As the proportion of SEN children in alternative schools continues to rise, it’s time to stand up for inclusionA showdown between parents of children with special needs and the government is coming. Three families from different parts of England have won the right to a judicial review of the funding allocated to local authorities to fulfil their obligation to educate the 253,680 young people in England with an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC) – or “statement” – and the 1,022,535 other children also entitled to some form of SEN support. Such budgets have been stretched beyond breaking point, while the number of children assessed as having special needs has increased for two years in a row until these groups now form 14.6% of the school population – with autistic spectrum disorders the most common type of need for pupils with a statement.In December the Local Government Association predicted a funding shortfall of £1.6bn by 2020/21. Paul Whiteman of the National Association of Headteachers believes the code governing special needs education has been reduced to an “empty promise”. Yet so far the response from ministers has served to underline the problem rather than solve it. This is because, while additional resources are urgently needed, there is another aspect to the special needs crisis in England. Namely, that decades of progress towards an inclusive model in which, as far as possible, all children are educated together, are being rolled back. Continue reading...

Merger plan comes amid problems that find many European banks in a zombie-like stateThe proposed merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank is far from a done deal. Politicians in Berlin might be supporting the tie-up, but there are plenty of critics – from unions fearful of tens of thousands of job losses to shareholders worried about the impact on already depressed share prices.Clearly, this is not an ideal moment for Deutsche to be considering swallowing up its smaller rival. It will take up valuable management time and involve booking a hefty loss on the Italian and Spanish bonds sitting on Commerzbank’s books.Related: Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank confirm merger talks Continue reading...

After a Franglais Swan Lake, the comic explains economics with sex dolls in ChiffChaff. She talks about loving horror, how guinea pigs helped her through illness and standing up for comediansElf Lyons loves economics. Or rather, as she warbles to The Lion King’s They Live in You, “eco-eco-no-nomics”. In her show ChiffChaff, which is equal parts John Maynard Keynes and Lorelei Lee, Lyons breathily considers fiscal policy by asking the audience to blow up sex dolls, play plinky-plonk instruments and imagine inflation as spinach. “I’m what the Times called ‘an ordeal’,” she informs us during a vigorous bout of hula-hooping. That review was for her 2017 rendition of Swan Lake, delivered in Franglais while dressed as a parrot. It earned her an Edinburgh comedy award nomination but left some looking for le exit.When we meet for coffee in Soho, Lyons says she wants audiences to share her passion and think of finance as fun rather than “George Osborne holding a briefcase”. Unusually, it was the economy – rather than comedy – that really excited her as a child. “I don’t have a good comedy knowledge,” she says. “I’ve never seen Blackadder. Never watched Fawlty Towers or The Young Ones.” Growing up, she travelled a lot with her father, City economist Gerard Lyons. In China, he would explain the financial booms that built the skyscrapers. They watched films like Blade Runner and The Man in the White Suit together then discussed how they depicted expansion and the free market. “It’s about loving something,” she says of the irresistibly silly ChiffChaff. “Economics is beautiful.”I want to play a really nice IagoOn Fridays we’d all go to the bar. Everybody would swap partners and drink bottles of crap wineRelated: A new way to love: in praise of polyamoryElf Lyons: ChiffChaff is at Omnibus theatre, London, 25-30 March. Continue reading...

Stalling inflation and a need to show independence have pushed it to a dovish stanceThe US Federal Reserve surprised markets recently with a large and unexpected policy change. When the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met in December 2018, it increased the Fed’s policy rate to 2.25%-2.5%, and signalled that it would raise the benchmark rate another three times, to 3%%-3.25%, before stopping. It also signalled that it would continue to unwind its balance sheet of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities indefinitely, by up to $50bn (£38bn)per month.But just six weeks later, at the FOMC meeting in late January, the Fed indicated that it would pause its rate rises for the foreseeable future and suspend its balance-sheet unwinding sometime this year.Related: Global stock markets gain as investors predict cautious Federal Reserve – business live Continue reading...

Central banks in spotlight amid Brexit uncertainty and growth concerns

The artist scoured asset-stripping websites for the things British companies toss out as they close. He relives his six-month journey into a country in declineMike Nelson is feeling his age. He’s halfway through installing his new work, in the soaring Duveen galleries of Tate Britain, and as we sit down to chat, I notice the support strapped to his arm. The artist gives me a quick run-through of all the dislocations, injuries and strains that decades of vigorous construction work, all in the name of art, have exacted on his arms and shoulders. “I’m starting to feel long in the tooth,” he mutters apologetically.It all feels apt, given the work he’s installing. Redundancy, decrepitude and physical labour are central themes of The Asset Strippers. In preparation, over the last six months, he has amassed an array of industrial equipment from British manufacturers downsizing, closing or moving out of the country. Shelved, archived, stacked, clustered and sitting on reinforced flooring, this collection of machines large and small recasts the London gallery as a storage facility for the detritus of British industry.Related: A modern masterpiece: Mike Nelson's The Coral Reef | Jonathan JonesIn the 20th century, sculptures started to look like machines – and machines started to look like sculptures Continue reading...

The former education secretary has watched as class sizes have gone up, schools have fallen into disrepair and teachers have covered for cleaners. What’s next, she asksEstelle Morris is someone who tries to see the positive side. She’s polite about political foes; she hopes that something better will come out of the nightmare that is Brexit. But she is finding it hard to sound upbeat about the financial crisis facing schools.The former teacher and education secretary is plainly worried about mounting evidence of school cuts. A recent Guardian investigation found there’s not enough money for the basics such as textbooks, stationery and science equipment; support staff are being cut; teachers are covering for lunchtime staff and cleaners; buildings are falling into disrepair, and headteachers are relying on parents’ donations to make ends meet. One school is holding extra, non-uniform days to raise funds; another is delaying turning the heating on until November; and a teacher in Rotherham told the Guardian she buys sanitary pads and deodorant for her students as well as pens. Class sizes have gone up, school trips are off, subjects have been scrapped and pastoral care has been axed. The list goes on.Related: Schools have become 'fourth emergency service' for poorest families Continue reading...

The modern monetary theory debate is welcome in a world laying bare the constraints of conventional policyThe last few months of 2018 saw a real bout of jitters in the financial markets. Growth was slowing everywhere and share prices were in full retreat. There were fears that this was the start of Global Financial Crisis 2.0.In the end, central banks managed to calm things down. The US Federal Reserve abandoned plans for increases in interest rates, the European Central Bank put back the date at which it expects to start raising the cost of borrowing, the Bank of Japan left rates negative and the People’s Bank of China eased lending constraints on commercial banks. Continue reading...

Of course Brexit creates uncertainties. But the chancellor has funds available now to fulfil the pledge to end austerityLow-income families will be hit hard in April by government spending cuts and tax rises. Philip Hammond might have considered the double whammy that awaits them when he stood up last week to deliver his spring statement. There was an expectation, especially among some anti-poverty charities, that the chancellor would open his wallet to ease their financial pain following his promise last year to end austerity.Families in the bottom fifth of earners will lose, on average, £400 a year from a freeze on benefits. Universal credit will be cut for all but the lowest-income households, and council tax bills, which affect the poorest much more than those in higher income brackets, are set to rise by an average of 4.5%. Continue reading...

And even staying in the EU would only lessen the effects of this shortfall, not solve itAs we enter the dog days of article 50 negotiations, with the political heat rising to boiling point, MPs should stop a moment and consider what kind of Brexit catastrophe awaits the country.Brexit supporters argue that MPs’ information could be a little out of date. And it’s not just them. Listen to the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, who says a no-deal Brexit is not the catastrophe many believed it would be when forecasts were made last year. Continue reading...

The Guardian columnist Frances Ryan explains why she was so determined to cover the volunteer-run Biscuit Fund ‘gifting service’ for people going through hard timesA few weeks ago, I decided to have a clear-out. There were several years’ worth of clutter best assigned to the rubbish, but among the old birthday cards and assorted keyrings, one box stood out: it was full of letters and cards from readers.

Ownership falls to lenders but company will continue trading and operating public servicesThe government contractor Interserve has gone into administration after its largest shareholder, the US hedge fund Coltrane, led a rebellion against financial rescue plans drawn up by the company’s lenders.About 16,000 small shareholders have lost their investment, with the business sold to hedge funds and banks via a “pre-pack” administration which means Interserve, which employs 45,000 people in the UK, can continue trading.Related: Interserve: a calamity created in the boardroom | Nils PratleyFirst Carillion and now Interserve. The gov't model of outsourcing services to cut costs has failed. It is time to bring these contracts back in-house. https://t.co/yjfvTqBmpo Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Another outsourcing company that was making huge profits has gone into administration“I voted for Donald Trump,” said the representative for Coltrane, flippantly, when asked after Interserve’s shareholder meeting how he cast the New York hedge fund’s critical 27% stake in the outsourcing firm. Maybe he did, but in this case he voted against a board-backed rescue deal and helped to send into administration a company employing 45,000 people in the UK.Related: Interserve to go into administration after rescue deal rejected Continue reading...

Ministers rush to do deals with countries UK trades with under EU free trade arrangementsBritain has signed a post-Brexit trade deal with the Pacific islands of Fiji and Papua New Guinea, as the government rushes to sign as many agreements as possible before 29 March.The Department for International Trade said the agreement would maintain access to goods including sugar and fish imported from the islands 10,000 miles away. Total trade between Britain and the region is worth about £369m a year. Continue reading...

Wage hikes of nearly 6% could signal return of pre-2008 rewards, thinktank saysBig pay rises for people already earning at least £1m a year could be the result of a return to levels of reward for bankers and top company bosses not seen since before the financial crisis, according to the head the UK’s leading economic thinktank.New data collected by HMRC and released alongside the chancellor’s spring statement showed pay for the highest earners rose nearly 6% between April and September last year, compared with 3.7% for the rest of the workforce. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the pay disparity would exacerbate inequality.Related: Benefits freeze means 'no reprieve' for 10 million poor families – business live Continue reading...

As inflation soars, Venezuelans have been forced to find new ways to pay for essentials – when the power supply allows“Barter” reads a simple sign on Angélica Monasterios’s stall in Cupira, a town on the main road east from Caracas. Her niece painted the sign for her in early February, after soaring inflation and vanishing reserves of hard cash made it hard to do business.Related: 'A city of shadows': fear as Venezuela's crippling blackout enters day fourAll this government talk of American imperialism and now we have to use dollarsRelated: Venezuela blackout: what caused it and what happens next? Continue reading...

Forecaster’s mid-term outlook buoyed by £50bn in tax increases, despite low growth and falling house prices in 2019Britain’s economy will struggle to grow by more than 1.2% this year as Brexit uncertainty hits business investment and sends house prices into reverse for the first time since the 2008 financial crash, the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned.The Treasury’s independent forecaster has cut its estimate of economic growth for 2019 from 1.6%, made only last October. It is also predicting a slide in house prices later this year, which will cut stamp duty tax receipts by £3bn. Brexit uncertainty and changes to the way corporation tax is paid, it said, will also knock a £2bn hole in tax payments made by companies. Continue reading...

Chancellor reveals growth and borrowing forecasts, plus money for period poverty, knife crime prevention, and affordable housing

If the Tories want to end austerity, they will have to focus on ending the lived experience of it

Sandwiched between Brexit votes, the chancellor’s spring statement was pretty low keyOne of Philip Hammond’s early decisions was to make his spring statement play second fiddle to the Treasury’s main event of the year, the autumn budget.Even the chancellor could not have expected his half-yearly update on the state of the economy to be as low key as it actually turned out to be, though. For the time being, all that really matters in UK politics is Brexit. There has been little or no appetite for the usual speculation about the tax or spending surprises the chancellor might announce. Continue reading...

Public services are in tatters, interest rates are negligible, and yet in his spring statement the chancellor gives us ‘reviews’ instead of policiesListen to Philip Hammond and it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense that he is an adult making sober, cautious decisions. Not blessed with the (ahem) charisma of a Boris Johnson, he is happily less given to spouting headline-grabbing rubbish. While his colleagues have spent the past two and a half years promising voters the moon on a stick, the chancellor has kept his cool. The spring statement was classic Hammond. Sandwiched between Tuesday’s humiliation for Theresa May and the no-deal vote Wednesday night, he was never going to command any front pages. Watching, you could mistake him for the bank manager your branch doesn’t have: sensible, dull, unremarkable.Related: Spring statement: fossil fuel heating ban for new homes, as Brexit warchest swells - liveRelated: Spring statement 2019: the chancellor's key points at a glance Continue reading...

Heritage groups condemn plan to replace specialists with cheaper ‘engagement team’Museum leaders and heritage organisations have condemned a cost-cutting proposal to scrap all four of the curators at Leicester’s museums as concerns grow about the cultural impact of austerity.Specialist staff at Leicester’s flagship New Walk museum and art gallery have already been handed redundancy notices as part of a review that ends this month.Really shocking news. A great collection in a great city, with a proud history of scholarship, curatorial practice and public access...https://t.co/QJCAZhjphJ Continue reading...

Philip Hammond has delivered his spring statement – here are the main points, with political analysis• Spring statement 2019 - live blog• Forecast of 1.2% growth for 2019.Peter Walker, political correspondent: Hammond is, politically, having his cake and eating it – talking up what he says are achievements with growth and jobs, while noting what he called the “cloud of uncertainty” after last night’s Brexit vote.Related: Spring statement: Philip Hammond reveals state of UK's economy and finances - livePW: Hammond’s announcement of the three-year spending review – and the condition that this will only happen if there is a Brexit deal – is a reminder to rebellious Tory MPs that there is a world of other political decisions to make, beyond endless arguments about the Northern Ireland backstop. Austerity will end, he says, but not with a no-deal Brexit.PW: This is the chancellor the Tory hard Brexiters detest, in full flow. A no-deal Brexit would make the economy smaller, he says, and there are factors (not least borders) over which the UK would be dependent on others. Hammond has always held this view, but after last night’s vote the warning is all the more urgent.PW: The housing section of the speech has just a brief, passing mention of the help-to-buy scheme – perhaps Hammond is mindful of the recent reports about how one of its major apparent effects has been to boost housebuilders’ dividend payments.PW: Another pointed reminder from the chancellor to his MPs that there are more important policy priorities than Brexit, and that perhaps the government could be allowed to finally get on with thinking about a few of these.PW: This is a hugely politically difficult area for the government, whatever Hammond’s insistence that police funding is rising. This was billed overnight in the newspapers as a victory for Sajid Javid – either way, it will be a popular move.PW: Hammond’s final comments on Brexit are fairly extraordinary by usual political standards. He seems to welcome the likelihood of an extension to article 50 as a chance to start work on a new Brexit deal, one based on cross-party consensus. This is not Theresa May’s plan. But then, these are not normal political times. Continue reading...

OBR says lower borrowing has swelled chancellor’s five-year war chest to £26.6bnPhilip Hammond has promised a Brexit dividend to boost spending on public infrastructure projects and vital services after forecasts of lower government borrowing over the next five years swelled the chancellor’s war chest to £26.6bn.The chancellor said he remained confident that a Brexit deal would be agreed by parliament in the next few weeks and he could include the extra funds in a three-year Whitehall spending review, which he plans to begin before the summer recess.Related: Spring statement policies look to Brexit and a hi-tech future Continue reading...

Philip Hammond may announce today that austerity will soon be over, but then what? It was the Tories’ one clear strategyThe £20bn public services bung reportedly dangled before MPs by the chancellor Philip Hammond before this week’s spring statement, in an attempt to persuade them to vote for Theresa May’s Brexit deal, will not surprise anyone who believes the main cause of disintegrating public services is lack of ministerial will to invest, rather than lack of money.Like May’s desperate £1.6bn bribe for the leave-voting “left-behind” northern England towns, it tells us not so much that Hammond believes a weary, austerity-battered UK deserves a new era of public services settlement, but that resources can always be found when the future of the Conservative party is at stake.Related: Hammond call for police to prioritise knife crime is insult, say officersRelated: The Guardian view on ending austerity: it needs to happen | Editorial Continue reading...

Britain grew faster than expected in January, as consumers shake off Brexit anxiety, but the longer-term picture is less rosy

GDP figures defying the gloomy forecasts will bring cheer before the chancellor’s spring statementSurveys of business have been universally bleak. The Bank of England and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have cut their growth forecasts. Warnings from multinational companies about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit have been coming thick and fast.Little wonder, then, that the financial markets feared the worst from the last heap of official data before Wednesday’s spring statement from Philip Hammond. The feeling was that the chancellor would give his latest update against the backdrop of an economy losing further momentum after a sluggish end to 2018.Related: UK economy rebounds in January despite Brexit uncertainty Continue reading...

Monthly GDP growth posts biggest rise since December 2016 after weak end to yearThe British economy staged an unexpected fightback in January as manufacturing and retail sales growth recovered from a weaker end to last year, despite mounting uncertainty over Brexit.The Office for National Statistics said monthly GDP growth jumped to 0.5% in January, the biggest rise since December 2016, reversing a drop of 0.4% in the final month of last year.Related: Brexit: Cox says risk of UK being stuck in backstop remains – Politics live Continue reading...

Two surveys also suggest increasing numbers are putting hiring plans on holdGrowing numbers of British companies are preparing to cut jobs or put hiring plans on hold as Brexit uncertainty intensifies, in the latest sign of stress on the economy.In an indication that Britain’s long jobs recovery since the financial crisis is gradually running out of steam as Brexit nears, IHS Markit said UK employers’ staff-hiring intentions had reached a six-year low in February.Related: No-deal Brexit could cost Japanese carmakers in UK $1bn a year Continue reading...

Bank of England policymaker Jonathan Haskel says businesses need clarity on Britain’s trade relationship with the EU

Envelopes and three-piece suites axed in move that shows shifting consumer habitsAlexa, what is the rate of UK inflation? Smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home have been added to the list of items monitored by the government to ensure the UK’s measure of the cost of living reflects the spending habits of modern Britain.The home technology devices will now have their prices checked once a month by the Office for National Statistics in order to calculate the annual inflation rate.Some of the items added to the list Continue reading...

The profession must adopt a more open mindset and embrace diversity if it is to regain trustThe economics profession took a beating after most of its leading practitioners failed to predict the 2008 global financial crisis and it has been struggling to recover ever since. Not only were the years after the crash marked by unusually low, unequal growth; now we are witnessing a growing list of economic and financial phenomena that economists cannot readily explain.Like the Queen, who famously asked in November 2008 why nobody had seen the crisis coming, many citizens have grown increasingly sceptical of economists’ ability to explain and predict economic developments, let alone offer sound guidance to policymakers. Some surveys rank economists among the least-trusted professionals (after politicians, of course, whose trust economists have also lost). A solid economic training is no longer regarded as a must-have for candidates for top positions in finance ministries and central banks. This marginalisation has further weakened economists’ ability to inform and influence decision-making on issues that relate directly to their expertise (or what they would call their comparative and absolute advantage).Related: Anxiety running high about London's future as a financial centre | Barry EichengreenA discipline long dominated by 'high priests' must now adopt a more open mindset Continue reading...

Chancellor hints that a no-deal Brexit will mean an unwanted extension to austerityDo you remember the days when the big debate in British politics was not interminable talk of backstops, parliamentary process and obscure trade deals? The days when it was about something far more simple: tax and spending.When Philip Hammond stands up at the dispatch box on Wednesday to deliver the spring statement, the agenda will remain all about Brexit. The traditional levers of government policy used to influence our everyday lives – income tax, NHS spending, school budgets and so on – will take a backseat. Continue reading...

Cameron never wanted a vote. Johnson wavered between Leave and Remain. Is there hope of a collective change of heart?In order to switch off from Brexit in the evenings, your correspondent has taken to re-reading his favourite novels. Yet there is no escape! At the start of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, we find the Oxford University Bollinger Club running riot and disrobing a fellow undergraduate, Paul Pennyfeather, who dashes across the quad stripped naked for the safety of his rooms. His fate is to fall into the hands of the college authorities and be “sent down” for indecent behaviour. Meanwhile, the perpetrators escape unscathed.Now the Bollinger Club is obviously modelled on the notorious Bullingdon Club, to which David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne once belonged. And I cannot resist drawing the parallel between what the Bollinger Club do to Pennyfeather and what the Bullingdon trio have done to the country.As the OECD pointed out last week (in more polite language), the British economy is now a disaster zone Continue reading...

Can the chancellor deliver the ‘end to austerity’?On Wednesday, MPs expect to hear the chancellor tell them that austerity will soon be consigned to history. Philip Hammond said in last year’s budget that “austerity is coming to an end” and teased ministers with the promise of the cash that he and his predecessor George Osborne denied them in the previous eight years.There is a huge gap to fill just to prevent further austerity taking effect. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the chancellor’s pledge in October to boost NHS spending, defence and international aid failed to safeguard councils and some of the worst-hit government departments from further shortfalls. Continue reading...

Whatever the form Brexit eventually takes, there will need to be more public spending to repair the fraying fabric of the British stateWhen a headteacher pops up on the nation’s flagship radio news programme to say that cuts have left her scrubbing school toilets and serving lunch to pupils, ministers ought to be in listening mode. That is especially the case since the complaint is echoed by 7,000 headteachers in England who say they are facing a funding crisis. One would imagine a forum being convened in Whitehall to address such a serious charge. Not at all. Instead the education secretary has his fingers in his ears and his diary full. There is a depressingly familiar ring to this ministerial response. This week the prime minister denied the possibility that cuts to the police contributed to a rise in crime, despite Home Office research to the contrary. Similarly, ministers decry any suggestion that austerity played a part in the biggest fall in British adults’ life expectancy, when it seems obvious to many experts that it does.There is a reasonable argument to be had about the size of the state, the level of taxation that a society thinks is fair, and how large a deficit the Treasury ought to run. It’s just that the United Kingdom is not having such a conversation. Instead this nation’s politics is dominated by factional fights in Westminster about this country’s departure from the European Union, an issue that seems far removed from people’s lives, however essential it is. As Britain’s former chief negotiator on Europe, Ivan Rogers, pointed out, this is just the beginning. The next phase of the process will be about defining a new relationship with the EU, and promises to be much more difficult and wide-ranging than our attempts to leave the European bloc. Continue reading...

America’s non-farm payroll only rose by 20,000 in February, much weaker than expected, and the lowest monthly growth in almost 18 months

In March 2009 the Bank of England began to slash interest and buy bonds – has it worked?Over the past decade an experiment has been underway in Britain since the Bank of England reduced interest rates to almost zero and cranked up the money printing presses of quantitative easing (QE).Ten years ago this week, Threadneedle Street dropped borrowing costs to the lowest level in the Bank’s 324 years of existence and embarked on the bond-buying programme of QE, never before tested in Britain. Continue reading...

Austerity | International Women’s Day | Generic forms of address | Alternative names for the looThank you, Aditya Chakrabortty, for giving us hope (In an era of cuts, one city has the imagination to fight back, 6 March). You show that there are alternative ways to live other than the ruthless, cut-throat world which is all we have had for so long. What we need now is someone to turn these ideas into a new political position that we can all vote for.

Eurozone banks also promised extra liquidity as ECB follows in US Fed’s dovish footstepsThe European Central Bank has reacted to the threat of recession across the eurozone with a promise to keep interest rates at historically low levels for at least the rest of the year.Highlighting the dramatic effect of Donald Trump’s trade war with China on Europe’s manufacturing industry, the ECB president, Mario Draghi, said he would also offer cheap loans to the eurozone’s troubled banks, which need to roll over billions of euros of funding over the next two years.Related: ECB unveils measures to revive eurozone as it cuts growth forecasts – as it happened Continue reading...

The US trade gap with China has hit a record level, in a blow to president Trump’s America First policies

Annual growth will fall below 1% for first time in decade even with a deal, says thinktankA no-deal Brexit would plunge the UK economy into recession and annual growth will slip below 1% this year for this first time since the financial crisis even if a deal is secured, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned.The thinktank, which advises 34 of the world’s richest countries, said that even with a smooth Brexit, the UK economy would slump to 0.8% growth in 2019 from 1.4% in 2018 as Brexit uncertainty and Donald Trump’s trade war with China harmed the UK’s economic prospects. In November it was forecasting 1.4% growth for the UK this year.Related: UK economy close to stalling amid Brexit uncertaintyRelated: It's not Brexit Britain most likely to have a recession. It's Germany Continue reading...

These are bleak times for progressives, but in Preston a socialist Dragons’ Den is proving to be inspirationalThe story of local government today can be summed up in one word: cuts. Brutal, life-changing, future-cancelling cuts. As many as 1,000 children’s centres have been closed by English councils since David Cameron took office in 2010. Almost 130 libraries closed across Britain last year alone. That’s people with disabilities trapped in their homes, grandparents denied adequate care and lifeline bus services scrapped.This is news that rarely makes the news. It is announced through notices tied around lamp-posts, rather than in the national newspapers. When Cameron and George Osborne designed their historic spending cuts to fall most heavily on local government, this was the outcome they wanted: private tragedies delivered through tens of thousands of brown envelopes plopping on to doormats across the land, rather than one glaring public outrage. Yet stack them all together and you can make two big bets about this country’s future.Related: In 2011 Preston hit rock bottom. Then it took back control | Aditya Chakrabortty Continue reading...

Emma Burgisser is sceptical of Christine Lagarde’s claims to have embraced women’s empowerment

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as China sets its lowest growth target in almost three decades

Employment levels falling at fastest pace in almost nine years, survey findsThe UK economy came close to flatlining last month as Brexit uncertainty intensified and the global economy weakened, with employment levels falling at the fastest pace in almost nine years.According to the latest snapshot of Britain’s services sector – which accounts for 80% of economic growth – businesses have begun to delay hiring staff against a backdrop of subdued demand and concerns about the economic outlook as the scheduled date of the UK’s departure from the EU draws nearer.Related: UK retailers suffer weaker sales due to Brexit uncertainty Continue reading...

Li Keqiang tells annual political gathering the nation will face ‘a graver and more complicated environment’China has set its lowest growth target in nearly three decades as premier Li Keqiang warned of “tough” challenges facing the world’s second-largest economy.He set the country’s growth at 6.0 to 6.5%, down from a target of 6.5% last year. In 1990, growth sank to 3.9% because of international sanctions sparked by the Tiananmen square protests. Growth in 2018 was 6.6%, the slowest rate since 1990.Related: IMF reminds US that a China slowdown is a drag for everyoneRelated: 'Two sessions': Beijing locked down for China's greatest political spectacle Continue reading...

Total growth drops to 0.5% in the year to February, down from 1.6% a year earlierBritain’s retailers suffered from weaker sales last month as mounting uncertainty over the UK’s departure from the EU led to consumers becoming more wary of making bigger purchases before Brexit.In the latest evidence that momentum in the economy is fading during the weeks before Britain is scheduled to formally leave the EU, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and accountancy firm KPMG said that total sales growth dropped to 0.5% in the year to February, down from 1.6% a year earlier. Continue reading...