Day: June 23, 2016

    The population of the UK increased by more than half a million in a year, official estimates have revealed. Natural growth - more births than deaths - of 171,800 and net international migration of 335,600 helped push the number of people living in the country to 65.1 million as of the middle of 2015. This was an increase over the year of 513,000, or 0.8%. The Office for National Statistics said the rise was similar to the average annual increase seen over the last decade. Population change due to the difference between births and deaths is at its lowest level since the year to mid-2006. The ONS said: "The number of births has decreased on last year's figure and is below the average for the period, while there was an increase in the number of deaths since last year, partly ...

    Australian business leaders have offered their support to the Remain' campaign, warning that a Brexit would generate financial instability in global markets. As Britons head to the polls on Thursday (23 June) for a historic vote which will shape the UK's future in the European Union, David McCredie, the chief executive of the Australian British Chamber of Commerce, urged them to vote to remain in the union. "There's a great deal of uncertainty and in the business environment," he said, adding 54% of the Chamber's members support the UK remaining in the EU. "Businesses love certainty, markets love certainty, and that sort of instability [from a Brexit] would be damaging and possibly crippling to the UK economy." The vote could also have huge implications for many businesses...

    Major banks are preparing for two days of unprecedented uncertainty by stuffing cash machines full of money, placing senior bankers on high alert in emergency war rooms around the City and switching off computer-driven “black box” trading systems to avoid incurring huge losses in violent swings in shares, bonds and currency markets. With uncertainty about the precise moment the outcome of the EU referendum will be known, dealing rooms are opening across the City on Thursday night and into Friday morning to allow trades to be executed for customers needing to respond to the results of the 382 polling areas as they start to be announced. Unlike a general election, no exit polls have been commissioned by broadcasters and the first results are expected at 12.30am on Friday and...