In June, it was reported that 170 civil servants earn more than the British prime minister. This was followed by the recent disclosure that Mark Elms, a primary school head teacher in south London, earns considerably more than David Cameron – and that he is one of around 100 head teachers in this country to do so.
This has given rise to lots of debate. Is it right? Should the PM earn more? Should the salaries of civil servants and teachers be capped in some way? Some people seem to feel uncomfortable – or angry – at the idea of [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by: snou78 on July 22nd, 2010
If you are unhappy with your bank, you’re not alone. Sooner or later, many people have a problem with theirs. It might be related to the long queues in branches (often caused by unmanned windows, or even more annoyingly, a teller doing something behind the window but not serving customers). It might be having to wait 15 minutes on the phone to talk about your account, only to get through to someone who is definitely not a native English speaker.
It could be the bewildering range of products – or the fact that new ones are often denied to existing [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by: snou78 on July 16th, 2010
A recent survey has revealed that, on average, 70 people are applying for every job in the UK, the highest figure on record. This is at a time when the number of vacancies is predicted to fall by 7 per cent.
The survey, from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) which comprises over 200 blue-chip companies, also showed that around 78 per cent of employers hiring graduates now insist on at least an upper second degree.
Bleak times, then, for the latest crop of university and college leavers – many of whom find themselves competing with last year’s graduates, still out [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by: admin on July 7th, 2010
Readers with long memories may recall that, in the 1980s, Britain was labelled “the dirty man of Europe” in Scandinavia, because of sulphur dioxide emissions sending acid rain across the Baltic.
History is repeating itself, with the same epithet being levelled at us in June 2010. The ethical investment consultant Eiris reviewed 300 of Europe’s top companies – and found that more than 50 per cent of those most engaged in carbon-polluting industries were based here. Furthermore, of the companies in that group focused on addressing climate change issues, only 3 per cent were to be found in Britain. And [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by: admin on June 28th, 2010
At the annual general meeting of the world’s largest car maker in June 2010, an investor told Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda: “Mr Toyoda, you’ve been all over the media this year and you’ve gone teary-eyed on several occasions. For a man of your position, this is unacceptable. Please keep your chin up and try not to weep.”
There’s no doubt that it’s been a calamitous time for the manufacturer. Its decision to recall hundreds of thousands of Prius hybrids because of braking problems earlier in the year was swiftly followed by the US government’s safety agency announcing an investigation [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by: admin on June 25th, 2010
By now, no one’s a stranger to the environmental debacle that BP generated back in April when the Deepwater Horizon suffered a devastating explosion. As the weeks have turned into months, stories leak out despite reports that in fact BP officials and law enforcement officials both are attempting to block press access to the various spill sites along the Gulf Coast.
But now it’s not just oil spewing, it’s tempestuous rhetoric—on both sides of the Atlantic. The spill continues to worsen, along with estimates as to just how bad it actually is. (Recent reports cite it as emitting as much [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by: admin on June 12th, 2010
Apple has passed arch-rival Microsoft and become the world’s largest technology company.
Changes in the share price values of the two corporations in Wednesday’s frantic trading left the total value of Apple at $222bn (£154bn).
Microsoft is now valued by its investors at approximately $220bn.
In spite of this, Microsoft still enjoys higher profits than Apple. Its most recent annual net profit was $14.6bn (£10bn), compared with $5.7bn for Apple.
Microsoft also reported bigger full-year revenues of $58.4bn, with Apple on $36.5bn thanks to the release of Windows 7 OS.
Posted by: admin on May 30th, 2010
Personally when I think of free products, companies such as VistaPrint and Google come to mind which have built their empires on free products and services.
With more and more of us being sucked into these offers and therefore no longer supporting the local stores and one-man-businesses, is it possible that one day in the near future we will be left with nothing but global monopolies, thus creating a “false economy” that could eventually lead us to having no one to buy from or sell to.
Maybe we should all spare a thought for the small corner shop at the end on the last [...] Continue Reading…
Posted by: admin on May 28th, 2010
