Financial news

• Silver Reel is latest production firm to move into UK TV market

  20-08-2017 16:03
  The Swiss film company is to branch into high-end TV drama, lured by the weakened pound and generous tax credits for big-budget seriesSilver Reel, the Swiss finance and production company behind films including the upcoming Breathe, Andy Serkis’s directorial debut featuring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, is launching a €50m (£45.6m) fund to make TV drama in Britain, taking advantage of the weakening of the pound since the Brexit vote.Silver Reel has invested more than £50
  
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• Global investors look to Jackson Hole for signs of how QE will end

  20-08-2017 14:03
  Central bankers at meeting under pressure to explain how they will exit huge stimulus packages started after financial crisis It was at Jackson Hole in 2014 that Mario Draghi prepared the ground for the European Central Bank’s massive bond-buying programme to help rescue the economies of the eurozone, embattled from years of sovereign debt crises.The annual event, held at the Wyoming fishing retreat by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City since 1978, takes place from 24 to 26 August. An
  
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• UK scientists create world's smallest surgical robot - Financial Express

  20-08-2017 13:49
  Financial Express
  UK scientists create world's smallest surgical robot
  Financial Express
  British scientists have developed the worlds smallest surgical robot which could transform daily operations for tens of thousands of patients, the media reported on Sunday. By: IANS | London | Published: August 20, 2017 5:49 PM. 0. Shares. Facebook ...en meer »
  
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• Pension cold-calling ban to include texts and emails in effort to tackle fraud

  20-08-2017 12:53 via theguardian.com
  Government to crack down on scammers who persuade savers to transfer money from pension accounts into fake schemesA ban on cold-calling by pension companies will include texts and emails, the government has announced, as it cracks down on scammers who target savers’ retirement funds.Almost £5m was lost to fraudsters in the first five months of 2017, said the government, and it was estimated that since April 2014 a total of £43m had been taken. People targeted by scammers lost a
  
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• Robots will not lead to fewer jobs – but the hollowing out of the middle class | Larry Elliott

  20-08-2017 12:22 via theguardian.com
  Weak wage growth could already be a sign automation creating economy in which small number of very rich employ armies of poorThroughout modern history there has been a recurrent fear that jobs will be destroyed by technology. Everybody knows the story of the Luddites, bands of workers who smashed up machinery in the textile industry in the second decade of the 19th century.The Luddites were wrong. There has been wave after wave of technological advance since the first Industrial Revolution, and
  
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• Weak pound could boost manufacturing, if manufacturing itself wasn’t so weak

  20-08-2017 08:00
  Britain’s productivity, management and skills training are all so woeful that agonising over a post-Brexit trade strategy is almost beside the pointGeorge Osborne was a worried man. It was May 2016 and the EU referendum was only a month away. The polls were tight, much too tight for comfort as far as the then chancellor was concerned.This had not been for the lack of effort on Osborne’s part. He had published a Treasury paper looking at the long-term implications of Brexit and had or
  
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• There are now more than 1,000 tax relief schemes. Give us a break

  20-08-2017 08:00
  Every government promises to simplify taxes. None succeeds. We need more scrutiny of schemes that are too easy to set up, and too difficult to take awayTwenty years have passed since former chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown launched his scheme to promote the British film industry, and in doing so innocently spawned numerous lucrative tax relief opportunities for advisers and their investors.The scheme, which allowed investors to claim back 40% of a film company’s losses against thei
  
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• Getting to grips with a £32,220 student debt – and how you can lighten the load

  20-08-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  As graduates start their first jobs and face a raft of new bills, tackling the loan mountain can seem insurmountableAfter three years at university Vic Froggett has started in her first job and is adjusting to the succession of new bills she has to pay. But as well as the increased cost of rent, travel and council tax, in the background is her mountain of debt – student loans of £40,000.After borrowing all she could from the Student Loans Company (SLC) for the £9,000-a-yea
  
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• BHP’s shale sale could happen: this is not a drill

  20-08-2017 08:00
  The mining giant will give a critical results presentation this week, with activist investors lobbying impatiently for divestmentsIt has been a turbulent few years for BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining and petroleum company.First came the Samarco tragedy in Brazil, when the collapse of a dam at its iron ore mine unleashed a flood and killed 19 people. The company is still facing the prospect of criminal charges and a potential $47bn settlement over the worst environmental disaster i
  
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• I lost £1,165 to eBay fraudster when selling my electric guitar

  20-08-2017 07:59 via theguardian.com
  The buyer of my Fender Stratocaster claimed there was no guitar in the case as soon as he received itCan you help with an eBay/PayPal disaster. In June I decided to sell my Fender Stratocaster electric guitar on eBay, which went for £1,165. I posted it to the buyer’s address, and it was fully insured through a local Manchester firm which uses Parcelforce to deliver.Tracking shows it was successfully delivered. But, on the same night, I received a message to say that the buyer had ope
  
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• ‘It’s fashion without a capital F’ – Swedish stores step up high street invasion

  20-08-2017 01:41
  With H&M launching two new brands in central London – Weekday and Arket –what is it that has made British shoppers fall for Scandi style?It gave us woolly jumpers, cosy socks and bobble hats – now Scandinavia is tightening its grip on the high street with what some in the fashion world are describing as a new Swedish invasion.Last week it was announced that David Hagglund will be the new creative director of Topshop and Topman. Hagglund is Swedish, and comes with a CV that
  
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• Women have every right to refuse treatment in childbirth | Letters

  20-08-2017 01:05
  What is safest for mother and baby is not always obviousYour editorial “Safety of mother and child should override ideology during birth” last week took my breath away. First, women have a right to exercise their autonomy in childbirth, opting for and declining treatment as they see fit. Second, what is safest is not always obvious. Short-term risks and benefits sometimes conflict with evidence on optimal health in the longer term and women’s mental wellbeing is important as we
  
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• UK rail fare rise ‘will force key workers to quit city jobs’

  20-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Cost of commuting unfairly penalises public sector staff and part-time workers, warns unionPlans to hit rail commuters with the biggest fare rises in five years will force many key workers, including nurses and teaching assistants, to quit their jobs, the biggest public-sector union Unison warned on Saturday.Anger at the 3.6% increase to regulated fares, including commuter fares and season tickets, spilled over last week after it was revealed that the rises would come into effect in January. Con
  
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• Silicon Roundabout gets Brexit jitters

  20-08-2017 01:05
  London’s buoyant tech hub faces a struggle to keep attracting talent and money as the EU ‘turns off tap’ for fundingIt was earlier this summer when Justin Grierson noticed that the number of “hackathons” seemed to be trailing off around “Silicon Roundabout”, the east London area touted as Britain’s answer to the Californian valley that is home to technology giants Google and Facebook.“Last year there used to be at least two every weekend and
  
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• Customers feeling pinch take comfort in old-fashioned puds and pies

  20-08-2017 01:05
  Demand for hot desserts, such as tarts and sponge puddings, up by 10% as shoppers stick to treats they know everyone will loveDemand for sweet pies, tarts and flans grew by almost 10% last year as shoppers filled their baskets with comfort foods. Sales of hot desserts were up £2.6m, according to analysts at Kantar Worldpanel, which found more people buying hot puddings, and doing so more frequently.“Asda’s Baker’s Selection range has witnessed 151% growth, helping to driv
  
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• Countryside faces ‘fuel poverty’ crisis

  20-08-2017 01:05
  Report says those living in the country pay nearly 55% more for energy than those in more efficient urban homesPeople living in rural areas have been left behind by government drives to make homes more energy efficient, charities have warned. This leaves them vulnerable to rising energy prices. Research by National Energy Action and the Campaign to Protect Rural England shows that rural areas are five years behind urban areas in the energy efficiency of homes – and are paying nearly 55% mo
  
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• Councils need 12,000 more women to close gender gap

  20-08-2017 01:05
  MPs are calling for quotas to overturn the ‘democratic deficit’ in local governmentA gender imbalance across local government has been exposed in a damning report that suggests councils – especially the new mayoral authorities – are lagging behind even Westminster in taking steps to improve equality.The study, published on Sunday by the Institute for Public Policy Research, reveals that only 33% of councillors and 17% of council leaders in England are women, something the
  
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