Violet Hudson

Thursday

Violet Hudson

Money digest: today’s need-to-know financial news | 28 April 2016

From our UK edition

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warns this morning that Brexit would cost the average Briton one month’s salary by 2020, according to the Telegraph. The think tank predicts that families will be £2,200 worse off by the end of the decade should Britain chose to leave the EU on 23 June. ‘Normally when you pay a tax, you get something in return,’ said Angel Gurria, the OECD’s Secretary General. ‘You're asked to pay a tax in order to have greater security, or because they're going to pave the streets, or you're going to get cleaner water.’ Meanwhile eight leading economists have formed ‘Economists for Brexit’, backing the Leave campaign.

Wednesday

Violet Hudson

Money digest: today’s need-to-know financial news | 27 April 2016

From our UK edition

Asda shoppers need to be careful when picking up a so-called bargain from the supermarket giant’s shelves: the chain has been warned by the Competition and Markets Authority not to mislead customers with ‘confusing price promotions’ according to the BBC. From now on, multi-buy offers will represent better value than single-buy, and ‘was’ prices will have to be on the shelf longer than ‘now’ prices. Richard Lloyd, of Which? magazine, which investigated the supermarket, said ‘Asda has been found breaking the rules and now must immediately clean up their act.’ The Guardian reports that Britain’s growth will have slowed in the last quarter from 0.6 per cent to 0.4 per cent when GDP figures are released later today.

Tuesday

Violet Hudson

Money digest: today’s need-to-know financial news

From our UK edition

Philip Green comes under scrutiny this morning for continuing to haul in vast pay checks for himself and his family while BHS was left floundering in the waters of bankruptcy. According to the Guardian, Green and his family extracted more than £580 million in dividends, rental payments and interest from the high-street former giant before selling its washed-up corpse for a quid last year. The pensions regulator is currently considering coming after Green for £200-£300 million to help fill ‘the black hole’ in BHS’s pension scheme. ‘An institutional overhaul is required,’ writes shadow chancellor John McDonnell in a letter to the Times.

Saturday

Violet Hudson

A choice of first novels | 28 July 2012

From our UK edition

A re-telling of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, Francesca Segal’s debut The Innocents (Chatto, £14.99) takes the action to contemporary Golders Green. The daily minutiae of Jewish life are documented, from eating challah at Shabbat to the moments preceding a circumcision, alongside more sweeping statements: ‘For a people whose history is one of exodus and eviction,’ says Segal about ritual meals, ‘the luxury of repetition is precious.