The Five howlers made by The Guardian in reporting tax paid by Barclays

This piece comes entirely from the FCA Blog. I enjoyed it so much I thought I would just replicate it here: On Friday 18 February, The Guardian generated an enormous amount of public interest in the tax affairs of Barclays with an article that suggested that, in 2009, Barclays paid UK corporation tax at a [...]

John Healey’s “Norman Lamont” moment

Housing Minister John Healey may well have just had a “Norman Lamont” moment on Victoria Derbyshire’s Radio 5 Live show. Unbelievable, and to say Victoria was taken aback would be an understatement. What a prize clown! We’ll see what the press make of it, but I’m just glad it wasn’t a Conservative who said this! [...]

December Employment Figures

Despite the good news of a reduction in the unemployment figures of 7,000 in December, many experts are still concerned about the future of the labour market in the UK. Some of the headlines include: “Economically inactive” reached a record high of 8m. This equates to 1 in 5 of the working population One in [...]

Budget Response

Not only are they spinning the budget in Whitehall. Oh no, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Rochford and Southend East, Kevin Bonavia is spinning hard too! As is usual when anyone from the Labour party talks about the current economic mess they start with a kind of “not our fault guv, it all started in America” [...]

April Fuels Day

The cost of filling up your vehicle has just become a little more expensive. Fuel duty has today increased by 2.12p per litre. No, it’s not an April Fools joke! This government has indeed decided to hit both families and businesses alike when we can least afford it, despite calls for it to be deferred [...]

Madoff v Brown

Superb article in the Telegraph by Jeff Randall today that’s well worth a read. Jeff starts with this belter: “What’s the difference between Bernard Madoff and Gordon Brown? Answer: one has drained fortunes from gullible victims, plundering their income and savings to create an illusion of prosperity. The other is going to jail.” Sadly, it’s [...]

In the Shadows Chancellor

Well, as the media and most of us non- “experts” predicted, the Bank of England has decided to cut interest rates again. This time last year, the MPC cut rates by 25 basis points to bring the base rate to 5.25%. A year on, it’s almost impossible to think that rates could have been that [...]