• Let’s move to Weston-super-Mare: it's building on the Banksy Effect

    Banksy’s snarky Dismaland gave the fading seaside town a boost – now all it needs is a big ideaWhat’s going for it? Plans are afoot to magic Weston-super-Mare into Bristol’s Margate. In May, the chief executive of the Arts Council popped by to give the town the princely sum of £50,000, no less, to “build on” the so-called Banksy Effect. I’m no art critic, but I could have sworn there was some irony involved when Mr Banksy brought his Dismaland them
  • Bitcoin price LIVE: BTC sinks back to $7k while Winklevoss twins suffer ETF rejection

    BITCOIN has fallen back to $7k territory after slipping sharply from $8,287 to $7,847 late last night. As thoughts turn to crypto's move towards mainstream finance, the Securities and Exchange Commission served a second blow to the Winklevoss's attempt to list the first-ever crypto ETF on a regulated exchange.
  • One man and his Tesla: an electric car's journey from Brighton to Edinburgh

    Erratic charging support led to some anxious moments on a long-distance run in a Model S“Oh, I rarely use those,” said Manoj Varathodiyil, gesturing at a pair of public electric car chargers at a West Midlands service station.Instead, the GP has plugged his car into a “supercharger”, one of a network built by US electric carmaker Tesla, exclusively for the use of the firm’s customers.Continue reading...
  • May timetable chaos blamed on Network Rail's 'systemic failings'

    Rail regulator demands action to prevent repeat of disruption caused by botched timetableThe rail regulator has blamed “systemic failings” at Network Rail for the massive disruption caused to passengers by the botched May timetable change.An investigation by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) found that Network Rail had “failed to comply with its licence requirements to run an efficient and effective process”, which meant train operators could not plan and meet their oblig
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  • UK insolvencies hit six-year high as finances come under pressure

    Low-paid workers feel squeeze from high inflation, meagre wage rises and benefit cutsThe number of people declared insolvent hit a six-year high in the three months to June as the squeeze from high inflation, meagre wage rises and benefit cuts hit the finances of low-paid workers.Individual insolvencies totalled 28,951 in the second quarter, a jump of 4.4% on the previous quarter and 27.3% on the same period last year. Continue reading...
  • 'It's a dump': why Thurrock was voted England’s worst services

    Customers say the facilities are rundown, the showers smell and the food options are shockingIt was billed as the most advanced motorway services in the world when it opened at the beginning of the 1990s, but time has not been kind to Thurrock services on the M25.
    This week it had the dubious honour of being rated the worst services in England, in an independent survey that rated 111 motorway sites based on food and drink, toilets and staff friendliness. Continue reading...
  • TSB plunges to £107.4m loss as bill for IT chaos reaches £176m

    Final cost likely to be higher because bank has resolved only a third of 135,403 complaintsTSB has crashed into the red as a result of the IT meltdown that left customers locked out of their accounts.The compensation and repair bill has reached £176m, the bank admitted on Friday – but the final cost is likely to be higher after TSB revealed it had so far resolved only a third of the 135,403 complaints it received. Continue reading...
  • French GDP misses forecast; Twitter shares slide - business live

    All the day’s economic and financial news, including growth figures from two of the world’s largest economiesFrench economy only grew by 0.2% in April-June
    Transport strikes blamed
    Household spending fell; trade hurt growth tooComing up: How well did America do? 12.15pm BST Some snap reaction to Twitter’s results:Twitter shares are tanking. The company's efforts to stem spam, fake accounts, & GDPR are impacting monthly active users. pic.twitter.com/ao63rcOaosFirst glance at
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  • Thatched homes for sale – in pictures

    Get the ‘chocolate box’ look with these traditional properties, from Devon to Suffolk Continue reading...
  • BT blames human error as it reveals £500m pensions deficit gaffe

    It follows the company’s 2017 accounting scandal, which wiped £8bn off its valueBT has revealed another accounting error after the company’s pension deficit was underestimated by £500m.The telecommunications company, which saw £8bn wiped off its stock market value in 2017 when it admitted to an accounting scandal at its Italian unit, blamed the latest gaffe on an “isolated human error”. Continue reading...
  • Pound US dollar exchange rate: GBP steady as markets brace for US GDP reading

    THE pound US dollar exchange rate is currently at around $1.311, virtually unchanged from this morning’s opening levels in advance of what is forecast to be an impresses US GDP report.
  • Pound euro exchange rate: GBP firm despite Brexit customs plan rebuke

    THE pound is hovering close to its opening levels against the euro today, with one pound currently trading at a rate of €1.125. Sterling is holding its ground so far today despite the news that Theresa May’s Brexit customs proposal is not likely to be accepted by the EU.
  • Facebook’s share price slump is justified by uncertain outlook | Nils Pratley

    User growth is slowing and profit margins are shrinking - no wonder the share price is divingFacebook is growing more slowly than expected and the list of explanations is long. Was it purely the impact of the Cambridge Analytica scandal? How much did the EU’s well-timed data privacy regulations contribute? What about Facebook’s slow progress in selling adverts against the new photo-sharing Stories product?Even the company’s management was unable or unwilling to untangle the var
  • The panic over Facebook's stock is absurd. It's simply too big to fail

    Despite some critics’ glee at the latest earnings report, the planet’s most powerful business remains unstoppable Imagine running a business that generated $13.2bn in revenue in one quarter – a 42% increase over the same quarter a year before. And imagine that it reported a 31% jump in profits over the same quarter last year. Now watch as many allegedly smart people dump your stock because they think the future of your company looks bleak. We live in stupid times. Only dupes pa
  • Bitcoin NEWS: Just 5% of investors make 'financial gains' from crypto - new study

    BITCOIN's move towards mainstream finance has been dealt a blow after research from a London investment house revealed that 38 percent - almost 20 million Brits - do not "understand" cryptocurrency, and only 5 percent of those who have invested in cryptocurrency have made financial gains.
  • BP to buy BHP's US shale oil and gas assets for $10.5bn

    Deal gives British energy giant ‘access to some of the best acreage in the best basins’BP has agreed to buy US shale oil and gasfields from the Anglo-Australian miner BHP for $10.5bn (£8bn), in the UK firm’s biggest acquisition in nearly two decades.Bob Dudley, BP’s chief executive, lauded the deal as transformational and industry watchers said the move significantly beefed up the company’s US shale presence, which was small compared to peers. Continue reading
  • Facebook CRISIS: Experts warn Silicon Valley tycoon faces WORST day ever as shares tumble

    FACEBOOK has seen its worst day in the company history as it lost $120 billion in market value and reduced share prices to $173.75. Experts say that due to the recent scandals surrounding Cambridge Analytica the sudden crash is not surprising.
  • Why won’t Network Rail tackle knotweed near my house?

    The invasive plant is encroaching on my property after spreading from a railway embankmentJapanese knotweed from a railway embankment has reached within feet of my front door. In May Network Rail told me to contact them again if I did not hear within 20 days. I didn’t hear, and I have since phoned four times. In the meantime, the weed has grown and I want them to take action. YO, London Continue reading...
  • Sky’s takeover appeal boosted by £1bn profit

    SKY underlined its attraction as a £26billion takeover target with a 29th straight year of revenue growth as it added over half a million customers and insisted there is more progress to come.
  • Private probation companies to have contracts ended early

    Bailout totalling £500m criticised as justice secretary consults on new schemeThe monitoring of offenders in the community faces another shake-up after disastrous reforms introduced by Chris Grayling forced the government to bail out failing private probation companies by more than half a billion pounds.David Gauke, the justice secretary, has announced that eight private firms that run 21 “community rehabilitation companies” (CRCs) in England and Wales are to have their contrac
  • Amazon posts record $2.5bn profit fueled by ad and cloud businesses

    Shares climb after quarterly profits that were twice what analysts expected, as revenue grows 39% to $53bnAmazon posted a record profit of $2.5bn in the second quarter of 2018, thanks to strong performance by the retail giant’s non-retail divisions – advertising and cloud-computing, the company announced Thursday, The favorable profit results, which were double analyst expectations, buoyed tech investors a day after weak growth saw Facebook’s market value plunged by $119bn, the

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