Payday lenders should be regulated
Companies like Wonga are currently trusted to regulate themselves, but that has to change.On Monday Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow, tabled an amendment to the Financial Services Bill which calls...
View ArticleJohnston Press write-down prompts £144m pre-tax loss
Operating profit fell from 10.3 per cent to £64.6m on turnover down 6.1 per cent to £373.8mRegional newspaper publisher Johnston Press reported a pre-tax loss of £143.8m for the 2011 financial year...
View ArticleDouble-dip recession: don't say we didn't warn you
We warned in 2009 that Osborne had no plan for growth.While many are wise after the event, the New Statesman was warning of the danger of a double-dip recession as long ago as March 2010 (see our cover...
View ArticleTwitter arrests imminent over naming Evans rape victim
North Wales Police force says they are investigating. The police force investigating Twitter users who named the rape victim of Sheffield United and Wales striker Ched Evans have confirmed that...
View ArticleOpinionomics | 25 April 2012
Must-read comment and analysis. Featuring austerity, double-dips, and space.1. How Planetary Resources Can Make a Profit (Forbes) Tim Worstall tackles the problem Planetary Resources has - once they...
View ArticleThe imaginary education secretary
Michael Gove is taken in by his own vacuous erudition.Molière didn't think much of the doctors of his day. "All the excellency of their art consists in pompous gibberish, in a specious babbling,", he...
View ArticleReview: Misterman
Misterman (at the National Theatre until 28 May) starts sweetly enough. Cillian Murphy (star of Solar, 28 Days Later) rattles manically round a disused warehouse which is decked out with strip...
View ArticlePMQs review: Cameron's anger boils over
An easy win for Miliband against a red-faced Cameron. With the country officially in recession and a cabinet minister's career on the line, today's PMQs was always likely to be an easy win for Ed...
View Article"Do Cameron and Osborne know what they're doing?"
That is the question voters will ask. Jeremy Hunt is in trouble. The Culture Secretary’s statement in the House of Commons today has done nothing to dispel the impression that he allowed News Corp...
View ArticleEU asks for 6.8 per cent budget increase
European Commission sparks anger as it ignores member states' austerity drives.The EU Commission has submitted its request for its 2013 budget, and calls for a 6.8 per cent rise, raising questions...
View ArticleHunt and News International: a market abuse angle
Was there a wrongful disclosure of price sensitive information?One potential issue for Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and his former special adviser Adam Smith in the developing scandal of how the News...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chart of the day: Double dip
The UK is back in recession. GDP shrank by 0.2 per cent, according to the ONS's preliminary estimates, following a fall of 0.3 per cent last quarter. Since the spending review, the first major act by...
View ArticleThis double-dip looks like a trade problem
Britain is importing more and exporting less, and that's where the recession stems from.A lot of people – myself included – were surprised by the economic contraction announced today. There had been...
View ArticleMad Men: series 5, episode 6
Orange sherbet, purple candy, LSD."Far Away Places" did not stray us all that far from Madison Avenue, though two journeys were at the centre of the episode. On a literal trip, Don and Megan head to a...
View ArticleWe can learn from Iceland's crash – and their recovery
Iceland's PM isn't the only one guilty of ignoring the evidence that a crisis was coming.Let’s confess, it felt good to see a Prime Minister criminally charged for the financial mismanagement of his...
View ArticleWeb Only: the best of the blogs
The five must-read blogs from today, including Paul Mason on the double-dip. 1. Double-dip recession: There's always fantasy island The initial premise of George Osborne's austerity programme turned...
View ArticleRupert Murdoch always felt like an outsider. Now he could become one
The News Corp head could yet be called by Congress to explain himself. From his office in News Corp’s headquarters on Sixth Avenue, New York, Rupert Murdoch might have imagined his appearance before...
View ArticleLamb to the slaughter
Norman Lamb, the employment relations minister, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The past has caught up with a Liberal Democrat making it easier for bosses to sack hired hands without compensation. His...
View ArticleLeader: Livingstone is a poor candidate but this is still Labour’s moment
Rupert and James Murdoch came to town this week to sit before the Leveson inquiry, and reminded everyone once again that something is rotten in what Tom Watson, the campaigning Labour MP, calls...
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