Every poll in Nicaragua has shown that the interoceanic canal has majority popular support, writes John Perry, and Helen Yuill says the canal raises a wider question faced by all developing countriesYour article (Nicaragua canal critics ‘face wave of persecution’, 4 August) begins by calling the protests against Nicaragua’s interoceanic canal “a mix of anger, fear and defiance not witnessed since the civil war between the Sandinista government and US-backed Contra rebels”. That war cost 30,000 lives, but no one has died in the canal protests.The protesters have organised more than 90 marches, involving thousands of people. Yes, some of the marches have been stopped, arrests have been made and unknown people have attacked some of those taking part. Amnesty International calls this “a campaign of harassment and persecution”. Would they apply the same standards to the police action to stop protests against fracking in the UK? Polls in Britain show that fracking protesters have public opinion on their side. In Nicaragua, every poll has shown that the interoceanic canal has majority popular support, and the protesters are in a minority, even in many of the areas through which the canal will pass. Continue reading...

Soaring value of homes and financial assets will fuel debate about inequality, as report reveals many Britons are not savingA booming City and rising house prices provided a double boost to Britons holding assets in 2016 as they pushed the nation’s wealth through the £10tn mark, according to a new survey.Lloyds Bank’s private banking arm said total household wealth in the UK increased by £892bn last year – with the property and financial markets each responsible for half the rise.Related: Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news Continue reading...

Responses to the prison and criminal justice crisis from Professor Joe Sim, Julian Le Vay and Nik WoodAndrea Albutt, the president of the Prison Governors Association, is correct to say that separating policy and operational control has been problematic (Prisons in crisis due to ‘perverse’ government overhaul, 2 August). However, even if policy and operational control were put back together, or staff numbers were increased, these changes will not solve the crisis in the long term. In 1978, the prison system experienced a profound crisis, despite high staff numbers with little binary divide between policy and operations. Like today, successive governments failed to face up to the depth of the crisis. What happened? It rumbled on through the 1980s before exploding at Strangeways in 1990. Simply tinkering with the system does not work. What is needed is a fundamental transformation, including sentencing policy. How can sentencing a vulnerable woman to 26 weeks in prison for begging for 50p be in any way politically or morally defensible? The crisis is not restricted to prisons, desperate though it is. It cuts through the whole of the criminal justice system in this country, which also needs to be fundamentally transformed including embedding structures of democratic accountability so that state servants are held to account. The complacency of ministers and the MoJ is breathtaking. Strangeways is a voice from the past that reminds us how dangerous such complacency can be.

ONS figures show UK residents are going on more but shorter holidays – with booze cruises becoming much less popularBritons have ditched the traditional two-week holiday in favour of shorter breaks as no-frills airlines have taken off over the last 20 years, according to official figures that also confirm the demise of the booze cruise.Related: Will a holiday make me happy – and if it does, how long will it last?Since the 1990s, we're going on more holidays... but they're shorter than they used to be https://t.co/ixX4S2GbdD pic.twitter.com/yPOMfwTgSy Continue reading...

Taking on Beijing in areas such as intellectual property rights could lead to ‘a downward spiral’ in relationsMoves by Donald Trump to confront China on trade would elicit a “very aggressive” response, a former top US trade negotiator has predicted, as Beijing said an upcoming visit from the US president would help “map out” the next half century of ties between the world’s top two economies.

Visa index shows spending fell for third month in July as rising living costs and Brexit uncertainty hit confidenceBritons are slashing spending on new clothes, cars and foreign holidays, according to new figures that underscore the effect on consumer confidence of rising living costs and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.Spending fell for a third consecutive month in July, according to Visa’s consumer spending index, which it said was the longest-running slump since February 2013. The 0.8% year-on-year decline in July was worse than June’s 0.2% drop, but not as steep as the fall of 0.9% in May.The leisure sector is likely to have benefited from an early surge in summer staycations Continue reading...

Barclays begins process of moving up to 900,000 accounts to comply with Vickers rules, which aim to avoid taxpayer bailoutsBarclays has started the process of moving up to 900,000 accounts to alternative six-digit sort codes as it prepares for the implementation of regulations intended to avoid taxpayer bailouts.The changes to sort codes began over the past month as Barclays rejigs its business ahead of the introduction of rules that require banks to ringfence their high street operations from riskier activities. The rules, which come into force at the start of 2019, are named after Sir John Vickers, who recommended this course of action in 2011 after the financial crisis. Continue reading...

Workers’ influence over their hours, conditions and pay has been eroded as a culture of insecurity takes holdSomething funny is going on in Britain’s jobs market. And it’s not a joke.Unemployment has dropped to 4.5%, the lowest since 1975. The employment rate is the highest on record at 74.9%. On paper, it’s the tightest labour market in almost half a century, and yet workers are no better off. In fact, they are worse off after adjusting for inflation. Continue reading...

The Irish capital’s economy is surging on predictions of a big business exodus from London, but outside the city the mood is not so buoyantDublin rents have smashed every record. The number of cranes on the city’s skyline has doubled in just a year. Michelin-starred restaurants warn diners not to bother trying for a reservation until 2018. And at a giant new bar and restaurant complex in Temple Bar – immediately next door to U2’s Clarence Hotel, emblematic of Ireland’s boom years – Bono and The Edge last week partied until 6am after a sell-out gig. Is this the birth of the Celtic Tiger, mark II?The economic turnaround has been staggering. As recently as 2012, Ireland’s unemployment stood at 15.2%, wages had been slashed, property prices in Dublin had collapsed by 56% and the country’s economy was on an €85bn life support loan from the EU and the IMF. Today, unemployment is down to just 6.2%, with the Bank of Ireland forecasting GDP growth of 4.8% this year, after a healthy 5.1% last year. In 2017, Ireland will be Europe’s fastest-growing economy – for the fourth year in a row.Related: Irish taoiseach urges Northern Ireland to back staying in single marketPeople really want the Celtic Tiger to come back. They want their stuff back Continue reading...

The banks have, to a certain extent, changed their ways: but cheap credit, low interest rates and mountains of debt are still with usTen years ago this week, the global financial crisis started with a small rumble in France. Local bank BNP Paribas announced it was freezing the assets of three hedge funds with heavy exposures to the US sub-prime mortgage market. A little more than a year later, after the run on Northern Rock and the bailout of Bear Stearns in the US, the full earthquake arrived in the form of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street’s biggest banks.We soon discovered the full horrors within the financial system. Banks had taken on risks they did not understand and called the process “innovation”. Credit rating agencies had fallen asleep. Weak or incompetent regulators, encouraged by politicians, had been idle. In the UK, RBS would be mostly nationalised and the ailing HBOS was shoved into the arms of Lloyds TSB with a state bailout to follow. Continue reading...

Romano Prodi, once Italian prime minister, says compromise on both sides is essential and that a second referendum would be almost impossibleBritain will be committing economic suicide unless it is prepared to compromise to reach a comprehensive Brexit deal, a former head of the European Commission has warned.Romano Prodi, the economist and former Italian prime minister, said the Brexit negotiations had made little progress in the first year after the referendum and urged both sides to begin making concessions on trade and immigration to reach a deal. Continue reading...

Will Tanner, formerly a senior adviser to Theresa May, says support for ‘unbridled capitalism’ will cost Tories at the pollsThe Tories will lose the next election if they back “unbridled capitalism” and refuse to tax wealth to help the “struggling many”, one of Theresa May’s former advisers has warned.Higher tax on sales of expensive homes, more rights for workers and curbs on immigration should all be backed by the Tories if they are to reach the voters who feel abandoned by globalisation, according to Will Tanner, the former deputy head of May’s policy unit.Related: I saw Theresa May at work. A new message is vital to avoid defeat | Will Tanner Continue reading...

As long as austerity continues to smother the economy it will be impossible to take the necessary steps to restore growthOne of the economy’s lingering tumours, one that needs the financial equivalent of radiation therapy, can be found inside the banking industry.According to a report last week, the banks continue to harbour bad debts that eat away at their health and prevent them functioning properly. Continue reading...

Last Monday, at the start of a chaotic week for his presidency, a defiant Donald Trump claimed there had been an upswing in America’s fortunes. Was he right?It was a boast that every political leader would be thrilled to make in a single tweet, especially when, like Donald Trump, they are in a hole and looking for a spade to dig themselves out. Trump tweeted: “Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!”, encouraging the world to put aside the unfolding Russia scandal, impotence over North Korean missile launches and the sacking of newly arrived press secretary Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci, and look instead at the economic boom apparently unfolding under the president’s administration.Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!"Corporations have NEVER made as much money as they are making now." Thank you Stuart Varney @foxandfriends Jobs are starting to roar,watch!Stock Market could hit all-time high (again) 22,000 today. Was 18,000 only 6 months ago on Election Day. Mainstream media seldom mentions! Continue reading...

The early signs of the 2007 credit crunch are back. With wages stalled and prices rising, more and more are turning to loans and plastic cards to make ends meetWe are 10 years on from the start of the financial crisis, and unsecured consumer debt has reached more than £200bn for the first time since 2008. It’s up 10%, year on year. The best that can be said of the matter, as compared to the pre-crash debt boom, is that at least there are worries about it.The Bank of England and the credit ratings agency Moody’s are among those who have warned that the situation could be problematic. Which seems like an understatement. These guys are talking about big-picture risks to the economy, which generally adores debt. But at street level, the Financial Conduct Authority warns that one in six people with debt on credit cards, personal lending and car loans is in trouble. That’s 2.2 million stressed-out individuals.Related: Bank of England warns of complacency over big rise in personal debtThe welfare state is used to punish people for being dependent, forcing them into debt – because they have no choice Continue reading...

Readers share their thoughts on electricity generation, cars, cycling, trains and garden citiesGeorge Monbiot makes some useful points in his article bemoaning the influence of the lobbying power of the motor industry (We must break the car’s chokehold on Britain, 2 August). He proposes a modal transport shift to more coach travel and investment in nuclear power plants to power our electric cars. He ignores completely, as usual, the solar option with smaller electric cars and electric bikes and charged by photovoltaics on homes, at work and in public places. In 1993, I bought Hannibal, the 750kg fibreglass Kewet El Jet electric car that we used for a decade to take the children to school, go shopping and to train and bus stations. This first British solar car was largely powered by the 4kWp PV roof on my Oxford ecohouse. Monbiot also ignores the huge trend towards using electric bikes that can be easily solar charged at home or work. We love our cars and bikes, but the trick is to make them much smaller, lighter and solar powered, used locally and to connect with public transport systems for longer distances, so decrying any need for building inevitably toxic new nuclear power stations at all. Car size does matter now if we, as a society, are serious about surviving safely into the 22nd century, so let’s have less of Jeremy Clarkson on TV and more solar-powered Good Lives. It’s the mindset that has to change first, then the hardware.

Given the Trump presidency’s political ineffectiveness it is hard to envisage much changing economically either, be it growth, trade or taxNow that US President Donald Trump has been in office for six months, we can more confidently assess the prospects for the US economy and economic policymaking under his administration. And, like Trump’s presidency more generally, paradoxes abound.The main puzzle is the disconnect between the performance of financial markets and the real. While stock markets continue to reach new highs, the US economy grew at an average rate of just 2% in the first half of 2017 – slower growth than under President Barack Obama – and is not expected to perform much better for the rest of the year.Related: Central banks are ending policies like QE – but they'll be back | Nouriel RoubiniRelated: Donald Trump's tax cuts for the rich won't make America great again | Joseph Stiglitz Continue reading...

Under Thatcher and Blair, it looked unassailable. But now both Britain’s main parties are turning away from unfettered capitalism. By Andy BeckettTwelve years ago, shortly after winning his third consecutive general election, Tony Blair gave the Labour party a brief lecture on economics. “There is no mystery about what works,” he said, crisply, speaking from a podium printed with the slogan “Securing Britain’s Future” at the party conference in Brighton. “An open, liberal economy prepared constantly to change to remain competitive.”Blair rounded on critics of modern capitalism: “I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation. You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer. They’re not debating it in China and India.” He went on: “The temptation is … to think we protect a workforce by regulation, a company by government subsidy, an industry by tariffs. It doesn’t work today.” Britain should not “cling on to the European social model of the past”.Related: The day the credit crunch began, 10 years on: 'the world changed'Related: Globalisation: the rise and fall of an idea that swept the world Continue reading...

This scandal shows how normal it has become to expect to ‘earn’ exploitative rewards without risk or commensurate investment, writes Stephen HillThe abuse of leaseholds (Editorial, 26 July) is exactly that: abuse. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with leasehold/freehold arrangements in the hands of responsible (and preferably regulated) landlords. It’s worth thinking why they were invented and have endured for centuries. They are a highly effective way of allocating capital, risk and reward in the use of land and buildings; they are still much used in commercial property transactions for that purpose. By contrast, private finance initiatives and similar arrangements are designed primarily to make money for all the intermediaries in a set of parasitical financial relationships, all of which could have been structured just as well and more cheaply with leases.This scandal simply shows how normal it has become to expect to “earn” totally exploitative rewards, without risk or commensurate investment. This is just more evidence of the damaging commodification of land, and how, since financial deregulation, global capital flows graze effortlessly on our local housing markets for the risk-free excess profits they so willingly give up. The economist Martin Wolf rightly calls this “the greatest misallocation of resources imaginable”. Continue reading...

Bank of England’s suggestion that a hike is nearing is risky. Also, how the rising Dow shows Trump is delivering – for the richThe Bank of England speaks like a hawk. It acts like a dove.Those in the City expecting the Old Lady to do what it has not done for a decade – raise interest rates – would have been brought up short by the latest decision of its monetary policy committee. At 6-2 for borrowing costs to remain at 0.25%, the vote wasn’t even close.Related: Bank of England keeps interest rates on hold despite inflation fearsRelated: Dow soars to record high as it crosses 22,000 mark for the first time Continue reading...

Speaking to the Guardian 10 years on from the crash, the Bank of England governor recalls how the crisis played outWhen the financial crisis started in August 2007, the reaction of many of the participants was similar to that of the first world war generals in August 1914: they thought it would all be over by Christmas.Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said that when the markets started to seize up, some of the major players reckoned it was just a blip and that things would soon be back to normal.Related: Britain's finance sector will double in size in 25 years, says Mark CarneyRelated: The day the credit crunch began, 10 years on: 'the world changed' Continue reading...

Bank of England governor predicts financial sector will thrive after Brexit but says there can be no return to the lax pre-2007 regimeThe governor of the Bank of England has predicted that the financial sector could double in size to be 20 times as big as GDP within the next 25 years, but warned that the government must hold its nerve and resist pressure to water down regulation after Brexit.

As Trump reportedly plans to investigate alleged intellectual property and trade abuses, ex-adviser to Beijing warns of lawsuits and other forms of retaliationChina has “all kinds of weapons and ammunition” to fight back against Donald Trump’s “petulant” threat to investigate alleged Chinese intellectual property and trade abuses, a former trade adviser to Beijing has warned.According to some reports, Trump will use a speech at the White House on Friday to announce a wide-ranging trade inquiry targeting Beijing – a move that has received the blessing of senior Democrats, in a rare show of bipartisan solidarity. “We should certainly go after them,” the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, was quoted as saying by Reuters on Thursday.Related: Donald Trump's romance with China's Xi has cooled, 'ass-kicking' could lie aheadRelated: Rex Tillerson: risk of 'open conflict' if US-China relations continue to grate Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the Bank of England’s interest rate decision, and governor Carney’s press conference

After voting to hold interest rates, Bank warns rising prices and weak wage growth will continue to squeeze living standardsBrexit uncertainties have discouraged some firms from awarding pay rises, the Bank of England has said, as it warned that rising prices and weak wage growth would continue to squeeze living standards this year.The Bank’s rate-setting committee voted by 6-2 to leave official borrowing costs at their all-time low of 0.25%, according to minutes from their meeting released on Thursday. But they hinted that rates would have to rise over the coming year to keep inflation in check.Inflation is when prices rise. Deflation is the opposite - price decreases over time - but inflation is far more common.Related: 'It's hard to remember how fraught it was': Mark Carney on the credit crunchRelated: Bank of England leaves interest rates unchanged and cuts growth forecasts - live! Continue reading...

Key players in the drama recall the day that sparked the first UK bank run in 140 years and heralded a global financial crisisThe ninth of August 2007 was the first day of Mervyn King’s holiday. The governor of the Bank of England spent it at Lord’s cricket ground where he was interviewed by the former England cricket captain Michael Atherton. While Lord King was watching the cricket, the French bank BNP Paribas announced it was freezing the assets of hedge funds that were heavily exposed to the US sub-prime mortgage market.It was the first and last day of King’s holiday. He would not have another for several years. Within six weeks, members of the Bank’s court – its oversight body – were being whisked into the back entrance of Threadneedle Street in a people carrier with blacked-out windows to be told that money was haemorrhaging out of Northern Rock. Continue reading...

Countries that close themselves off to foreign competition eventually lose their edge, with innovation, jobs and growth sufferingAs US and European political leaders fret about the future of quality jobs, they would do well to look at the far bigger problems faced by developing Asia – problems that threaten to place massive downward pressure on global wages. In India, where per capita income is roughly a tenth that of the US, more than 10 million people a year are leaving the countryside and pouring into urban areas, and they often cannot find work even as chaiwalas, much less as computer programmers. The same angst that Americans and Europeans have about the future of jobs is an order of magnitude higher in Asia.

IFS says increased UK state pension age is lifting earnings from employment but only partially offsetting reduced incomes from other benefitsMore than a million women are worse off by an average of £32 a week under changes to the state pension age and poor households are being hit the hardest, according to analysis by a leading independent thinktank.The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) also highlighted a significant boost to the public finances from the government’s move to lift the pension age for women from 60 to 63 between 2010 and 2016. Continue reading...

Economic thinktank NIESR predicts boom in exports and higher wages will lead to GDP growth of nearly 2% and interest rate riseBritain’s economy will surge back to life in the next six months following its slow start this year, a leading forecaster has predicted, prompting the Bank of England to raise interest rates next spring – more than a year earlier than its previous projection.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said a boom in exports after the fall in the pound and a return to bumper wage rises next year would be enough to increase GDP growth to almost 2% and convince the central bank to increase the cost of borrowing. Continue reading...

Euro area’s recovery continues as GDP accelerates and factory output remains strong

Property values rise slightly for the second month in a row even as transactions and mortgage approvals declineA shortage of homes for sale has kept house prices rising despite falling consumer incomes and political uncertainty, according to Nationwide.

Eurozone steals a march on Britain after Brexit vote, with faster GDP growth and falling unemployment rates

Legal reports | Scandal-hit headlines | Fast-food shutdown | Viking inheritance | Time-travelling correspondent? | Smallest carnivoresI would like to suggest that, when reporting on the outcome of court cases – particularly contentious or high profile ones such as that recently involving Charlie Gard, or the employment fees decision in the supreme court, but really more generally – you should provide a link (online and in print editions) to the location of the actual judgment on the web (most of them being available on the BAILII database fairly promptly after handing down). That way, people could more easily read the actual decision themselves, inform themselves of the actual issues and evidence the judge heard and took into account, and thus better appreciate the result arrived at. That might avoid much of the misinformed discussion – thinking in particular of the Charlie Gard case – that takes place “below the line” and otherwise online.

Rating agency fears that credit card and buy-to-let losses will rise, as UK economy weakens and consumer borrowing keeps climbing

Bank reports big rise in half-year profits to $10.2bn as chairman Douglas Flint calls for global regulation to keep markets safeThe outgoing chairman of Britain’s biggest bank, HSBC, has called for an overhaul of financial crime detection as he sounded the alarm over the impact of Brexit and attempts to fragment global financial regulation.Douglas Flint’s warning came as HSBC reported a 5% rise in first half profits to $10.2bn (£7.8bn) and announced a $2bn share buy-back – propelling the shares to a four year high. Continue reading...

Robert Halfon warns of impact to working families as chancellor Philip Hammond reportedly considers more levies on fuel, food and pensionsA Tory MP and former minister who has been a cheerleader for so-called “blue-collar Conservatism” has warned against any tax rises that would hit working families.Robert Halfon spoke out after it emerged that the chancellor, Philip Hammond, was considering additional levies on fuel, homes and pension relief as a way of plugging the hole in public finances.Related: While Hammond looks for a magic money tree, Labour has found one | Larry ElliottHope #Budget fuel duty rise not on cards.Would mean significant costs to motorists & small businesses: https://t.co/4lAINpnwUl @FairFuelUK pic.twitter.com/awgoUrZxYjRelated: Treasury will need to plug gap in tax as drivers switch to electric cars Continue reading...

The Greek government says the country has turned a corner, but that is not the experience of people on the ground“The worst is clearly behind us.” Panaghiota Mourtidou pondered the words with a gravity unusual for the jovial volunteer. Even now, several days after the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, saw fit to use the phrase, she still feels somewhat bewildered. “Politicians clearly have no idea of the reality on the ground,” she said. “If they did, they wouldn’t make such pronouncements because, really, it couldn’t be worse.”It is four years since the Guardian met Mourtidou packing food boxes at the Solidarity Club which she and other concerned citizens were running out of the local branch of Tsipras’s then radical Syriza party. At the time, the leftist was an ardent fan of the only political force she truly believed could pull Greece from the depths of financial collapse.Related: Greece's €3bn bond sale doesn't mean its debt crisis is at an end | Nils PratleyRelated: The Guardian view on Europe’s new politics: all change | Editorial Continue reading...

Only after the second world war did average growth top 2%. We must prepare for a fight to benefit from meagre spoilsThere have been periods in the past in which the Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged for a long time. In 1719, official borrowing costs were raised from 4% to 5%, where they remained during the South Sea bubble, the seven years’ war, the loss of the American colonies, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. In 1822, Seven years after the Battle of Waterloo, the Bank decided it was again time to act and reduced rates to their level of 103 years earlier.By comparison with their 18th and early 19th century forbears, the current crop of policymakers in Threadneedle Street are positively hasty. Rates were cut to 0.5% in March 2009 and left there for a mere seven-and-a-half years. A year ago, in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, they were reduced to 0.25%. And there they are likely to stay. Continue reading...

Analysis from economic consultancy Oxera says cost to UK of new customs checks and ensuing delays could amount to more than £1bn a yearBritain will be hit by huge border delays, require vast lorry parks in the south-east, and suffer more than £1bn a year in economic damage, according to a stark economic analysis of the likely impact of customs checks after Brexit.Additional costs associated with potential motorway queues, extra customs staff and jobs lost as a result of companies relocating mean even that assessment is “extremely conservative”, a study by a leading economic consultancy warns.The border is a tax point, not a search point – with digital borders, customs clearance can be managed very quickly. Continue reading...

The founder of Alibaba, one of the world’s biggest online retailers, made the promise at a pre-inauguration meeting with Donald TrumpJack Ma was destined to live an ordinary life. He failed the Chinese university entrance exam several times before being accepted by the worst school in Hangzhou, and he was rejected from a dozen jobs – even selling chicken at KFC. Ma was ready to settle into a quiet life as an English teacher in eastern China, a position with few advancement prospects, when, during a trip to Seattle in 1995 working as a translator for a trade delegation, everything changed.A friend showed Ma the internet. He placed a toe on to the information superhighway with a one-word search – “beer” – and, two decades later, Ma is the richest man in Asia, head of an e-commerce and finance empire that includes Alibaba, one of the largest retailers in the world.Trump doesn't care about anything that's not huge. Ma figured 1 million is a good number to get his attentionGovernment findings showed that more than 70% of goods in a random sample on Taobao were fake Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron new dawn may be a false one, but at least his country has some industry, a decent education system and no Brexit bindThe French economy is growing at the same pace the UK managed in 2016 and looks set to maintain it for the rest of the year. Growth for the second quarter was 0.5% and 1.8% over the past year. Meanwhile the UK is shuffling along in the slow lane, up just 0.3% between April and June.Does the reversal of fortunes tell us that France has found its mojo while the UK has done worse than let its foot slip off the accelerator? Continue reading...

Harold Wilson was not a Europhile, but a clear-eyed realist. Jeremy Corbyn could learn much from the story of the 1975 referendumWhat have David Cameron (Tory prime minister, 2010-16), and Harold Wilson (Labour prime minister, 1964-70 and 1974-76) got in common?Answer: in order to keep their respective parties together, because they were split over “Europe”, each of them called a referendum. Wilson triumphed, and went down in history as a consummate politician, indeed statesman. Cameron failed lamentably, and his mishandling of this vital issue is sometimes described as the biggest prime ministerial disaster brought upon the nation since Lord North lost the American colonies. Continue reading...

The Bank of England has issued a notably strong warning about consumer debt. There is a real risk of a second bust less than a decade after the previous oneBritain is on a consumer credit binge. Over the past year, growth per head of population has increased by 1% while the amount consumers have racked up – on their credit cards, on car finance and in unsecured personal loans – has increased by 10%.This is a matter of concern for the Bank of England, and rightly so. As Alex Brazier, the Bank’s director in charge of financial stability, put it last week, we have seen this movie before – and it doesn’t have a happy ending. Continue reading...

In the Northamptonshire town, charities and council workers face the daily consequences of the rising spiral of borrowing sweeping across the UKCorby in Northamptonshire has taken on a few notable titles over the years. It has been dubbed “Little Scotland” to reflect the Scottish workers who flooded in during the last century for jobs in its now defunct steelworks. More recently, Corby emerged as the fastest-growing borough outside London, its population now swelled by EU migrants and young workers commuting to London.Last week, the East Midlands town had the dubious honour of topping a new list. Amid the latest warnings around Britons’ growing reliance on borrowing, Corby was named the personal loans capital of Britain. Continue reading...

All the day’s economic and financial news, as new growth reports show that the UK is lagging behind advanced rivals in 2017

Key economic adviser, known for helping keep UK out of euro, replaces Charlotte Hogg and will have seat on MPCPhilip Hammond has filled the vacancy on the Bank of England’s interest rate setting committee left by the departure of Charlotte Hogg, following the appointment of Sir David Ramsden as the central bank’s new deputy governor.The chancellor said Sir David, who is the Treasury’s chief economic adviser, would take up the role as deputy governor of markets and banking, making him Threadneedle Street’s eyes and ears on the banking sector while also giving him a position on the nine-strong monetary policy committee (MPC). Continue reading...

It doesn’t matter how slick the messaging or how outrageous the claims by the Liberals, reality has a habit of thumping discourse every timeMy colleague, Greg Jericho, is dead right. Bill Shorten’s inequality pitch sure has “rustled the jimmies” of Australia’s conservatives. It should. When the facts are in, and the facts are bad, they can be very frightening.The facts in this instance are twofold.Related: Bill Shorten's inequality pitch has rustled the jimmies of conservatives | Greg JerichoRelated: Wage fraud will continue until politicians stop it. They can – but will they? | Josh Bornstein Continue reading...

Readers respond to Britain’s latest clean air plan and the ban on all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040So, the government is committed to banning all diesel and petrol cars by 2040 (Report, 26 July). Has it considered the wider impacts?Power stations will face huge peak-time demand when drivers charge vehicles overnight. Can they cope? Will we face increased electricity charges? Continue reading...