The latest monthly Guardian analysis finds a spending slowdown and article 50 jitters pointing to a challenging year• Help fund our journalism by becoming a Guardian supporterThe pressure on the pound from Britain’s vote to leave the EU is stoking inflation, denting household finances and putting a brake on spending, according to a Guardian analysis.Official figures this week are expected to confirm the economy enjoyed a strong finish to 2016 as companies and consumers continued to shrug off the shock of the Brexit vote. But signs of a spending slowdown, corporate jitters around the triggering of article 50 and rising prices point to a more challenging growth outlook in 2017.Related: How has the Brexit vote affected the UK economy? January verdictRelated: 'It's a crisis that keeps on hurting' - experts debate Brexit watch data Continue reading...

How has the economy reacted to the vote to leave the EU? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/series/brexit-data-snapshot">Each month</a> we look at key indicators to see what effect the Brexit process has on growth, prosperity and trade in the UK Continue reading...

Despite spending the world’s second-largest amount on automation, Australian companies are not ready for robots – or for retraining staffA survey of business leaders has found Australian companies are the worst prepared for the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies among selected major economies, despite spending the second-largest amount of money on automation.

Donald Trump is right to dump the 12-nation trade pact – for all the wrong reasonsIn tone and substance Donald Trump is a divider, not a unifier. His grating bombast at last Friday’s inauguration presaged a few days of overbearing, preening speeches that have alienated sceptics and enthralled supporters. The new US president is intent on pressing the buttons of his electoral base by peddling crude nationalism. He’s not building bridges, but walls. Such sentiments lace President Trump’s pronouncements on trade in which he – and his advisers – appear to hold pungent views, infused with a distinctly late-19th-century scent of economic nationalist politics. It’s often forgotten that the Republican party discarded what remained of its anti-slavery and free-trade roots to become the party of protectionism in the 1880s. But not by Mr Trump. Like his predecessors of yesteryear the president views the world as being at perpetual war – whether economically with other nations or militarily with “radical Islam” – and espouses a doctrine that combines protectionism with coercive foreign market expansion to secure regionalised economic integration.Yet on one narrow issue, President Trump is right. Withdrawing the United States from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership is a good move. Conventional thinking is that trade allows nations to gain by doing what they do best and importing the rest. However, recent decades of US-championed globalisation have left a country with record weak productivity and ballooning wealth inequalities, with one in eight working-age men outside the labour force. President Trump stokes and taps this rage at the machine. Barack Obama did make efforts to make elements of trade justice – such as fairer labour and environmental rights – part of the Asian trade pact. But this was undone in the TPP by giving the right to corporates to sue often poorly financed governments in private international tribunals when they believe government regulations, including environmental ones, contravene the pact’s terms. Continue reading...

Thinktank warns over planned tax cuts and infrastructure investment as Congressional Budget Office says current spending plan will add $10tn to debtDonald Trump’s tax-cutting and spending plans could add another $6tn to the US public debt over the next 10 years, independent budget analysts have calculated, as the Congressional Budget Office warned the US’s current spending plans alone could trigger a financial crisis.

Writer and professor, Ashley Dawson, argues in his new book that capitalism is behind our current mass extinction crisis. But installing universal guaranteed income in biodiversity hotspots may be one remedy.

In the teeth of recession, a spirit of entrepreneurialism can take hold. Firms explain how they found opportunities in tough times“The financial crisis was a great time for startups,” says Vikas Shah, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, and adviser to the UK government.

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

All the day’s economic and financial news, as Donald Trump’s protectionist approach alarms the markets.

Prime minister’s offer of support to five key sectors will exploit post-Brexit lifting of EU state aid rulesTheresa May is to signal an era of greater state intervention in the economy as she launches her industrial strategy with a promise of “sector deals”, a new system of technical education and better infrastructure.The prime minister will publish the strategy at a cabinet meeting in the north-west of England, naming five sectors that could receive special government support: life sciences, low-carbon-emission vehicles, industrial digitalisation, the creative sector and nuclear industry.Related: 'Northern powerhouse' to get £556m boost amid warnings of east-west divideRelated: Hurrah for the industrial strategy. At last Britain has a plan Continue reading...

A true march of the makers will turn the tables on our abusive consumer culture and deliver the richer relationship with ‘stuff’ that our economy is crying out forMaterialism has become synonymous with consumerism – wasteful, debt-fuelled and ultimately unsatisfying. But what if we’ve not been looking in the wrong place for happiness, and we’ve just got the relationship badly wrong? Like an abusive relationship, we voraciously acquire things we barely use to fill acres of storage space while underpaid workers sleep in tents outside warehouses that feed our seemingly insatiable desire for more. There must be a better way.This is a vital step if we are to find ways for everyone to thrive while living within environmental meansRelated: The big orange shed that holds the key to Britain’s economic recovery | Aditya Chakrabortty Continue reading...

Growth figures this week are expected to confirm resilience of UK economy. But weaker sterling and higher inflation will dent that, warn economistsOfficial figures this week are expected to provide fresh evidence that the UK economy remained resilient in the face of Brexit uncertainty at the close of 2016 but economists warn Britain is headed for a sharp slowdown this year.

Advances in artificial intelligence mean a second wave of change is approaching – and it is not the low-paid service sector where jobs are most at riskGuy Ryder is an old hand at Davos. The director general of the International Labour Organisation has seen it all: the years when the global business elite is brimful of confidence and the years, such as 2017, when the top 1% of the top 1% is fretful.Ryder detected parallels with 2009, when the global economy seemed to be heading for a second Great Depression. Eight years ago, the attendees were shaken by the banking collapse but showed little contrition. This year, they were alarmed by the populist anger that was evident in Brexit and Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House but couldn’t really understand why it was happening.This second group has sniffed the way the wind is blowing. Studies have shown that technological change rather than trade has been responsible for the vast majority of the jobs lost in manufacturing in the developed world. Put simply, machines have replaced humans. Robots have taken over factories. Continue reading...

Consumption - of cars, flights and more - is how most people measure progress, and campaigners must concentrate on reducing the harm this does. Back-to-nature idealism will surely failUrging people to stop consuming stuff in order to slow the rate of climate change is a gambit that is doomed to fail. It would be helpful if shoppers put off buying a suit or installing a new kitchen, but it’s not going to happen. Demonising those who fly to Barcelona for a long weekend is another tactic that will have almost no impact.It’s not for nothing that economists base many of their assumptions on populations having unlimited wants. Most people strain to acquire stuff that the rich have long taken for granted. Telling them to switch off this desire has never worked and is unlikely to do so now, even when the future of the planet is at stake. Continue reading...

Some in Whitehall were wary about the government showing its hand on industry. But next week’s policy unveiling will provide a welcome focusThe government is this week scheduled to unveil its industrial strategy for Britain. It promises to be a fascinating document. Although this industrial strategy has received far less publicity than Brexit, it could have a more significant long-term impact on Britain then leaving the European Union. But that impact depends on the government not only producing a substantial plan but also sticking to it over years and parliaments, which will not be an easy task.Until Theresa May made her speech on Brexit last week, there were growing fears in the business world that the industrial strategy could be a damp squib. It is understood that there have been splits within government about how detailed the industrial strategy should be – because of fears that it could show Britain’s hand too early in negotiations with the EU on Brexit. Continue reading...

Donald Trump is actually giving Mexican workers more reason to head to the US, not lessIn Mexico it is known as “el efecto Trump”: a barrage of taunts and tweets that rattle the economy and hammer the peso. For the new president, it is part of a strategy to pressure companies to move jobs back to the United States. Mexico’s job will be to suck it up, accept the millions of people Trump has promised to deport, and pay for the proposed border wall.Reality may soon disrupt this vision because Donald Trump, in one of the first great ironies of his presidency, has given impoverished Mexicans more reason to migrate to the US.The more jobs you destroy in Mexico, the more immigrants the American people will have.Think a little!Related: Ford cancels plans for Mexico plant as Donald Trump threatens to tax GM Continue reading...

Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross are competent and knowledgable – they just don’t sound like they will lead the type of upheaval that Trump promised“We are transferring power … back to you, the people,” Donald Trump told the nation on Friday. “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.” Not any more, he pledged.Well, now the work begins, and last week we got the first chance to see the men, Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, most charged with fulfilling Trump’s vow.Related: 'American carnage': Trump's vision casts shadow over day of pageantryRelated: Inside Trump Treasury nominee's past life as 'foreclosure king' of California Continue reading...

Conservative councillors want to raise council tax by 15%. So why aren’t Labour and the Lib Dems more enthusiastic?The people of Surrey have been invited to show the rest of Britain what they are made of. Sugar? Spice? All things nice? Either way, the leader of the county’s Conservative council, David Hodge, has done something politically bold and worthy of national attention.Related: Surrey confirms plans to raise council tax by 15%Related: Liverpool plans referendum on 10% council tax rise Continue reading...

UK chancellor tells WEF that Britain will reinvent itself if it has to, as Davos ends with comments from veteran diplomat Henry Kissinger

GDP growth improved to 6.8% but only after a 19% increase in public investment and a lighter touch on real estate borrowing

With fears about the Trump presidency, rising debt levels and an unwinding property boom, the world’s No 2 economy is set for an uncertain 2017China’s economy slowed further last year to expand at its weakest pace for quarter of a century, with warnings that it risks losing further momentum in 2017 as Donald Trump’s presidency creates new challenges for the trading superpower.The world’s second-largest economy grew 6.7% last year, according to China’s statistics office, meeting Beijing’s target range of 6.5-7% but the slowest growth since 1990.Related: My new year forecast: Trumpian uncertainty, and lots of it Continue reading...

This week two big banks, HSBC and UBS, honoured their threats about moving jobs from the UK. The grim reality is ‘hard’ Brexit will be tough for many of usThe tumult and the shouting dies. From hysterical prediction slowly emerges the grim reality. Now the prospect comes into view that the remainers’ Project Fear might just have been true after all. They just got the timing wrong.Related: Goldman Sachs stalls plan to move jobs to UK amid Brexit uncertaintyRelated: Is the City of London going to hell in a Brexit handcart? Continue reading...

Study shows all governments need to play a greater role in restructuring mining sector to compensate for automation effectsFrom a distance, everything looks normal at Rio Tinto’s Yandicoogina and Nammuldi mines in Pilbara, Western Australia. Huge trucks trundle along the mines’ reddish-brown terraced sides laden with high-grade iron ore. Back and forth, almost endlessly.Watch for long enough, however, and you’ll see that no-one ever steps out of the cab. No lunch stops. No toilet breaks. No change of shift. That’s because these house-sized trucks are being remotely operated by ‘drivers’ based 1,200 kilometres away in Perth.Related: Mining, manufacturing and fruit picking: can automation save Mackay jobs?Related: Revealed: Rio Tinto's plan to use drones to monitor workers' private livesRelated: Can democracy survive the fourth industrial revolution? Should it?Related: Revealed: Rio Tinto's plan to use drones to monitor workers' private lives Continue reading...

We’ve launched an all-party group, with leading thinkers from across society, to reject the flawed orthodoxy of shareholder value and trickle-down economicsThe debate taking place between the snow-topped peaks of Davos this week will be dominated by one issue and one issue alone, the surge in inequality. In a democracy, anger isn’t abstract. As both the vote for Brexit and the election of Donald Trump show, it turns up on polling day.In the US, new research shows that in the rust-belt states an incredible 40% of those born in 1980 are worse off than their parents. Here in the UK the gender pay gap still looms large – and as the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed, there has been a four-fold increase in the number of men in low-paid, part-time work over the last 20 years. This represents a stark betrayal of the implicit intergenerational contract of the postwar years – that each successive generation would be better off than the preceding one. And that betrayal is by no means confined to the post-industrial interior of the US; it is in danger of becoming the social and economic condition of our age.Related: Bleak trend of low, part-time wages in UK is revealedRelated: It's time to target the top end of town and the obscene profits of the super-rich | Helen Szoke Continue reading...

PM says world’s biggest firms must pay taxes and treat workers fairly, and market forces alone will not deliver for peopleTheresa May has told the world’s biggest companies they need to start paying their taxes and treat their workers more fairly in order to address the concerns of those who feel left behind by globalisation.In a keynote speech to the World Economic Forum, the prime minister said governments could not rely on international market forces to deliver prosperity for everyone and action was needed to address the “deeply felt sense of economic inequality that has emerged in recent years”.Related: Davos 2017: Theresa May says globalisation must work for everyone - liveRelated: EU politicians and businesses warn May over 'difficult' BrexitRelated: This is Brexit poker - and Theresa May was right to up the stakes | Simon Jenkins Continue reading...

The perception that the president-elect is a business genius and too much focus on the Dow Jones have led to excessive optimismSpeculative markets have always been vulnerable to illusion. But seeing the folly in markets provides no clear advantage in forecasting outcomes, because changes in the force of the illusion are difficult to predict.In the US, two illusions have been important recently in financial markets. One is the carefully nurtured perception that President-elect Donald Trump is a business genius who can apply his deal-making skills to make America great again.Related: Trump is a conservative – but that won't stop him sending deficits soaring Continue reading...

International trade secretary says ‘dozens of countries’ are preparing to expand trading links with UK once it has left EUThe UK is already discussing informal trade deals with at least 12 countries, despite being notionally prevented from striking deals while still a member of the EU, according to Liam Fox’s international trade department.Related: Theresa May's Brexit wishlist – Politics Weekly podcastRelated: We’re not out to punish Britain, but you need to shed your illusions | Guy Verhofstadt Continue reading...

British foreign secretary evokes dark period of French history as he warns François Hollande against trying to hurt UKDowning Street was forced to come to the defence of the foreign secretary Boris Johnson after he warned the French president, François Hollande, not to respond to Brexit by trying to “administer punishment beatings” in the manner of “some world war two movie”.The foreign secretary evoked the darkest period of France’s recent history as he rejected comments by an adviser to Hollande who said Britain should not expect a better trading relationship outside Europe than it currently enjoys inside.Related: Britain's Brexit deal must be inferior to EU membership, MEPs told - Politics liveYet more abhorrent & deeply unhelpful comments from @BorisJohnson which PM May should condemn. https://t.co/GdVQh0AMX1People "offended" by The Foreign Secretary's comments today are humourless, deliberately obtuse, snowflakes-it's a witty metaphor #getalifeRelated: MPs will not block May's deal for UK to leave EU, says David Davis Continue reading...

As many people suspected, and as is becoming more and more obvious, the UK, with its sweatshop economy, weak productivity and huge trade deficit, is going to find itself in very chilly waters after we leave the EU (‘Unsettled’ Brexit will hit UK growth, 17 January). If we succeed in making trade treaties they will mostly be on very unfavourable terms, as we will be on the weak side in most cases (especially with China, the US and the EU). It also becomes more and more obvious that in order to achieve even unfavourable terms we will have to submit to being dominated by big international companies, which will lead to the reintroduction of TTIP-style disputes procedures, a bonfire of labour and environmental protections and policies only acceptable to the hard right of the Conservative party. Brexit is wrong and dangerous: the only way forward is to reverse it.

Rolling coverage of the second day of the World Economic Forum in Davos

Prof Ted Malloch, tipped to be American ambassador to EU, says The Art of the Deal reveals how president-elect’s mind worksThe US academic tipped to be Donald Trump’s ambassador to the EU has told British government advisers they should read the president-elect’s business book The Art of the Deal before starting trade negotiations with the US.Prof Ted Malloch, a long-time supporter of Trump who will fly out on Wednesday to attend his inauguration, is understood to have been speaking to Downing Street staff after Theresa May’s speech on leaving the EU. Continue reading...

The announcement that parliament will get a vote on a final deal was welcome. But the prime minister’s speech does nothing to lift the fog of uncertaintyThe big fear with Theresa May’s Brexit speech was that the pound would tank and that the markets would respond as negatively as they had to most of her previous utterances. The opposite happened, and it rose to $1.24, up almost 3% on the day, after it had already risen on Tuesday morning on news that inflation had reached a two-year high (it fell back a cent today).The news that the markets welcomed so warmly was that both houses of parliament would get a vote on the final deal and that May will not seek partial or associate membership of the European Union. That will prevent a bad deal, forced through by the Brexit-at-any-price Eurosceptics, which might have been on the cards without such a vote. Continue reading...

IMF head wins support from outgoing US vice-president Joe Biden as she uses American term for working people in demanding action over rising inequalityThe head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has called for urgent action to tackle a “middle-class crisis” hitting working people as she warned that inequality, distrust and a lack of hope were fuelling growing populism.Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Lagarde said she had first highlighted the dangers of rising inequality four years ago but had been ignored. “I hope people will listen now,” she said.Related: Davos 2017: Joe Biden calls on richest 1% to pull their weight, and criticises Russia - live updates Continue reading...

Rightwing writers, ranging from conservative to lunatic fringe across all genres, have long been a lucrative books market. Will the new era see it grow?He compares feminism to cancer, called transgender people “retarded” and once labelled a BuzzFeed reporter a “thick-as-pig-shit media Jew”. So when “alt-right” figurehead Milo Yiannopoulos, who relentlessly delights in wild provocation, landed a $250,000 (£203,000) book deal with Simon & Schuster, the publisher understandably – and almost immediately – issued a statement distancing itself from the views of the writers they publish: “The opinions expressed therein belong to our authors, and do not reflect either a corporate viewpoint or the views of our employees.”Related: UK publishers shy away from 'alt-right' star Milo Yiannopoulos Continue reading...

Fewer people are in work and wage growth has slowed, latest figures showBritain’s labour market showed signs of slowing in November as the number of people in work declined and wage growth slowed for the first time since August.The number of people in employment fell by 9,000 to 31.8 million while month-on-month wage growth, including bonuses, dropped from 2.9% to 2.8%.Related: Pound soars but FTSE falls after Theresa May's Brexit speech Continue reading...

Trade has led to higher living standards in Asia and elsewhere. Are globalisation’s critics against eradicating global poverty?I was recently in beautiful Chile for a Futures Congress, and I had a chance to travel south to the very tip of Latin America. I also recently made a BBC radio documentary called Fixing Globalisation, in which I criss-crossed the UK in search of ideas for improving certain aspects of it and discussed topical issues with well-known experts. In both cases, I saw things that convinced me that it is past time for someone to come to globalisation’s defence.Chile today is Latin America’s richest country, with per capita GDP of about $23,000 – similar to that of central European countries. This is quite an achievement for a country that depends so heavily on copper production, and it sets Chile apart from many of its neighbours. Like many other countries, Chile is facing economic challenges, and its growth rate leaves something to be desired; but it also has many promising opportunities beyond its borders.Related: Xi Jinping signals China will champion free trade if Trump builds barriers Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos

Trump and Farage have harnessed public rage at gross inequality. Beating them means closing the wealth gapA good measure of the topsy-turviness of our political economy could be found at Davostoday. As the billionaires gathered for the World Economic Forum, the toast of the Alps was Xi Jinping. The first Chinese president ever to address the summit, his speech this morning was bound to be a big moment. Just as striking, though, was what Mr Xi said. The general secretary of the Communist party of China launched into an eloquent defence of openness and free markets. It was, as several observers remarked, the kind of speech one might expect to come from an American president. Except the US president-elect, Donald Trump, will not be popping in to Switzerland this week and won his new job partly because of his protectionism. He was at it again this week, threatening BMW with swingeing import tariffs if it followed plans to build a new plant in Mexico, rather than America. It did not sound like an empty threat.What’s going on here? One answer lies in the inequality statistics published this week by Oxfam, which show that eight men, six of them American, own as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest people in the world. To quote Bernie Sanders: “If that’s not insanity I don’t know what is.” Extreme economics breeds extreme politics: the campaigns for Brexit and Mr Trump both harnessed anger at the vast gap between the super-rich and the rest of society. One of the ironies of this anti-elitist politics is that it has been spearheaded by people who would normally count as part of an elite. Mr Trump is a billionaire property developer, Nigel Farage is an alumnus of Dulwich college who worked in the City. These people are effectively squatting a space in forward-looking politics – a space that has gone almost unoccupied by the political mainstream. Continue reading...

Sterling makes biggest one-day gain against dollar since 1998, but analysts say rally likely to be temporaryThe pound has clocked up its biggest one-day gain against the dollar since 1998 as traders seized on Theresa May’s pledge that parliament would vote on any Brexit deal and welcomed some clarity on the government’s plans for leaving the EU.The FTSE 100 headed in the other direction, recording its biggest daily fall since the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote in June. The share index has been boosted for several months by the fall in the pound, which helps exporters and those companies with overseas earnings, and some of that effect was unwound on Tuesday as the pound jumped almost 3%.Related: What do business leaders think of Theresa May's Brexit speech? Continue reading...

The two-year window in which pay rises briefly outstripped inflation is well and truly over. Time to brace for higher prices and static wagesInflation is about to do at home what currency movements have done to your holiday money abroad – devalue the pound in your pocket.Rising air fares, more expensive food and a bump in the cost of fuel at the pumps pushed inflation to 1.6% in December, effectively ending a brief two-year period when wages outstripped price rises by a wide margin.Related: UK inflation hits two-year high at 1.6%Related: Apple increases App Store prices by 25% following Brexit vote Continue reading...

US president-elect’s protectionism and populism stir debate and soul-searching as a sense of change fills the Alpine airHamlet without the prince. That, bluntly, is how Davos feels this year.The usual caravan of business leaders, academics, clerics, journalists and celebs has trekked up into the high Alps for their annual January get-together, but the man everyone is talking about is 3,000 miles away awaiting his inauguration in Washington later this week.Related: Davos 2017: Chinese president Xi defends globalisation - live updates Continue reading...

Air fares, imported raw materials, food and petrol price rises plus Brexit-fuelled fall in pound will squeeze family finances in 2017Inflation has jumped to the highest rate for two-and-a-half years, hitting 1.6% as the pound’s sharp drop since the Brexit vote continues to push up costs in the UK.Official figures for December showed air fares, food prices and fuel all helped to drive the rise from 1.2% in November. The December rate, as measured on the consumer prices index (CPI), was the highest since July 2014 and higher than forecasts for 1.4% in a Reuters poll of economists.Related: UK inflation: now it's the pound in your pocket being devaluedRelated: UK economy is overheating and veering towards stagflationRelated: Davos 2017: Chinese president Xi and Trump adviser speak – Day One live Continue reading...

The president elect praises Brexit, cosies up to Putin and promises to take an axe to Nato and established trading systems. Prepare for a remake of the 1930sWho still wants to bemoan the demise of the “special relationship”? Enter Donald Trump, Britain’s latest best friend. “I think Brexit is going to end up being a great thing,” he assured the UK by way of the Times on Monday. Then he held out a big, juicy bone to Theresa May – a trade deal with the United States. “We’re gonna work very hard to get it done quickly, good for both sides.”Related: Trump doesn’t let facts get in the way of immigration scare stories. He’s not alone | Diane TaylorDoes this sound like a remake of the 1920s and 1930s? It does Continue reading...

Governor says consumers are powering economy through Brexit uncertainty but debt is increasingThe Bank of England is keeping a close watch on consumer spending amid signs households are dipping into their savings and amassing debts to keep spending in the face of rising inflation.Mark Carney, the Bank governor, said consumer spending had held up since last summer’s vote to leave the EU but he reiterated a warning that living costs were likely to rise on the back of a weak pound and squeeze households’ real incomes.Related: UK credit binge approaching levels not seen since 2008 crash Continue reading...

Soup kitchens have sprung up to provide meals for some of the estimated 3.5 million children officially living in poverty in one of world’s richest countries

As David Marquand points out, the UK is a multinational state and two parts of it, Scotland and Northern Ireland, voted to remain in the European UnionDavid Marquand asserts that “there is no such place as Britain” (How can Britain exit the EU? Britain doesn’t really exist, 13 January). If Britain is not a nation, to what nation does the “national” refer in “National Rail”, “National Trust”, “national debt” etc? No Welsh embassy, Scottish passport, Northern Irish armed force, or English international dialling code exists. All nations are artificial, invented constructs. The UK is no less a country than each of its constituent nations.It is perfectly possible for a nation state to be multinational. Marquand calls France a nation state, yet nationalist Bretons assert their own national identity. Basques and Catalans constitute different national groups but there is no doubt that the Kingdom of Spain, like the United Kingdom, is itself a country. Continue reading...

Less money, fewer teachers, little transparency and almost no accountability. A child’s education is too important for thisThe last few weeks have been all about the NHS crisis, but new figures published today reveal the stark cash situation facing schools in England. Forty nine out of every 50 schools, according to research by the Association of School and College Leaders and the Secondary Heads Association, will see a real-term per pupil funding fall between now and 2020; some schools lose up to 17% of their per pupil funding. That is the sharpest cut to schools’ budgets since the 1970s. The scale of today’s problem was illustrated last month by the National Audit Office, which showed the average secondary academy is in the red by more than £350,000.Education lacks the immediate warning lights of health: hospitals being forced to divert ambulances, cancel cancer operations and treat patients on trolleys in corridors. But these funding pressures are no less damaging than those facing the health service. They jeopardise the significant progress made in recent decades: nine out of 10 schools are now rated as good or outstanding. Without a sensible settlement inequalities will widen. Most notably, there is huge geographic imbalance in school quality. Children living in London have a far better chance of attending a good school than in Liverpool, where almost half of schools are inadequate or “require improvement”. In the northern powerhouse of Manchester the figure is one in three. This is a fundamental issue for social mobility. Continue reading...

FTSE 100 ends record 14-day winning streak as Theresa May prepares to make speech unveiling plansThe pound fell again on Monday – dipping below $1.20 at one point – as concern mounted that the UK was heading for a “hard” Brexit from the European Union and its single market, a day before a speech by Theresa May on the government’s plans.Some newspapers have billed the prime minister’s speech on Tuesday as a push away from preferential EU single market access and a hardening of the UK’s stance toward an economic bloc that accounts for roughly half its exports and imports.Related: Norway’s $885bn-nil advantage in Britain’s sea of social troubles Continue reading...

Performance better than expected, fund says as it cuts 2018 outlook and cites Trump protectionism as risk to global economyThe International Monetary Fund has upgraded its forecasts for the UK economy this year after the latest signs that businesses and consumers have shrugged off the Brexit vote.Unveiling its new forecasts on the eve of a key speech by Theresa May on the Brexit process, the Washington-based fund also cut the outlook for 2018, reflecting widespread uncertainty over Britain’s future outside the EU.Related: Sterling skids to three-month low on hard Brexit concerns Continue reading...