Cost of motoring rises by 14 per cent in a year
New figures from the RAC suggest that the cost of motoring is hitting British motorists hard.
The RAC report says that the cost of running a car has increased by 14% since November last year. The figures are based on a pool of 17 typical new cars and the associated costs of running them, including finance charges.
On average, this increase means that the cost of motoring now costs more than £1,500 extra annually when compared against figures from five years ago.
The cost of running a second-hand car is thought to have risen by more than…
Unite, teachers and probation officers union all join strike action
The UK’s largest union, Unite, have voted in favour of joining the ‘day of action’ strike on the 30th November.
Three more unions, the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO), The National Association of Head Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers (NASUWUT) have also recently joined the planned strike action.
The only remaining union yet to announce any strike action is the Prison Officers Union (POA).
If they vote in favour, over 3 million public sector workers in 25 different unions could strike in
the largest national strike since the winter of discontent in…
Virgin Money purchase Northern Rock
The government has announced that Northern Rock is to be bought by Virgin Money for £747 million.
At the beginning of the global credit crunch in 2008, Northern Rock nearly collapsed and was nationalised by the government at a cost of £1.4 billion to the UK taxpayer.
Since the bank was sold, staffing levels of the bank have fallen by approximately 3,000 to the current 2,500 people it employs. Virgin Money have confirmed that there will be no more compulsory job cuts in the bank for the next three years.
The chancellor George Osborne has indicated that the…
Health Protection Agency reminder to take antibiotics for flu
The Health Protection Agency has issued a reminder that people should not take antibiotics if they catch a cold or flu.
The announcement was made on European Antibiotics Awareness Day.
Almost one-third of English people take antibiotics every year, and the Health Protection Agency said they believed many were being mid-prescribed. In the survey, the Health Protection Agency found that 11% of English adults would not throw away unused antibiotics, and 6% would take their old medicines next time they became ill – without the advice of a medical professional.
Seven out of ten people claimed that they were aware…
Number of people with energy bill debts on the rise
The number of people in the UK who are in debt to their energy suppliers has risen sharply and recent figures suggest over 1.5 million people now have energy debts.
The number of people who owe money for their electricity bill rose by a quarter to 850,000 and the number of people who owe for their gas bill rose by a fifth to 700,000. Many experts are predicting that this is likely to get worse following the 14% rise in energy bills in autumn.
In the first quarter of the year, 287,100 people entered into arrangements to clear their electricity…
Interest rates continue to hold at 0.5%
UK interest rates have been held at 0.5% by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
Interest rates in the UK fell from 4.5% in October 2008 to the record low of 0.5% in March 2009.
This level has now held for two and half years as concerns over the strength of the economic recovery have kept rates low, as predicted by many economists.
The Bank of England have also indicated that there will be no change to its quantitative easing measures announced last month. Another £75 billion of quantitative easing is due to be injected into the economy,…
NS&I accounts no longer to be held at Post Office
National Savings and Investments (NS&I) have announced that they will no longer be running their savings and investments accounts through the Post Office.
This will end a 150 year long relationship that the NS&I have had with the Post Office.
From the 28th November this year, NS&I will not open any more Investment or Easy Access Savings accounts through the Post Office. Premium Bonds, which account for 75% of NS&Isales at the Post Office will still be available to buy there.
All future NS&I savings accounts will only be made available through the post, their telephone services and over the…
Low risk of IVF medication causing ovarian cancer
Women given IVF drugs are thought to have a slightly higher risk of developing ovarian cancer.
The cancers develop from ovarian tumours and eventually have to be surgically removed.
According to figures published in Human Reproduction, the risk could be around as three times higher than it is women who have not had IVF. This kind of fertility treatment involves artificially stimulating the ovaries with drugs to encourage egg production.
Ovarian cancer normally affects one in every thousand women, so the risk of developing it is quite low. The study was conducted in Holland in the 1980s and 1990s and…
ASA bans sunburn competition
The Advertising Standards Agency has sternly criticised an advert encouraging the public to send in their ‘best’ sunburn pictures in order to win a holiday.
The competition was named ‘earn while you burn’. Run by the website dealchecker.co.uk, the aim was to find the most sunburned person.
DMC Digital who own dealchecker.co.uk said that they intended to send sun lotion to participants as runner up prizes. It also said that they had only requested photos of previous holidays and were not encouraging people to become sunburned on holiday, purely for the sake of winning.
DMC Digital said that they were…
Gay men to be allowed to donate blood
Ministers have agreed to relax the ban preventing homosexual men from donating blood. From November, homosexual men in England, Scotland and Wales will be permitted to donate blood, as long as they have not had sex with another man in over a year.
Medical evidence which was presented to the government suggested that the ban, which was in place since the 1980’s, is no longer justified.
Initially, the ban was introduced to minimize the risk of HIV and Aids. However, the blood donor service now have a better screening process for HIV and screen all blood donations for HIV and…