Latest Posts

The bosses of five lockdown winners received £45m in dividends after their firms’ profits were fuelled by big tax breaks.  Retailers and hospitality firms were handed £10billion of business rates relief this year.  But critics say shops which are lockdown winners should pay the tax break back.  Winners: Retailers and hospitality …

Rishi Sunak, who represents Richmond, an affluent constituency in Yorkshire, sees himself as a Northern Chancellor.  The suave Sunak does not conform to the old Andy Capp stereotype, but he has set out his stall to inject real energy into the project of bringing new economic life into trailing and …

Support: Ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell The Big Give Christmas Challenge is launching tomorrow with 765 charities taking part and with backing from celebrity supporters including ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell. James Reed, the boss of the recruitment company of the same name, whose father Sir Alec founded the Big Give in …

The AA’s biggest shareholder has slammed the brakes on a takeover of the breakdown company after calling the £219m price tag ‘derisory’.  London-based investor Albert Bridge Capital has said it plans to oppose the 35p-per-share deal proposed by private equity firms Towerbrook Capital and Warburg Pincus, which has been recommended by …

The EU will call on the US to seize a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to forge a new global alliance, in a detailed pitch to bury the tensions of the Trump era and meet the “strategic challenge” posed by China. A draft EU plan for revitalising the transatlantic partnership, seen by the Financial …

Japan once again represents a potential future to many in the US and Europe. But rather than the promise of a fast-growing, high-tech economy that it offered in the 1980s, today it raises the spectre of “Japanification” — low growth, virtually non-existent inflation, high public debt and a persistent inability …

The entire country is in need of a bit of Christmas cheer after almost 10 months of pandemic crisis and economic turmoil – but small businesses are optimistic.   With many suffering plunging sales or having to shut up shop completely, making the most of the festive spending this year is …

Superminis are designed to be affordable runarounds aimed predominantly at new drivers or families looking for a second car. However, buy the wrong one and you could be tackling recurring faults, finding yourself without wheels for days while your car is being repaired and facing huge garage bills. We’ve teamed …

For Cai Yuanhao, a Beijing-based courier, the world’s busiest shopping event is a slog. This year, despite the pandemic, it was busier than ever. “There were too many packages to fit in my cart,” he said, pointing to the three-wheeled vehicle he uses to zip between Beijing neighbourhoods. From early …

From crippling businesses to sending us stir-crazy, lockdowns already have a lot to answer for. But there’s another charge to lay at their door: they could be making us worse investors. The best investment decisions are made when we’re cool and collected and able to follow a strategy. Yet the …