Financial news

• OBR to publish breakdown of claimed £22bn ‘black hole’ on budget day

  27-10-2024 19:35
  
  Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt says decision to publish findings of review on Wednesday is ‘significant concern’Britain’s fiscal watchdog is to publish a detailed breakdown of the £22bn “black hole” that Labour says it inherited after Rachel Reeves presents the budget on Wednesday.The Office for Budget Responsibility will release the conclusion of its review of how the forecast for departmental spending for its last economic and fiscal outlook, published for th
  
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• Leaked recording shows McDonald’s manager briefing Uber Eats drivers

  27-10-2024 18:38
  
  Campaign group says Antrim manager is directingself-employed couriers and claims to have dismissed two of themA McDonald’s manager at a branch in Northern Ireland warned Uber Eats drivers they had a “responsibility” to learn English in their own time and claimed to have dismissed a courier for being “cheeky”, a leaked recording reveals.Like many couriers for food delivery apps, Uber Eats drivers are formally self-employed, but the recording of a meeting from March l
  
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• All wound up about changing the clocks | Brief letters

  27-10-2024 17:30
  
  Boiler bother | Immigration and wars | Bradford blow | Working people | ME/CFS | Erotic SaturdayA few years ago, I got fed up trying to reprogramme my confusing boiler controls twice a year when the clocks change (What is the most efficient way to use central heating? Your energy questions answered, 26 October). So I reset the time on it by just half an hour. Now it comes on a bit late at the start of autumn, when it’s not that cold anyway, and a bit early in the depths of winter, when&nbs
  
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• Labour should ‘invest big’ in arts and culture projects, says top economist

  27-10-2024 16:42
  
  Andy Haldane says funding ‘social infrastructure’ and cultural institutions is crucial for communitiesNow is the time to “invest, and invest big” in radical millennium-style arts and culture projects across the UK, an economist has urged ahead of the Labour government’s first budget on Wednesday.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, needs to urgently fund projects that “make lives livable” to help rebuild deprived parts of the country, said Andy Haldane, the ch
  
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• Rachel Reeves could make it easier for pubs to sell beers from local breweries

  27-10-2024 15:39
  
  Chancellor considering how to increase access to pubs for small brewers and may announce industry consultationThe Guardian view on ‘indie beer’: crafting a new identityCorporate takeover of ‘craft beer’ leaves nasty taste in the mouthThe government is considering making it easier for pubs to serve independent, local beers as the chancellor looks for ways to boost the sector.Some pubs, known as tied pubs, only sell beer from the company that owns the pub, in exchange for l
  
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• Elon Musk hopes Trump victory will help his $44bn Twitter bet pay off

  27-10-2024 13:00
  
  The platform’s billionaire owner has seen its value plunge as advertisers run shy, revenues drop and user numbers fallTwo years ago, there was some trepidation among advertisers, anti-hate-speech groups and staff about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.Those concerns have been borne out: advertisers have sharply reduced spending on the platform, Musk has sued nonprofits over their coverage of a rise in controversial content and about eight out of 10 employees have been sacked. Conti
  
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• The long-awaited Labour budget needs to show the party knows what to do with power | Larry Elliott

  27-10-2024 12:27
  
  A strategy of raising taxes, spending and borrowing all at the same time to fund investment has risks, but it has a logic tooReeves: ‘We will match greatest economic moments in Labour history’Labour’s tax rises will not hit workers’ payslips, minister vows‘This is personal’: Reeves reveals her motivationThe long wait is almost over. On Wednesday, for the first time in more than 14 years, a Labour chancellor will have the chance to deliver a budget – and
  
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• Sick of overpriced gig tickets? Here’s the Cure | Stewart Lee

  27-10-2024 11:00
  
  Robert Smith, defiant leader of the post-punk stalwarts, has shown that secondary markets can be bypassed, enabling ordinary people to benefit from cultureThe first time I saw the Cure was on 29 April 1984. The Birmingham Odeon show opened with a set from rural Worcestershire’s pre-Raphaelite goths And Also the Trees, whose early albums remain a guilty pleasure, and about whom I once sent a self-aggrandising letter to ZigZag magazine. The Cure’s set drew heavily on the dark post-punk
  
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• Chef Tom Kerridge calls on UK government to fund surplus food scheme

  27-10-2024 11:00
  
  The Michelin-starred restaurateur has signed an open letter demanding delivery of £15m to divert produce to food banks and soup kitchensChef Tom Kerridge is teaming up with charities to demand delivery of a promised £15m fund to divert fresh but unused food from farms to food banks and soup kitchens across the country.Repeated promises have been made by former ministers to fund the food waste reduction scheme, which effectively compensates farmers for harvesting, storing and packagin
  
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• It’s hard to fill a budget black hole if you’ve ruled out raising income tax | William Keegan

  27-10-2024 08:00
  
  Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were so desperate to win the election that they deprived themselves of the best tools for fixing their bleak ‘inheritance’It saddens those of us who waited so long to see the back of the last lot that the new government has been so inept in its first 100 days. And it is particularly distressing that, while one hopes one’s criticisms are constructive and made with the best of intentions, the Starmer government has been such easy meat for the rightw
  
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