Tag: Featured

    Richard Branson is reportedly partially funding a large-scale campaign to reverse the Brexit referendum and keep Britain within the European Union. The Independent revealed an email that highlights how the founder of Virgin Group offered office space and money to help the organisation launch. Virgin has, however, denied funding any Brexit related campaign or organisation. Former Labour health minister Alan Milburn is leading the new initiative according to The Guardian; and Freuds, a public relations agency that was founded by Matthew Freud, a close friend of former prime ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron, will handle the strategy and marketing. © Reuters Brexit: Reactions of Richard Branson, Jes Staley and other top business leaders The email, written by Milburn, poi...

    Banks and building societies are increasing the rates on their mortgages as the era of rock-bottom interest rates finally comes to an end around the world. This week one building society, Skipton, increased rates on some mortgages by 0.37 percentage points while another mutual, West Bromwich, scrapped its market-leading 10-year fix, which charged just 2.59pc. Riskier first-time-buyer mortgages have also been affected. Virgin Money, previously one of the cheapest lenders in this area, has already increased the cost of several of its mortgages for borrowers with 5pc deposits by up to 10pc. Commentators say it is a matter of when, not if, the cost of borrowing to buy a home increases. Here’s why. Why will rates rise? The interest rates paid by British mortgage borrowers are s...

    Patients could be told to bring two forms of identification including a passport to hospital to prove they are eligible for free treatment under new rules to stop so-called health tourism. The most senior official in the Department of Health told MPs on Monday that he was looking at making hospitals check patients’ papers to find out whether they should be paying, a proposal he admitted was “controversial”. It would mean that those trying to access health services, including British citizens, might have to prove their identity before having operations and undergoing tests in hospitals, but it would not cover care received at GP surgeries. Chris Wormald, the department’s permanent secretary, told the public accounts committee that passport checks were already taking place a...

    Sporting a scruffy white beard and salt-and-pepper wavy hair, Chris Dunn blends in well with those around a breakfast table at Timothy’s House of Hope, a meal site in Davenport for the hungry. I’ll keep you in my prayers, Dunn told a man, who asked not to be identified as he fought back tears over a plate of biscuits and gravy. He’s struggling through a divorce and living out of the back of his truck, which needs a new timing chain. I love you like a brother, Dunn added as he patted the man on the back. It’s obvious the 56-year-old Dunn, who’s rocking close-fitting jeans, a wool sweater and Under Armour shoes, isn’t there for the free spread; he’s there to listen. As a homeless outreach worker for the Center, he spends part of most days checking in on his “friends” at vari...

    European leaders have come to a 27-nation consensus that a hard Brexit is likely to be the only way to see off future populist insurgencies, which could lead to the break-up of the European Union. The hardening line in EU capitals comes as Nigel Farage warns European leaders that Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, could deliver a political sensation bigger than Brexit and win France’s presidential election next spring – a result that would mean it was “game over” for 60 years of EU integration. National Front leader Marine Le Pen has made it clear she would like to take France out of the euro and the EU. According to senior officials at the highest levels of European governments, allowing Britain favourable terms of exit could represent an existential danger to t...