Financial news

• Brexit and bad weather puts UK farmers at risk of suicide, say charities

  03-03-2019 17:55
  Crisis networks report rise in number of farmers distressed by uncertainty over futureCharities have said British farmers are increasingly at risk of suicide owing in part to uncertainty over Brexit and the impact of bad weather.Distressed farmers have made dozens of calls to crisis networks and some have been placed on “suicide watch”, according to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). Continue reading...
  
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• Great-grandson of John Lewis founder among contenders for chair

  03-03-2019 17:01
  Patrick Lewis, ex-WH Smith CEO Kate Swann and Direct Line boss Paul Geddes in frame for role
  The early contenders to become the next chair of John Lewis include the great-grandson of the department store’s founder, the former boss of WH Smith and the chief executive of the insurer Direct Line.Patrick Lewis, 53, whose great grandfather created the business in 1864, is the retailer’s finance director, having joined the partnership 25 years ago after a spell working in the health and co
  
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• Corporate-branded ‘communities’ prove you can’t buy taste

  03-03-2019 15:00 via theguardian.com
  If you are rich enough, you can live in a home by Porsche, Armani or Bulgari. Is that really something to aspire to?I find reading about rich people very depressing. Not because I am jealous they have so much money, but because I am frustrated they have so little imagination. Take a look at the recent New York Times piece that says a growing number of wealthy home-buyers are “choosing to live in corporate-branded communities”. Not just any branded communities, mind you, but luxury on
  
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• Record job figures hide the true story of UK economy | Richard Partington

  03-03-2019 13:20
  Conservatives may crow about employment but beneath the headlines it is a false read Here are two things you might already know. As Britain prepares for life outside the EU, there have been repeated warnings of economic oblivion. Despite this, things have been good enough for the economy to create half a million more jobs over the past year, sending employment to a record high.The dole queue has not been this short since Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel held the No 1 spot with Make Me Smile (Com
  
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• AGM 2019 season: pensions and boardroom equality lead agenda

  03-03-2019 13:17
  Among shareholders’ concerns this year are fossil fuel policies and gender diversityCompanies flaunting fat cat pay deals, all-male boards, and giant pension pots for senior executives will be in shareholders’ crosshairs as the 2019 annual general meeting (AGM) season gets under way.With environmental concerns mounting and the outsourcing sector still haunted by Carillion’s collapse, shareholders have a lot of issues to raise with companies’ boards. Continue reading...
  
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• Brazilian mining CEO steps down amid anger over dam collapse

  03-03-2019 12:49
  Fabio Schvartsman and other executives resign after claims firm knew dam was unstableThe boss of the Brazilian iron ore mining firm Vale has resigned, following growing public and political anger over the collapse of a dam in which at least 186 people died.Fabio Schvartsman and several other senior executives resigned on a “temporary” basis on Saturday after prosecutors recommended their dismissal. The move came after a leak of official documents suggested that Vale knew the dam was
  
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• UK firms' growth at six-year-low amid Brexit and global trade fears

  03-03-2019 12:11
  CBI’s measure of private sector growth drops to -3 in February from zero in JanuaryBritish businesses grew at their slowest rate in nearly six years last month because of fears of a no-deal Brexit and rising global trade barriers, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry.The CBI’s measure of private sector growth dropped to -3 in February from zero in January. Continue reading...
  
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• At last we are turning away from our mania for hiving off public services | Will Hutton

  03-03-2019 10:30
  Last week saw the death knell for reforms of the NHS, probation service and the armyThe Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society was a mini self-help medical co-operative established in the late 19th century on the principle that anyone in Tredegar should get free health as they needed. It is always credited as giving Nye Bevan, who worked there and sat on its board, the inspiration for the NHS. But it also inspired the author AJ Cronin, who also worked there, to write his 1937 bestseller Th
  
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• Spread of bogus holiday villa websites prompts warning

  03-03-2019 09:00
  Millions are lost each year by tourists falling victim to increasingly sophisticated scammersDuring the British winter, the thought of two weeks in a coastal villa with soul-stirring views of the sea and a huge pool to bask in is enough to offset the drudgery until the holidays start.For a growing number of people, however, their yearly break is turning into a nightmare as they find that the property they have paid thousands for does not exist and the website through which they booked it has dis
  
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• Ringing the changes at the Whitechapel bell foundry

  03-03-2019 09:00
  Competing plans for the world’s most famous bell foundry and the move from west to east London of three national medical institutions tell two sides of the same storyIf there’s one thing you can say about Whitechapel it is that it has a lot of history, some of it of a certain flavour. Jack the Ripper and the Kray twins plied their trades round here. The Elephant Man was displayed in a freak show on the main street, before being taken to live in the nearby Royal London Hospital. The b
  
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• Help to buy has had its day. Time to tax the builders and close the scheme

  03-03-2019 08:00
  Osborne’s plan to assist first-time buyers has created colossal windfall profits. The Treasury deserves some of that moneyIf the major banks – rather than housebuilders – were the chief beneficiaries of the government’s help-to-buy scheme, the financial regulator would probably list it as a scam. Ministers would be up in arms and bankers would again be the pariahs they were in 2008.Help to buy is a government scheme that supports the purchase of a newbuild home. It was la
  
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• New legislation could outlaw non-disclosure agreements

  03-03-2019 07:59
  Business minister unveils plans to ban the use of gagging clauses that prevent employees reporting abuseNew proposals to prevent employers using “gagging clauses” to conceal sexual harassment, intimidation and racism complaints are to be unveiled by the government this week.The plans, to be included in a consultation, could lead to new legislation that would prevent non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) being used to prevent victims reporting serious complaints to the police. Continue rea
  
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• John Lewis staff brace for a life with little or no bonus

  03-03-2019 07:59
  The employee-owned partnership reveals what staff will receive this week. After a hard year, it may not be muchWhile some Brexiters seem desperate for Britons to recreate the camaraderie of the second world war years, do staff toiling in John Lewis and Waitrose stores really want to be transported back to the time of rationing? This week the employee-owned company’s 83,000 staff will find out the size of their annual bonus – and they have been warned that they may need a magnifying g
  
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• The Observer view on the UK’s right to rent shame | Editorial

  03-03-2019 07:00
  A scheme forcing landlords in England to act as border agents actively creates race discrimination, the high court has ruled‘Our policy is not to sell to coloured people.” That’s what a stunned Mahesh Upadhyaya was told when he tried to buy a house in Huddersfield in 1968. He went on to become the first person to bring a racial discrimination case under the new Race Relations Act. While the case was eventually dismissed on a technicality, the judge declared unequivocally that d
  
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