Fear and bad policy is holding back the UK’s huge shale potential June 17, 2013 THE US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has just raised its estimate of the UK’s technically-recoverable shale gas to 26 trillion cubic feet (tcf). But it’s actually a little behind the curve. Over two weeks ago, we produced a report which combined the estimates of the exploration companies and came up with a figure of 309 [...]
Forget the Old Etonian chumocracy: The Tories are at their least aristocratic ever June 16, 2013 DAVID Cameron’s government is the least patrician, least wealthy and least public school-educated Conservative-led government Britain has ever seen. Fewer Tory MPs were born into wealth and privilege than ever before. More are reliant solely on parliamentary salaries, and fewer have significant outside earnings compared to Tory MPs from previous parliaments. This is not the [...]
Google pays $1.3bn for sat-nav app Waze June 14, 2013 GOOGLE has pipped both Apple and Facebook to buy Waze, an Israeli social mapping service popular amongst commuters. Waze, which has almost 50m members, uses a smartphone’s location data to improve its maps and create real-time traffic information, allowing drivers to take the fastest route to a destination. It is now expected that Google will [...]
Brothers who took a punt on a new market | Morning Wire June 13, 2013 Annabel Palmer talks tobacco with Taz and Umer Sheikh: salesmen, business partners, and self-professed pioneers of the growing electronic cigarette industry SIX years ago, the smoking ban came into force in England, making it illegal to smoke in enclosed workplaces. So when I meet Umer Sheikh – the younger of the two Sheikh brothers behind [...]
Brothers who took a punt on a new market June 13, 2013 Annabel Palmer talks tobacco with Taz and Umer Sheikh: salesmen, business partners, and self-professed pioneers of the growing electronic cigarette industry SIX years ago, the smoking ban came into force in England, making it illegal to smoke in enclosed workplaces. So when I meet Umer Sheikh – the younger of the two Sheikh brothers behind [...]
The rapid rise of the food bank can’t just be blamed on government austerity June 12, 2013 FOOD banks are a rapidly growing phenomenon in the UK. A few years ago, they barely existed, but an estimated half a million people now make use of them every week. On the face of it, it seems that poverty has sadly become endemic since the financial crisis, with many families unable even to feed [...]
Townsend will not appeal his FA betting ban June 12, 2013 GUILTY Tottenham winger Andros Townsend will not appeal his punishment for breaching the Football Association’s betting rules and has vowed to restore his reputation on the pitch. The 21-year-old was handed a four-month ban and £18,000 fine at an independent regulatory commission hearing yesterday, where he was found to have breached FA Rule E8(b) for misconduct [...]
We must build more homes to tackle bubble, not tax more June 11, 2013 IF you want to know why a wealth tax should not be adopted in Britain, look no further than France. Over 8,000 French households were hit by tax bills that topped 100 per cent of their income last year, Les Echos reported this weekend, citing finance ministry data. For these people, the only way to [...]
Russian and Kazakh firms set for relegation from FTSE 100 | Morning Wire June 10, 2013 ALL THE Russian and Kazakhstan-based firms listed on the London Stock Exchange are expected to leave the top FTSE 100 index in the coming months in a stunning reversal from the tide of eastern giants entering the blue chip London market in recent years. Mining firms Polymetal and Evraz are widely expected to fall out [...]
Google Glass is just the beginning: Wearable tech is about to explode | Morning Wire June 9, 2013 WITH all the hype around Google Glass, the computer headset currently under development, you’d be forgiven for thinking the geeks were not just changing the world but our wardrobes too. After 20 years of sputtering innovation, wearable technology is set to explode in a vast range of consumer and business products and technologies, driven by [...]