The cost of living is falling in Europe and the US but is still rising in Britain. We look at the major culprits
The Bank of England has struggled to understand why inflation remains high in the UK. It has fallen in France, Germany, the US and especially Spain, where inflation dropped to 2.9% in May compared with the UK figure of 8.7%. Here we look at the many reasons for the current crisis.
Continue reading...Shoppers for consumer group Which? ordered 1,800 items to test the average shelf life at six retailers
From out-of-date frankfurters to bashed brie, online food shopping can be a lottery, especially when it comes to the groceries’ shelf life, according to an investigation by the consumer group Which?.
Groceries delivered by Sainsbury’s were found to have the shortest average time left before their use-by dates, according to the items received by a team of 12 mystery shoppers located around the UK.
Continue reading...Network concerned that Victoria Racing Club partnership with gambling company is at odds with ‘preferences of its viewers and advertisers’
The Ten network has pulled out of bidding for the Melbourne Cup, citing the new focus on gambling by rights-holder Tabcorp as a reason.
Ten has been the Melbourne Cup Carnival broadcaster since 2019 after signing a five-year deal reportedly worth $100m which saw the cup move from Seven, where it had been broadcast since 2002.
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Continue reading...Church pension and endowment funds shed holdings after U-turns by BP and Shell
The Church of England is divesting from fossil fuels in its multibillion pound endowment and pension funds over climate concerns and recent U-turns by oil and gas companies.
The church said it was abandoning oil and gas companies and all firms primarily engaged in the exploration, production and refining of oil or gas by the end of 2023, unless they were in genuine alignment with a 1.5C reduction pathway.
Continue reading...Critics say Bank should pay less attention to economic models and more to what is happening on the ground
With Thursday’s 0.5 percentage point increase in interest rates to 5%, the Bank of England is hoping to land a knockout blow against inflation.
The latest hike is an admission that 12 rises over more than 18 months have not been enough to tackle the problem. Or, as the minutes said, the impact of shocks from Covid and the energy price crisis “were likely to take longer to unwind than they had done to emerge”, adding that the risks of inflation remaining high “were skewed to the upside”.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
Albanese takes swipes at the Greens
The Midwinter Ball was held overnight. It seems to have been a fairly staid affair but I am still ferreting out info.
Consulting firm PwC engaged in a “calculated” breach of trust by using confidential information to help its clients avoid tax and engaged in a “deliberate cover-up” over many years, a Senate committee has found.
PwC should be “open and honest” by promptly publishing the names and details of its partners and staff involved, the finance and public administration committee has recommended.
Continue reading...Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says party would force banks to take a range of steps to protect borrowers
Labour has piled further pressure on Rishi Sunak to take action to help struggling mortgage holders as the Bank of England prepares to raise interest rates again to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crash.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said on Wednesday that if Labour were currently in power, it would force banks to offer a range of support to borrowers, including letting them move on to interest-only mortgages and extending their repayment period.
Continue reading...Higher-than-inflation rises add to pressure on consumers facing steep price increases for food
KFC is pushing up prices at its Australian stores at a faster pace than its rival McDonald’s, with consumers paying up to 25% more for some of the fast food chain’s most popular items, new analysis shows.
The higher-than-inflation hikes add to the mounting pressure on consumers facing steep price rises for food, irrespective of whether it is sold through a drive-through window or supermarket checkout.
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Continue reading...WH Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos among more than 200 firms that failed to pay workers legal minimum wage
Some of the UK’s best known retailers including WH Smith, Marks & Spencer, Argos and LloydsPharmacy are at the head of a list of more than 200 companies collectively fined £7m for failing to pay the legal minimum wage.
The businesses were also forced to pay out £4.9m to about 63,000 workers left out of pocket after violations of the rules were uncovered by inspectors at HMRC, varying from breaches related to asking workers to pay for aspects of their uniform to paying the incorrect apprenticeship rate.
Continue reading...Executive who jumped bail in Japan and escaped to Beirut has filed claim in Lebanese court
Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan executive who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon, has filed a $1bn lawsuit against his former employer.
Ghosn, the mastermind of a carmaking alliance with Renault that also later involved Mitsubishi Motors, was detained in Japan in November 2018 amid allegations of financial misconduct involving a plot to deliberately underreport his remuneration.
Continue reading...Launch comes amid resurgent demand for air travel after end of Covid lockdowns
As the deafening roar of an F35 fighter jet washes over the Paris air show, Tony Douglas allows himself a moment of nostalgia: he was formerly responsible for the UK government agency charged with buying the planes.
Now he is in charge of a different aviation proposition, leading the launch of a new commercial airline belonging to the Saudi Arabian state.
Continue reading...Race against time to find craft that went missing on Sunday with five people onboard, including British billionaire
US and Canadian rescue teams are scrambling to search for a tourist submarine that went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck with a British billionaire among the five people onboard.
Hamish Harding is the chair of the private plane firm Action Aviation, which said he was one of the mission specialists on the OceanGate Expeditions vessel reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.
Continue reading...Supermarket inflation slows to lowest rate this year, although households still under pressure
Supermarket inflation in Great Britain has eased to its lowest level this year but remains high, forcing people to change how they eat and cook as household budgets are strained, according to the data firm Kantar.
Grocery inflation declined to 16.5% in the four weeks to 11 June, down from 17.2% last month and a record 17.5% in March. It remains at its sixth-highest level since the financial crisis in 2008, Kantar said.
Continue reading...National Disability Insurance Agency seeking information after 1.1TB of law firm’s data was posted to dark web this month
The agency responsible for the national disability insurance scheme is scrambling to learn whether sensitive client information related to appeal cases has been caught up in a large cybersecurity hack on the law firm HWL Ebsworth which has represented the agency.
The Russian-linked ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware group said in a post on the dark web in late April that data from the law firm had been hacked. Earlier this month, the group published some of the data it claimed to have stolen – later established to be 3.6TB worth of data, of which 1.1TB has been posted.
Continue reading...Efforts to regain place at intersection of business and government after scandal complicated by refusals to engage
The Confederation of British Industry has been frozen out of regular meetings with other leading business lobby groups, hampering its fight for survival after a sexual misconduct scandal.
Formerly Britain’s leading voice for business, the CBI has been battling to overhaul its culture and regain trust after multiple allegations of misconduct were made by female employees, including two who said they were raped. Those allegations resulted in an exodus of members from John Lewis to Aviva and led Labour and the Conservatives to cut ties with the organisation.
Continue reading...UK’s largest stock-market-listed firm weighs up Hong Kong or Shanghai listing to shield it from geopolitical tensions
AstraZeneca is considering spinning off its business in China and listing it in Hong Kong or Shanghai to shield the multinational drugmaker from geopolitical tensions.
Britain’s largest stock-market-listed company has drawn up the plans in attempt to protect its business from the fallout from increasing tensions between China and the US and its allies.
Continue reading...Jonathan Reynolds and new DG Rain Newton-Smith hold ‘warm’ meeting after party cut ties due to sexual misconduct scandal
The Labour party has moved closer to ending its boycott of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in an early sign that steps to rehabilitate the crisis-hit UK lobby group may be working.
Labour on Sunday confirmed its shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, had met the new CBI director general, Rain Newton-Smith, last week.
Continue reading...Belgium and Dutch vehicle licensing agency say citizens’ details obtained unlawfully to issue driving fines
Two EU countries have accused Transport for London’s debt collection agency of breaching data protection laws to obtain the names and addresses of citizens in order to issue fines for driving in the capital.
Motorists from across Europe have been hit with penalties, some totalling thousands of pounds, for driving in London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez). Penalty notices are being sent to foreign motorists who enter the capital without pre-registering their vehicle, and the Guardian has revealed hundreds of drivers have been fined despite driving emissions-compliant cars.
Continue reading...The midweek inflation bulletin could be the most significant piece of government data published this year
This Wednesday will mark the longest day of the year and not long after the sun comes up the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will publish its latest cost of living bulletin. To say the data is eagerly awaited is an understatement. There is unlikely to be a more significant piece of official data released in the current parliament.
The reason is simple. Despite raising interest rates 12 times since December 2021 in an attempt to quell upward price pressures, inflation is proving harder to shift than the Bank of England imagined.
Continue reading...More than 2.4m deals are ending in 2024, raising fears of financial timebomb
More than a quarter of UK homeowners on a fixed-rate mortgage are heading for sharp increase in monthly payments before the next election, in a financial timebomb that will rock the Conservatives just as voters prepare to choose the next government.
With the Bank of England expected to increase its key interest rate next week for the 13th time, figures shared with the Guardian by UK Finance, the banking industry trade body, show more than 2.4m fixed-rate homeowner deals will expire between now and the end of 2024.
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