Wednesday, February 12

Day: November 12, 2018

UK employers plan to hold tight on pay despite labour shortages
Featured, United Kingdom

UK employers plan to hold tight on pay despite labour shortages

    British employers do not expect to increase the average pay settlements they offer to staff over the coming year, an industry survey showed on Monday, raising questions about whether pay will pick up as the Bank of England predicts. Employers plan to raise pay by 2 percent over the year to come, unchanged from the increase they planned three months earlier, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said. Moreover, only around half of the businesses experiencing recruitment and retention difficulties were raising pay to attract new staff or keep hold of existing ones, due to wider productivity challenges and cost pressures, the CIPD said. The CIPD's data shows a similar pattern to other industry surveys, which report employers offering higher pay f...
Universal Credit will cost the DWP more than the benefits system it replaces
Featured, United Kingdom

Universal Credit will cost the DWP more than the benefits system it replaces

    Universal Credit (UC) is set to cost more than the legacy benefits system it replaces because of changes declared in Philip Hammond's Budget, according to a new report. In October the Chancellor injected an extra £1.7 billion into UC. This, coupled with the £3.2 billion higher benefit take-up projected by the Office for Budget Responsibility, means UC will be more expensive than the old system for the first time since early 2015, the Resolution Foundation think tank has said. Mr Hammond's reform means 200,000 more working families will be better off under UC, taking the figure of those gaining under the new system from 2.2 million to 2.4 million. Among working families with children, the number expected to gain from switching to UC (1.5 million) matches the number ...
Jacob Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson join FOBT rebellion
Featured, United Kingdom

Jacob Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson join FOBT rebellion

    Theresa May’s government faces becoming the first to suffer a defeat on its own budget bill in 40 years after Tory MPs including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and David Davis joined a rebellion over fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). More than 70 MPs from both sides of the House of Commons have signed two amendments that, if passed, would effectively force the government to bring forward the timing of the planned cut in FOBT maximum stakes to April 2019. Sport minister Tracey Crouch quit the government this month after the chancellor, Philip Hammond, revealed in the budget that the policy would not take effect until October 2019. She has joined dozens of party colleagues in putting her name to amendments that could force the Treasury to revert to the earlier da...
Macron denounces nationalism as a betrayal of patriotism in rebuke to Trump
Europe, Featured

Macron denounces nationalism as a betrayal of patriotism in rebuke to Trump

    In the shadow of a grand war memorial here, French President Emmanuel Macron marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I by delivering a forceful rebuke against rising nationalism, calling it a betrayal of patriotism and warning against old demons coming back to wreak chaos and death. His words during a solemn Armistice Day ceremony under overcast skies at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in the heart of the French capital were intended for a global audience. But they also represented a pointed rebuke to President Trump, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and others among the more than 60 world leaders in attendance. Speaking in French, Macron emphasized that a global order based on liberal values is worth defending against those who have sought to disrupt ...
UK piles pressure on Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi killing
Arab world, Featured

UK piles pressure on Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi killing

    Jeremy Hunt will meet both King Salman and Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and the man widely accused of ordering Khashoggi’s murder. Speaking before a diplomatically fraught trip that includes a visit to the United Arab Emirates to try to broker a ceasefire in Yemen, Hunt said: It is clearly unacceptable that the full circumstances behind his murder still remain unclear. We encourage the Saudi authorities to cooperate fully with the Turkish investigation into his death, so that we deliver justice for his family and the watching world. He added: The international community remain united in horror and outrage at the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi one month ago. Hunt’s trip was preceded by talks in Riyadh on Sunday between Sir Simon McDonald, th...