Britain to hike national minimum wage beginning October
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – More than 890,000 British workers are expected to benefit from a recommendation from the Low Pay Commission to hike the national minimum wage beginning October. The new rates, which ministers have approved, are $9.96 (GBP 6.08) per hour for adult workers and $8.16 (GBP 4.98) for youth workers aged 18 to 20.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said the salary adjustment reflects the present economic uncertainty, but provides protection to the country’s lowest-paid employees. Low Pay Commission Chairman David Norgrove said the new rates provide a proper balance between the financial needs of the low-paid workers and challenges faced by businesses.
British Chambers of Commerce Director General David Frost disagreed with the pay adjustment, announced by the commission Thursday. Instead of hiking the wage of those who have jobs, Frost said the government should have given higher priority to providing employment to jobless Britons.
Wages for 16- to 17-year old workers will also go up to $6.03 (GBP 3.68) and for apprentices to $4.26 (GBP 2.60) an hour.
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Iceland to repay Britain $3.45 billion debt due to Icesave Bank failure
Reykjavik, Iceland (AHN) – Iceland will start repaying a $3.45 billion (EUR 2.6 billion) from Britain in 2016. Reykjavik owed the amount to London after the online Icesave Bank failed two years ago.
The agreement to repay ends two years of dispute over interest rates between the two countries after Iceland’s financial system collapsed in October 2008. Following the failure of Icesave’s parent company Landsbanki, the U.K. treasury had to bail out 300,000 British depositors, including 108 English, Scottish and Welsh councils that have high-interest accounts in Icesave.
The International Monetary Fund also extended a $2 billion loan, while Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark provided another $2.5 billion loan to Iceland.
According to the European Economic Area regulations, Iceland was supposed to pay each account holder $29,158 (EUR 22,000), but because of the financial straits in Iceland, Britain and the Netherlands offered the country a loan. Landsbanki also had a number of Dutch depositors.
Icelandic and British officials initially agreed a year ago to set the interest rate at 5 percent. However, 93 percent of Iceland residents rejected the agreement because they considered the interest rate too high.
The new agreement sets interest rate between 3 percent for the Netherlands and 3.3 percent for Britain on repayments from 2009 to 2016. The debt should be fully paid back by 2046.
The deal, however, needs the seal of approval from Iceland’s Parliament, president and government. If the agreement is approved, ratings agency Moody’s said Reykjavik’s credit rating could be raised and it may pave the way for Iceland joining the European Union.
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Banks wane on euro zone debt worries
Britain’s top shares were lower as weakness in banks sparked by euro zone debt worries outpaced strength in commodities following weekend comments by Ben Bernanke. |||
David Brett
London – Britain’s top shares were lower on Monday, as weakness in banks sparked by euro zone debt worries outpaced strength in commodities following weekend comments by Ben Bernanke, which boosted hopes of more quantitative easing.
By 0903 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 13.11 points at 5,732.21, having ended down 0.4 percent at 5,745.32 on Friday after downbeat US non farm payroll figures in the US.
Responding to the disappointing jobs data, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the ’60 minutes’ television programme at the weekend that the central bank could end up buying more than the $600 billion in U.S. government bonds it has committed to purchase if the economy failed to respond or unemployment stayed too high.
“Bernanke’s comments suggest that QE3 is a possibility,” Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.
“We’re still switching between risk on and risk off with investors itching to take profits as soon as the market gains some ground.”
Global miner Xstrata rose 2.3 percent on newspaper reports Glencore, the world’s biggest commodity trader which holds a stake of nearly 35 percent in Xstrata, is preparing for a 6.3 billion pound ($9.94 billion) London Stock Exchange debut as early as April next year.
Platinum processor Johnson Matthey added 0.9 percent as Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating to “buy” from “neutral”, saying it is benefiting from higher platinum prices.
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tintowas down 0.1 percent after it made a $3.5 billion bid approach for Africa-focused Riversdale Mining.
On the second line, British bank note printer De La Rue Plc soared 23 percent after confirming it had received a bid approach from an unnamed party.
French group Oberthur Technologies is the bidder, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Pub owner Punch Taverns PLC rose 7.4 percent on Mail on Sunday reports of bid interest from private equity group CVC.
Banks were lower after Moody’s Investors Service cut Hungary’s credit rating on Monday.
Investors will also keep an eye on a meeting of euro zone finance ministers who will face pressure to increase the size of a 750 billion euro ($1,006 billion) safety net for crisis-hit members in order to halt contagion in the single currency bloc.
Tesco slipped 2.3 percent after UBS cut its rating on the world’s No.3 retailer to “neutral” from “buy”.
Cobhamfell 2.5 percent with traders citing a downgrade by BofA Merrill Lynch on the aerospace electronics group.
Back on the upside, Vodafone , up 0.9 percent, is close to selling its 44 percent stake in mobile phone operator SFR to France’s Vivendi , paving the way for Vodafone to buy back 5 billion pounds in its own shares in 2011, a UK newspaper said on Sunday.
No important British data will be released on Monday. ($1=.6338 Pound) – Reuters
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UK saw Obama Kenya roots as threats to tie
Britain feared that the election of Mr Barrack Obama as US president could hurt London’s relations with America because of the way Mr Obama’s grandfather was treated by the British, according to leaked secret diplomatic documents.
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Miliband sets out major overhaul of Labour party
Miliband launches major policy review, saying Labour party must do more than wait for the government to ‘screw up’
Ed Miliband has pledged to make Labour the party of people’s “hopes and aspirations” as he launched a major review of its policies in the wake of the general election defeat.
In his first address to the party’s national policy forum as leader, he said it had to recognise the need for change and move “beyond New Labour”.
Unveiling 22 policy inquiries, Miliband told the forum, meeting in Gillingham, Kent, that the same old stance would not restore trust in the party.
“We have to show again we are the people who are the idealists, we are the people who are the optimists, we are the people who can represent the hopes, the dreams, the aspirations of the British people,” he said. “So please join us on this journey. Join us on this journey which makes us once again the people’s party, the party of people’s hopes and aspirations, back on people’s side, back in power making for the fairer, the more equal, the more just country we believe in.”
Miliband said that while there was deep anger at the “broken promises” of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Labour could not afford simply to wait for the coalition to “screw up”.
“I know that we have got to change in order to win,” he said.
“There is no short cut or quick fix to this. We shouldn’t mistake the anger we feel at what the coalition is doing to the country for a sense that it isn’t as much about us as it is about them.
“The strategy that says wait for them to screw it up, simply be a strong opposition, is not a strategy that is going to work for us. We need to do that hard thinking of our own.”
Miliband said that he made no apology for speaking up for what he describes as the “squeezed middle”.
“People were feeling squeezed before this government. They are feeling much, much more squeezed now this government is in power,” he said.
“So it is about standing up for the hopes and aspirations of people. That must be our mission, to narrow the gap between the dreams that people can see around them and their chances of realising them.”
He indicated that he was ready to reform the system which elected him party leader, saying that a system where some members had multiple votes should be a “thing of the past”.
Miliband said that the Labour party needed to become again a “campaigning force” throughout the country.
“We have to be a party rooted in people’s lives,” he said. “We need to become a movement again. We have to reach out to people.”
He announced the formation of a series of working groups, chaired by shadow cabinet ministers, intended to lay the ground for a new policy programme to take Labour into the next general election.
The shadow chancellor, Alan Johnson, will chair working groups on “rebalancing our economy for growth, jobs and sustainability” and “making the banking and finance sector work for our economy”.
John Denham, the shadow business secretary, will lead on a group on productivity and regional imbalance.
Other shadow cabinet members will be looking at constitutional reform, the police, family, the elderly, schools, civil liberties, housing and political reform. Tessa Jowell will lead a group under the heading, “Family life. What helps?”.
Miliband has appealed to universities, think-tanks, charities and other independent institutions to come forward with ideas that the party can incorporate into its reform agenda.
The first tranche of reviews will lead to a state of the nation document in 2011, Modern Britain’s Ambitions, before further specific policy work is done, which will form the basis of detailed policy-making leading up to the next general election manifesto.
A party spokesman said: “We want this process to be rooted in real people’s lives. We want it to lead to real change in our movement.
“Ed is determined that Labour mustn’t retreat into a discussion with itself. He wants Labour to reach out in a way it was never able to do while in government, and draw on the best ideas from across the political landscape.” Ed Miliband Labour Liberal Democrats Conservatives Alan Johnson John Denham Tessa Jowell David Batty guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Ireland Accepts EU, IMF Bailout Package
Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom (AHN) – Ireland formally accepted over the weekend the international bailout offer of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. After hedging for a few days and insisting Dublin had sufficient financial resources, Irish authorities gave in to pressure and asked for a loan.
According to reports, the bailout would be $115.5 billion (77 billion pounds). It would be a three-year loan to be used mainly to rescue Ireland’s debt-ridden banks. The U.K. and Sweden are considering extending additional loans to Dublin, aside from the $115.5 billion bailout.
For this bailout, British taxpayers would shell out $11.5 billion (7 billion pounds), at a time when the country itself is implementing tough austerity measures which would lead to the loss of 500,000 public sector jobs over five years.
Britain is bent on assisting Ireland because of the $225 billion (150 billion pounds) exposure of British banks to Ireland.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen asked residents Sunday to support the loan. EU Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said the bailout seeks to protect the financial stability of the continent. With the bailout, Irish banks will be restructured to make them smaller, while some analysts forecast some financial institutions would be nationalized.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said Dublin has a running deficit of more than $24 billion (16 billion pounds), which the Irish government could not afford to finance given present market rates and amid issues of solvency of Irish banks. He said the bailout money would mainly serve as a standby fund, which may not 100 percent be necessarily used.
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Britain Plans Ultra-Flexible Work System
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – The British coalition government is planning to change labor rules that would lead to an ultra-flexible work system in which Britons could work for as few as two hours a week.
Welfare Ministers Lord Freud and Maria Miller said the changes are expected to benefit residents who could not offer the usual eight hours of work per day or even part-time employment.
The concept of slivers of time was established by former British Broadcasting Corporation producer Wingham Rowan for parents who have young children, disabled workers, someone who has to take care of a dependent adult or a person who has long been out of work and wants to get back into the labor scene slowly.
The concept would be part of the new universal credit under the welfare reforms announced last week by Works and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. Laws, however, would have to be changed because the lesser working hours would have an effect on how benefits would be cut once a resident’s income has reached a particular level.
For instance, the “earnings disregard” benchmark for single parents is at $7,500 (5,000 pounds), which ministers want to be increased to $11,250 (7,500 pounds).
While the government is contemplating on the slivers of work scheme, major British retailer Tesco offered the concept to employees who want to earn extra during the holiday season, but could not afford to add four extra hours to their regular shift.
The Tesco offer, which the company had been testing for a year, is the firm’s response to changing shopping patterns. Tesco will formally launch the program Monday.
So far, 10,000 workers out of 340,000 U.K. Tesco employees spread in 2,500 stores had signed up for the scheme.
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PM warns G20 of trade imbalances
UK prime minister fears return to protectionism and trade barriers of Great Depression era
World leaders must resolve the trade imbalances that are destabilising the global economy or risk a repeat of the Great Depression, David Cameron warned today.
Speaking at the start of the G20 Summit in Seoul , the prime minister said the real test for the summit would be its ability sort out the big battle between the indebted west and the surplus economies of the east.
“The fear we should all have is a return to what happened in the 30s: protectionism, trade barriers, currency wars, countries pursuing beggar my neighbour policies – trying to do well for themselves but not caring about the rest of the world. That is the danger,” Cameron said.
“Now on the big battle, the biggest issue of all is the cause of the last crisis – a wall of money in the east, a wall of debt in the west. We’ve got to deal with that imbalance and I think it’s a real test for this summit and one that Britain will play a very positive part in trying to make sure we really look at these imbalances and deal with them.”
The G20 summit is being dominated by concerns that currency wars will break out between the world’s largest economies . America is demanding that China allows its currency to appreciate, while the Chinese insist that any such move will create mass joblessness in China and so dampen worldwide growth.
US president Barack Obama and Chinese premier Hu Jintao were holding talks earlier today in Seoul. Before the meeting started, Obama said that the US and China were “making progress” on economic issues.
Obama’s treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, told CNBC this morning that China would eventually have to yield to pressure from the financial markets and allow the yuan to rise in value.
“Those market forces are just a reflection of confidence that you’re going to see strong growth in China, strong productivity growth in China, if you resist those market forces, that pressure is not going to go away,” Geithner said.
“It’s just going to end up in higher inflation or higher asset prices and that’ll be bad for China.”
Julia Gillard, prime minister of Australia, warned her fellow leaders to avoid descending into currency wars, in which country’s would devalue their own currencies to drive exports.
“Australia believes currency should be market-based, that is our position. We should be trying to ensure how we move from one stage of global growth to another,” Gillard said. China trip defended
British officials believe the communique that will be issued at the end of the summit will be an attempt by the Korean hosts to paper over the cracks. Cameron denied Britain was effectively a bystander in a battle between the Americans and the Chinese, or that a distinctive British agenda had evaporated once Gordon Brown, an indefatigable G20 summit activist, had departed the stage.
He said: “It’s in our interest to keep world trade moving, to keep those trade barriers down. That’s our interest at the G20 and we will pursue it very very vigorously.”
Cameron also defended his two-day visit to the communist leadership in China saying he had gone because “I want British jobs, British investment, British growth.”
The prime minister insisted that he addressed the issue of human rights in China in private with the Chinese leadership, including individual cases such as Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
He said: “I raised human rights and I can tell you that nothing and no one is off limits. That’s the way we should do business. But it is right that we do some of these things privately, firmly – not using a megaphone, but very clear about the areas where we disagree, that’s the sort of relationship we have with the Chinese: proper dialogues on trade on the economy and on human rights too.” International trade Global economy G20 Economics David Cameron Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Survey: Pay Of British Executives Almost 200 Times Average Salary
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Like bank executives, officials of FTSE 100 top companies enjoyed fat pay even while the rest of British workers continue to tighten their belts.
According to a study made by Incomes Data Services, the bonuses paid to the directors of FTSE 100 companies jumped by 34 percent, while basic pay grew by 3.6 percent. Overall, boardroom compensation went up by 55 percent.
Because of the hefty pay, the average FTSE 100 chief executive compensation is now $7.35 million (4.9 million pounds) a year, which is about 200 times the average wage.
Labor unions denounced the apparent greed of the executives while the rest of Britain copes with austerity measures imposed by the coalition government and suffer pay reductions or salary freezes.
British Business Secretary Vince Cable welcomed the report. Cable initiated a review of corporate behavior and compensation early this week. The review will study if the executive pay hike is linked to company performance.
Another survey by Incomes Data Services found out that 16 percent of British employers will still go ahead with plans to implement pay freezes.
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111 Crewmen Saved After Ship Blaze Near English Coast
London, United Kingdom (AHN) – The British coast guard immediately launched a rescue operation on Wednesday and rescued 111 crew members from a factory fishing ship. The ‘Athena’ caught fire 230 nautical miles southwest of the Isles of Scilly, England.
Coast guard officials received help from a French communications plane. The vessel’s Faroe Islands-based owners confirmed the safety of all crewmembers, adding that none of them face any immediate danger.
Shipping company Thor Ltd. explained, “Around 6:00 am this morning a fire broke out on board Athena while she was sailing to her next fishing area. The fire appears to have started in packing material store on the port side of the ship.”
It added that 13 of the fire safety crew remained on board to control the fire, adding that they were safe too.
Container ship, the Vega, picked up a distress call immediately after receiving the distress call, said Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
The crewmen aboard Athena were from different countries such as China, Russia, Peru and Scandinavia.
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