Day: December 13, 2016

    Theresa May’s leather trousers have almost sold out in the wake of her famous photo shoot. The website of British designer Amanda Wakeley shows the £995 trousers are now only available in size 12 in black, with other colours and sizes completely sold out. But Christmas shoppers might strike lucky in Oxfam. Tory MP Richard Benyon tweeted cheekily this morning: Just off to charity shop with my leather trousers.  

    This year winter arrived early in the UK, with temperatures plunging well below freezing before November was even out. So is an extra cold winter on the cards? Forecasting months ahead is fraught with difficulty, but some scientists believe that the warm autumn in the Arctic may portend a cold winter for North America and northern Europe. As summer came to a close, Arctic sea-ice melted to its second lowest extent on record, allowing ocean waters to release more heat to the atmosphere. By November temperatures in the Arctic had rocketed to a staggering 20 degrees higher than average. The rising Arctic temperatures that threaten polar bears could be sending wintry weather our way. Much of that heat has raised temperatures in the stratosphere and this is likely to weaken the...

    Chancellor  Hammond gave the Treasury select committee this afternoon when asked if Britain could stick to the two-year Article 50 timeline that would see the country leave the EU in March 2019 with no transitional deal. The further we go into this discussion, the more likely it is that we will mutually conclude that we need a longer period to deliver, the chancellor of the exchequer told MPs. That was the first admission by any senior minister in Prime Minister Theresa May's government that Brexit is going to be harder, take longer, and cost more than previously thought. Adding infrastructure, staff, and a regulatory framework to create new customs procedures at British ports alone will add hundreds of millions of pounds to the cost of operating the customs services, he s...

    Disposable incomes are expected to fall due to prices rising faster than wages. Inflation has hit its highest level in more than two years thanks to the sharp depreciation of the pound since the Brexit vote, according to the latest prices report from the Office for National Statistics. The Consumer Prices Index rose 1.2 per cent in the year to November, up from 0.9 per cent in October and more than the 1.1 per cent increase City of London analysts had expected. That was the fastest rate of increase since October 2014. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel prices, was 1.4 per cent, up from 1.2 per cent in the previous month. The ONS said two of the main contributors to the increase in the headline rate since October were rises in clothing and motor fuel pr...