News

Sir Ivan Rogers’ resignation in frustration at the UK’s Brexit strategy has created a job opportunity many Leave voters want to be filled with someone dedicated to Brexit. Some Tories have called for the Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan to be handed the job. In response to the departure Nigel Farage, has demanded a complete clearout of the “Europhile Foreign Office,” which he thinks is purposefully trying to stall Brexit. Rogers stepped down from his role as ambassador to the EU,...

A new freight rail route connecting Yiwu West Railway Station in Zhejiang Province with Barking in London has been launched by China Railway. The route, which has been dubbed the New Silk Route by the Chinese government, will take around 18 days to travel over 7,400 miles carrying a cargo of clothes, bags and other household items. China Railway already runs services between China and other European cities, including Madrid and Hamburg. The rail line has the advantage of being cheaper than air freight and...

A married city lawyer who once rowed for England poured beer over a woman's head after she told him she had a miscarriage, a court heard today. Alastair Main, 35, said he was "ashamed of himself" and had "behaved like a fool" after he also slapped her on the bum and called her a slut at a rowing club's Christmas party. At an earlier hearing the alleged victim said Main poured the beer over her after she refused to give...

This bank holiday weekend, following a stream of tweets about New Year's eve celebrations and fleeting references to making America "great again,  Donald Trump managed to fit in potentially seismic policy moves on foreign policy, trade and health care into a solitary 140 characters. Gone, it would seem, are the days of smoke and mirrors when it comes to government policy. But also gone are the days when any of it makes any sense. Take, for example, Trump's tweet on North Korea's...

It sounded like good news when the government made the announcement that they are going to build thousands of “cheap” starter homes, to help first time buyers into the property market. Housing Minister, Gavin Barwell, announced the first phase of the home building scheme will be completed in 2017 across 30 local authority areas. So far so good, however what the Tories think is affordable and what the average person on the street thinks seem oceans apart. Housing Charity Shelter...

When the Conservatives came into power in 2010 rail fares in Britain were already high. Since then, in a mere six years, they have risen by an astonishing 27 per cent - three times faster than wages. But the tragedy isn't just that we're spending six times more on rail fares than our counterparts in the rest of Europe. The tragedy is that we're paying in to a rail network that is crumbling at the seams. Over the past decade rail fares have increased...

What's the most outrageous thing your boss has ever asked you to do? Cleaning toilets, teaching English to foreign colleagues and wearing revealing or indecent clothes to model in are just some of the items featured on the top 50 list of unexpected tasks. Researchers found requests from the boss sometimes go from the sublime to the ridiculous – one unlucky respondent revealed they were asked to follow another member of staff who left work, as the boss suspected that...

Children as young as four can pick up racist prejudices from their parents' body language, according to new research. The finding suggests prejudice is learned rather than instinctive - and handed down through the generations. Toddlers can 'catch' social bias through non-verbal signals expressed by grown ups, say scientists. Most conscientious adults tend to avoid making discriminatory comments in the presence of youngsters. But pre-school aged kids are influenced even through non-verbal signals such as a condescending tone of voice...

The price of gold has been volatile in recent weeks mainly due to the upcoming US Federal Open Market Committee meeting, during which a decision on the US interest rate will be made. Gold started the second full week in December dipping to a nine-month low. And it’s likely that the yellow metal will remain volatile for some time, at least until investors figure the best path following the FOMC rate decision. Given a handful of positive data regarding the...