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BBC News | UK | World Edition

Benn denies fuel bill cave-in
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:34:59 -0000
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn denies ministers "caved in" to energy firms over cash rebates for soaring fuel bills.
Winds and rain battering Britain
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:01:29 -0000
Heavy rainfall and strong winds are sweeping across south Wales and western England, bringing the risk of flooding.
Shannon mother accused of kidnap
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:49:13 -0000
The mother of Shannon Matthews and a 40-year-old man plead not guilty to kidnapping the Dewsbury schoolgirl.
Canoeist appeals against sentence
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:36:19 -0000
Back-from-the dead canoeist John Darwin is to appeal against his prison sentence for fraud, his lawyer says.
Teenagers charged over stab death
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:58:49 -0000
Two teenagers are charged with the murder of 14-year-old Shaquille Smith in east London.
DJs criticised for drink comments
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:07:32 -0000
A report criticises a number of radio presenters for encouraging heavy drinking among their listeners.

The Economist: Britain

The City of London: Defying augury
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
Can the stock exchange and the City see off the competition?AS THE British economy heads straight for the doldrums, the City is struggling too. Recent moves by the London Stock Exchange designed to see off encroaching rivals may cost the LSE custom rather than increase it. And even if the 300-year-old market can change its ways, the financial centre it buttresses may well be shaky. The signs are not good.This week the LSE slashed its trading fees to match those of electronic trading platforms (known as MTFs), and said it would allow ultra-fast computerised traders to put their machines close to the LSE’s own computers. This will save the increasingly important program traders precious nanoseconds between sending an order and executing the trade. In July the stock exchange struck a deal with Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, to form Baikal, a so-called “dark pool” that allows high-volume trades to be executed bit-by-bit off-exchange and out of the public eye—that is, in competition with the LSE itself. The LSE still has a near-monopoly in listing stocks and providing price data, but increasing volumes are being traded on electronic platforms. Chi-X, launched last year, already has 15% of London’s share-trading volume. Other rivals are queuing up. ...
The economy: Home's where the hurt is
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
There have been far worse times for the economy but few for a chancellorIT WAS, perhaps, frustration at his own helplessness that prompted Alistair Darling’s dire prognosis. The chancellor of the exchequer told the Guardian, in an interview reported on August 30th, that economic times were “arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years”. His remarks raised fears of a harder economic landing for Britain than predicted and helped push sterling to new lows against the euro. His slip may have had more to do with his own anxieties (see article) than with the fate of the economy.Only the terminally gloomy expect a downturn to match the deep recession of the early 1990s, or a repeat of the grim 1970s. Yet Mr Darling had a point, even if he made it clumsily. It is rare to be hit by so many problems in such a short space of time. A spike in the cost of oil and food has poked a big hole in consumers’ pockets, leaving less money for other spending. Meanwhile the banking crisis has cut the supply of credit, hastening a collapse in the housing market. ...
The army in Afghanistan: Dam difficult
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
Britain scores a military success. But it will take much more to beat the TalibanTHE earthen wall holding back the turquoise lake at Kajaki has stood as a rebuke to British forces for more than two years. Work on refurbishing its hydroelectric power station all but stopped when British and other NATO troops arrived in southern Afghanistan in 2006, reigniting the war with the Taliban.More than two seasons of inconclusive fighting, and the death of more than 100 British soldiers, have failed to secure southern Afghanistan. If anything, the Taliban have become bolder, staging more ambitious attacks and extending the insurgency to the gates of Kabul. As the Americans have reinforced understrength British forces in Helmand, relations between the allies have become tetchy. The Afghan government, too, has been critical of Western troops for killing Afghan civilians. ...
Titian in Britain: Exit, unfunded?
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
The fate of two Old Masters reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the laws governing the sale of artPAINTING, said Ambrose Bierce, is “the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic”. In Titian’s case, the critics have purred with enthusiasm. Lucian Freud hailed the two paintings offered for sale by the Duke of Sutherland, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto, as “simply the most beautiful pictures in the world”. And the Bridgewater Collection to which they belong is widely regarded as the world’s most important private collection of Old Masters.Yet keeping the paintings in the country will be a struggle. Although the duke is offering the Titians for much less than their market price, the National Galleries in England and Scotland still have to find GBP100m—almost five times the highest amount ever raised to keep art in Britain. And Britain’s notoriously liberal art-export laws do not provide much of a safety net. Between 1995 and 2005, 211 works of art totalling GBP274m in value were judged pre-eminent and worth keeping; yet money could be raised to hang on to only GBP105m-worth of them. ...
Bagehot: Deny, deflect, detonate
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
Is economic woe driving the government’s political problems or vice versa?WHEN the Kursk, a Russian submarine, sank in 2000, Vladimir Putin’s government at first pretended the situation was not as awful as it seemed. Next, it blamed outsiders (in the shape of a phantom foreign craft). Finally, when obfuscation would no longer wash, it claimed that the crew had all died immediately, and thus that nothing the authorities might have done could have helped. In its efforts to explain Britain’s subsiding economy, the government of Gordon Brown—another leader installed by opaque anointment rather than open choice—seems to have adopted a similar approach to crisis management. The effect can be summarised as deny, deflect and detonate.For as long as he could, Mr Brown denied the seriousness of the downturn. Things, he insisted, had been much worse in the early 1990s; the government was taking the “tough long-term decisions” needed to avert a repeat of such Tory-inflicted hardship. Growth would remain stronger than the gloomy analysts were predicting. Next came deflect: when price rises and the collapse of the housing market became too stark to spin away, Mr Brown acknowledged the difficulties but stressed that, in the words of the song, “It wasn’t me”. He deflected the blame on to irresponsible foreigners, such as greedy American financiers and Arab oil sheikhs. He and his chancellor, Alistair Darling, nevertheless insisted that Britain’s “resilient” economy would withstand the credit crunch and other global squalls better than others. ...
Social housing: Estate management
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
New proposals are likely to expand council housingHALF the government’s efforts this week were spent trying to convince wary buyers to set off down the risky path of home ownership. Soft loans and a temporary break from stamp duty, dangled tantalisingly on September 2nd, might tempt a few to take the plunge. But those who are weighing the risks and rewards of buying must have been alarmed that the government was simultaneously promoting rescue packages for those who had entered the housing market and got burned.Chief among these bail-outs was a GBP200m “mortgage-rescue” scheme, under which some 6,000 households in danger of having their home repossessed are to be saved. Councils and housing associations will be able to buy a share of the property, reducing the occupier’s mortgage. In some cases the authorities could buy it outright and let it back to its erstwhile owner, turning it into de facto social housing. ...

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