2014 Little Printer is one of those most products your most design-obsessed friends own: launched in 2012, it sits on their desks spitting out a miniature daily "newspaper" of tweets, headlines, puzzles, analytics – and whatever else they want it to. A bit like those old stock tickers, but with a cute face. At £150, though, its [...]
In pictures: Supermoon rises over London for the last time in 2014 September 9, 2014 Last night was the last time in 2014's we'll see a "supermoon" – the time when the moon is at the closest point in its orbit to the earth. At 1.38am UK time, the moon was 222,698 miles from earth – that's 30,000 miles closer than usual, making it 30 per cent brighter and 14 [...]
Amazon slashes the price of its Fire smartphone to 99 cents – weeks before its UK launch September 9, 2014 Amazon has slashed the price of its less-than-popular smartphone to 99 cents just a month and a bit after it launched in the US, and weeks before its UK launch. Alas, the deal (99 cents with a two-year contract from AT&T) is only available in the US, but still – it suggests quite how disappointing [...]
iPhone 6 launch: Five things you need to know about new Apple designer Marc Newson September 9, 2014 As fanboys and investors alike get the popcorn in for tonight's big Apple launch, the rumour-mill has gone into overdrive about what exactly is going to be announced tonight. We're 99 per cent sure the iPhone 6 is going to be part of it – the phone is expected to come in two sizes (with [...]
