Bank dealing with “the largest balance sheet risk time bomb ever assembled in history”.

RBS has announced a loss of £2bn for 2011, nearly double the £1.1bn loss the bank made in the previous year. It is the fourth annual loss the bank has posted since its government bailout in 2008.

Sir Philip Hampton, RBS chairman, has suggested that the bank must now be run on “commercial grounds” if it is ever to return to profit and pay back the British taxpayer, who own 82 per cent of the bank.

Speaking on the Today programme, Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the bank, said RBS were “ahead of course” with its plan to make the bank profitable again. Echoing the sentiments of Hampton, he also said RBS needed to be allowed to run commercially otherwise the government would “never get its money back.”

We have effectively two fulltime jobs to do. We have to run a very big and complicated bank competing against others, like Barclays and HSBC and serving 30 million customers and doing that is already a very profitable activity.

We made £6.1bn, roughly the same as Barclays made, in running our core banks last year with a return on equity of over 10 per cent. There are many good performances notwithstanding the fall in the investment banking part of our business.

The second job that RBS had was to diffuse the largest balance sheet risk time bomb ever assembled in history and that creates losses. The irony is that the faster and more successful we go in diffusing that balance sheet time bomb, the greater the losses, even though it’s a desirable thing to do.

In three years since I took over, we have reduced the balance sheet of RBS by £700bn of assets. Which, to put in context, is something like twice the size of the total debt of Greece.

The losses, ironically, are a measure of the immense progress we’ve made in cleaning this bank up. When I joined I said it was 5 year task, I still think it’s a 5 years task. We are three years through that.

The turnaround of this bank is ahead of course.

Despite the heavy losses, the bank plans to reward its 17,000 investment banking staff with bonuses, a decision which has infuriated Union officials. Despite branch staff being restricted to a 1 per cent pay rise, staff in the investment arm of the business will share a £390m bonus pool. Hester defended the decision, claiming:

Bonuses in the investment bank, even adjusted for some salary moves, are down by more than profits.

Bonuses in our investment bank give RBS shareholders roughly £2 in profit for every unit of bonuses compared to the £1 from Barclays. In other words, we’re making half the profits but on a quarter of the bonuses.

Unit labour costs are falling substantially. Overall bonuses for the group, including the investment bank, are down 42 per cent. For every pound of profits that have been delivered from the core bank in RBS, 10p is going to the staff in bonuses, and 90p ultimately to shareholders but in the near term to paying down the losses of the rest of the bank.

New data released by IoD reveals many of Britain’s top bosses fear double-dip.

A third of Britain’s top businesses fear there is a “high or very high” risk of a double-dip recession this year, according to data published this morning.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) have released results of their latest snap survey, which gathered opinions from 1,067 of the country’s top business leaders.

Of those surveyed, 53 per cent felt that the risk of returning to recession in 2012 was “moderate”, with only one in ten feeling that the risk was “low or very low”.

Asked about the longevity of any potential double-dip recession, 43 per cent said they felt it would be “short and mild”, whilst 33 per cent felt it would be “long and mild”.

The findings suggest that companies are more optimistic about their own performances than they are the wider economy, with 50 per cent of respondents expecting “higher or much higher” revenues over the next 12 months than posted in 2011. 40 per cent expect higher profits, whilst 32 per cent are preparing themselves for lower figures.

The data concerning business investment may worry George Osborne. 29 per cent of businesses expect investment in their company to fall over the next 12 months.

Graeme Leach, Chief Economist at the IoD, said in reaction to the results:

Despite all the doom and gloom in the media only 1 in 3 directors think there is a high or very high risk of a recession in 2012. The key group to watch is the ‘swing vote’, the 1 in 2 directors who think there is a moderate risk of a recession. Whether this group becomes more pessimistic or optimistic may well be the difference between recession and recovery in 2012.

The resounding message from the survey is the critical role of confidence at this stage in the economic cycle. If the euro-crisis stabilises, confidence could return relatively quickly and companies could dust down business investment and recruitment plans put on hold last year. Alternatively, if the euro-crisis gets worse, confidence is highly unlikely to return this year.

Picture of GOP candidate made entirely from pornographic thumbnails.

Rick Santorum has had a lot to say about the rights of gay people. He has openly denounced homosexuality, strongly opposed gay marriage and called for gay people to be excluded from the American military.

According to the sweater-vest-wearing Republican candidate, marriage and military service is a privilege not a right, and therefore only those who deserve those privileges can have them. And in Rick’s world, being gay means you don’t deserve privilege.

In 2003 he even went as far as saying that gay people’s sex lives should not be protected by privacy, claiming sexual activity between gay people should be subject to the same kind of regulation as child molestation, bestiality and incest. Or not, if you believe his take on those 2003 remarks in a January CNN interview.

Either way it seems the gay community is getting its own back with this portrait of Santorum made entirely from pornographic images.

Credit to Gawker for getting hold of this beauty.

Another fine performance from the president.

Following on from his version of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together in New York last month (see below), President Obama has now moved on to the blues. Last night at the White House he gave us another impromptu song, performing Sweet Home Chicago with B.B. King and Buddy Guy. Can anyone imagine Mitt Romney doing this?

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written by Robert Pollard for New Statesman – Star Spangled Staggers blog

President opens up lead against all Republican candidates in key battlegrounds.

The re-election of Barack Obama may well be back on. After watching the economy tank and the president struggling to make his promised sweeping reforms, many American swing voters were in a state of intense deliberation — Obama 2.0 or something new?

But the economic picture is improving – and while jobs continue to be created and unemployment falls, the Republicans are involved in bitter exchanges and political gaffes, leaving Obama’s opinion ratings continually improving.

Dana Milbank recently wrote in the Washington Post that:

While Romney embraces the birther billionaire Donald Trump, he has ceded to Obama the political center. The day after Romney indelicately announced that he was “not concerned about the very poor,” Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast about his affection for the Rev. Billy Graham and about “the biblical call to care for the least of these — for the poor; for those at the margins of our society.

It now seems that the Obama campaign is gaining momentum in the areas that matter most — key swing states.

Fox News conducted a poll late on Wednesday. It analyses voters in 10 battleground states — Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia and it would seem that in those states, which are key to his chances of re-election, he is performing better than the Republican alternatives.

Dana Blanton at Fox News explains:

The swing-state voters back Obama over Romney by 8 percentage points and Santorum by 9 points.

Obama tops Paul by 12 points in the poll. Gingrich lags farthest behind Obama, as voters in these key states prefer the president to the former Speaker by 20 points.

Chris Stirewalt adds:

It’s getting harder for Republicans to argue that their protracted nomination process isn’t doing serious damage to their chances of unseating President Obama in the fall.

The latest FOX News swing state poll has some sobering news for the Republicans. Not only do both of their current frontrunners, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, trail nationally (Romney trails by 5 points in all states, Santorum by 12), but they lose in the 10 key states that are likely to decide the election.

It is arguably Romney’s poll demise which is most striking. A few weeks ago Romney appeared to be the the certain winner of the Republican nomination race. The data now suggests a very different story. In states such as Florida, where Republican voters tend to consider themselves as moderates, he does just fine. But among the Republican core voters, he is treated with suspicion. Rick Santorum, who was seen as lagging behind before his recent wins, is now arguably the most viable winner of the GOP race.

On the Guardian website Michael Cohen explains pointing to two polls that paint a bleak picture for Romney and give hope to his Republican rival Rick Santorum:

What should be most daunting for Romney is the Rasmussen and PPP polls track likely voters, rather than simply registered voters. Romney’s polling numbers within the GOP remain where they’ve been for much of the year – around 25-35% support, and rarely much higher.

To beat an incumbent, the stars need to be clearly aligned in one’s favor. There is very little to date that suggests this is the case for Mitt Romney.

He remains the Republican candidate who Republicans might support if they have to – but that guy in the sweater vest seems like he might be more fun.

Former Governor of Alaska promises to do “whatever I could to help”.

Sarah Palin has thrust herself back into the spotlight by claiming she could yet play an integral role in the Republican presidential nomination race. What exactly that role will entail is unclear but it seems Palin may be willing to run at a later date.

She said that in the event of a brokered convention, a situation whereby no candidate amasses enough delegates to win outright, she would “do whatever she could to help”.

In an interview on Fox News, her offer was met with a tepid response from interviewer Eric Bolling.

Palin – For one, I think that it could get to that. … If it had to be closed up today, the whole nominating process, then we could be looking at a brokered convention. … Nobody is quite there yet, so I think that months from now, if that is the case, all bets are off as to who it will be, willing to offer up themselves up in their name in service to their country. I would do whatever I could to help

Bolling – That’s, that’s fantastic.

We all wait with bated breath for the specifics of her offer. (Go to 13:25 to see more)

News International claims “this is our moment”.

News International (NI) confirmed last night that the Sun on Sunday will be launched next weekend. The new title will replace the News of the World, the newspaper closed down last July following revelations of phone hacking malpractice.

NI chief executive Tom Mockridge sent an internal memo to staff confirming the decision, and later the Sun‘s website carried the news. Mockridge’s email also informed staff that Rupert Murdoch would now be extending his stay in London in order to supervise the launch. Murdoch is already in the UK following his arrival to reassure staff after the arrest of five journalists at the Sun last week.

In his email to staff, Mockridge said:

As you know, News Corporation has made clear its determination to sort out what has gone wrong in the past and we are fundamentally changing how we operate as a business

The commitment of News Corporation to invest in a new edition is the strongest possible message of support we could wish for.

This is our moment.

I am sure every one of us will seize the opportunity to pull together and deliver a great new dawn for the Sun this Sunday.

Who will edit the newspaper remains unclear but whoever assumes that role is expected to report into the current editor of the Sun, Dominic Mohan.

Reports suggest that the former political editor at the News of the World, David Wooding, will assume the same role at the Sun on Sunday, with various members of the staff at the Sun also taking up roles at the new Sunday edition.

Mohan claimed the launch provided a “truly historic moment”.

The Sun‘s future can now be reshaped as a unique seven-day proposition in both print and digital

Our readers’ reaction to the announcement of a seventh-day Sun has been huge and we won’t let them down.

Fabulous magazine, which was formerly part of the News of the World‘s offering but subsequently moved to the Saturday edition of the Sun, may now form part of the Sun on Sunday package.

The question remains which companies will choose to advertise in the Sun on Sunday next weekend given the issues surrounding its predecessor and NI.

The launch of the Sun on Sunday will be watched particularly closely by those rivals who benefited from the closure of the News of the World. The Daily Star on Sunday saw its figures almost double, according to data released in January. All eyes will now turn to the circulation figures of the Sun on Sunday and the impact they will have on other Sunday newspapers.

ONS data shows retail sales have increased at fastest rate since April 2011.

High street sales rose in January, up 0.9 per cent compared to December 2011, according to figures released by the Office of National Statistics this morning.

The monthly numbers, which caught analysts by surprise, also meant that the value of retail sales in January 2012 were 4.4 per cent up on the previous January while sales volumes were up 2.0 per cent across the same time period.

Retail analysts had predicted a monthly decline of 0.4 per cent. Richard Driver, a currency analyst for Caxton FX, described the January figures as “staggeringly strong”. It is the first time in eight years that sales have risen between December and January. The news comes a day after a survey from the Nationwide showed consumer confidence at its highest level for five months.

Heavily discounted goods enticed customers to spend despite most consumers suffering a squeeze on their living standards.

Driver said:

On the back of December’s strong retail sales growth, this represents an excellent start to the year. The growth is not really down to January high street discounts – non-store/online sales look to have been the key performers. There was a minor clue from the improved UK consumer confidence figure earlier in the week, however, high street sentiment remains at historically very low levels and nobody saw this coming.

However, David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, added a note of caution. “We mustn’t shrug off the serious challenges facing the UK economy, particularly while tough fiscal measures are being implemented by the government, and the problems in the eurozone remain,” he said.

The UK economy declined by 0.2 per cent in the three months to December 2011.

“May prove to be little more than a temporary bounce.”

UK consumer confidence is at its highest level for five months, according to data released on Thursday.

The survey conducted by Nationwide and covering 1,000 people, shows that the consumer confidence index is up nine points to 47 in January.

Although the improvement has been welcomed by experts, the figure is still the second lowest since records began, 30 points below the average level. The Nationwide said that given the “challenging economic backdrop” this may prove to be a “temporary bounce”.

The lender said the fall in inflation and improvements to the manufacturing and service sectors were the main catalysts for the increase in confidence levels.

Nationwide also noted the importance of the economic situation in the eurozone, arguing that strong links with Europe in terms of exports meant that a recovery in the region was vital for Britain’s future economic prospects.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said:

After ending 2011 close to all time lows, consumer confidence staged a modest recovery at the start of 2012, picking up by nine points to 47. Nevertheless, sentiment remains subdued by historic standards, with the main index almost 30 points below its long-run average.

Given the challenging economic backdrop, with the UK economy contracting in the final quarter of 2012 and the unemployment rate rising to its highest level since 1995 in recent months, the improvement may prove to be little more than a temporary bounce.

Looking forward, renewed hope that the UK will avoid a double-dip recession may support sentiment, especially since the downward trend in inflation is set to continue through 2012. But with the UK recovery likely to remain weak in the first half of the year, a significant and sustained rise in consumer confidence remains unlikely in the near term.

No doubt developments in the Eurozone will continue to play an important role in shaping how people view the UK’s future economic prospects, given the strong economic and financial linkages with the single currency area and the UK’s reliance on exports to drive its recovery at present.

There was also an increase in the number of people claiming it was a good time to spend on household goods. Forty per cent of respondents said they felt it was a good time to purchase, up from 31 per cent in December. Given the fragility of the economic recovery in the UK, these modest improvements will be welcome news to the government.

Worst unemployment figures since 1995 as squeeze on pay continues.

Unemployment in the UK has risen by a further 48,000 in the three months leading up to December, with official figures now showing that 2.67 million people are unemployed in Britain. This represents 8.4 per cent of the population, the worst rate of unemployment since 1995.

Data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that claimants of Jobseekers Allowance increased to 1.6 million in January, a rise of 6,900. This is the eleventh consecutive month this figure has risen, with the number of women on Jobseekers now standing at 531,700, the highest since 1995.

The number of young people unemployed has also risen. 22.2 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds are now without a job, an increase of 22,000 to 1.04 million.

Although unemployment was up, the employment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points for the three months to December. The number of people who found paid employment increased during the quarter to 29,130,000, up 60,000. This figure is 0.2 percentage points lower than at the same stage a year earlier.

Employment figures increased by 60,000 and now stands at 29.8 million. This has been attributed to the surge in part-time employment which increased by 83,000 over the last quarter, hitting a record high of 1.35 million.

The reason for the inconsistency between the employment and unemployment figures is down to a drop in the number of people considered economically inactive. The number of people classified as sick and unavailable to work fell, with some who were previously categorised as retired also returning to employment.

The squeeze on spending power showed no signs of subsiding with average earnings 2 per cent on the year earlier, unchanged on the three months to November 2011. However, with the rate of inflation at 3.6 per cent, spending power continues to be squeezed.

Image via Wikipedia

written by Robert Pollard for New Statesman

TV broadcasting agency sets new rules on the amount of foreign television programmes that can be aired.

China’s media regulator has imposed new restrictions on television programming by banning foreign programmes during prime time slots, state media reported on Tuesday.

All foreign TV series are now capped at 50 episodes and such shows cannot be aired between 19.30-22.00, according to State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). The China Daily Newspaper said the “aim is to improve the quality of imported TV programmes”.

Foreign shows on Chinese television tend to come from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and India. There is also huge interest in US made television; however, these are sourced online or through pirated DVDs.

SARFT said:

Regulatory bodies around the country must increase their supervision over foreign television shows broadcast on television stations at all levels, and increase fines levied for those who break the rules

There is also a restriction on the amount of foreign shows that can be aired during a day, with “no more than 25 per cent” of a channel’s output permitted to be foreign. SARFT are also encouraging broadcasters to avoid “intensively” broadcasting shows from one particular country.

The Communist Party in China are seen by many as trying to dictate Chinese culture, and this latest will move will be seen as a further tightening of their control.

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written by Robert Pollard for New Statesman

Fifty-four times Scottish Champions face £49m HMRC bill.

Rangers Football Club are set to enter administration as the club battles with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) at a tribunal over a disputed tax bill of £49m.

They have submitted a notice of intent to appoint administrators and the club now has ten days to decide whether to enter administration, a move which would result in a 10 point penalty deduction.

Owner Craig Whyte admitted last night that the likelihood is that Rangers will enter administration, adding: “I think we have to face that Rangers will be in administration – and will come out the other side a fitter and stronger business.”

If the tribunal decides in favour of HMRC, Rangers would be likely to incur further costs, with some reports suggesting they could owe as much as £75m. The case surrounds Rangers’ apparent misuse of the employment benefit trusts (EBTs) in which the club avoided paying large sums of tax.

Rangers, who have won the Scottish title 54 times, are currently running a £10m per year deficit and were forced to sell star striker Nikica Jelavic to Everton for £5.5m in the January transfer window to ease some of the financial pressure on the club.

Craig Whyte, who bought the club from former chairman Sir David Murray last year, released a statement in which he said the following:

Since I took over the majority shareholding of the club in May last year, it was clear to me the club was facing massive financial challenges both in terms of its ongoing financial structure and performance and the potential consequences of the HMRC first tier tax tribunal.

I have taken the decision that the most practical way to safeguard the long-term future of the club is to go through a formal restructuring process. It may still be possible to avert this but that is not the most likely way forward.

What is of paramount importance is the long-term security, survival and prosperity of this great football club.

From my early days as chairman I saw that administration was a very real option to enable the club to address these challenges and make a fresh start.

Frankly, the case for administration in pure financial terms was compelling but I was acutely aware that such a great institution as Rangers could not be viewed exclusively in financial and business terms.

So what does administration mean for Rangers?

Administration

Administration occurs when clubs miscalculate their cash flow. In the case of Rangers, a situation has occurred whereby HMRC have demanded a substantial tax sum and the club are unable to make the payment. The administration process allows a club to continue operating without having to sell of assets to pay immediate debts. It is hoped that administration will give Rangers time to change their business model to a more sustainable one whilst continuing to compete in the Scottish league.

Administrators

Administrators are essentially a set of accountants whose job it is to analyse the club’s books and minimise losses by restructuring their finances. Administrators will run the business side of the club temporarily, paying creditors as much as possible whilst still keeping the club afloat. In some cases, administrators will be charged with the task of finding a buyer for the club if it is clear the current owners cannot afford to continue their involvement.

If administration fails, the club faces the threat of liquidation where the clubs’ assets will be sold in order to pay back creditors.

10 Point Deduction

At the moment, Rangers have only submitted a notice of intention to appoint administrators which does not incur a penalty, however, if the club does appoint administrators, which seems highly likely at this stage, they will immediately face a ten point penalty deduction and the club would no longer be able to sign new players until the administrators leave. These rules around administration have been in place since an Annual General Meeting of all Scottish Premier League clubs in 2004.

With the club currently 4 points adrift of rivals Celtic, a 10 point deduction would effectively end their hopes of a fourth successive SPL title.

Who will suffer?

There is a possibility that player and staff wages may be suspended if the administrators deem such action necessary. In a club statement, Rangers tried to assure fans that they will not be affected by the administration process, saying there will be “no impact on season ticket holders and shareholders”.

Partially state-owned bank to close offices in Newcastle, Romford and Scunthorpe.

Lloyds Banking Group has announced the closure of three of its offices, resulting in 990 lost jobs.

Lloyds, which is 40.2 per cent owned by the taxpayer after it was bailed out in 2008, has overseen more than 30,000 job losses in the last 3 years since the takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland.

The bank claimed that the latest set of job losses were part of a strategy review previously announced. In a statement, the bank said that, where possible, it would try to redistribute staff in an attempt to avoid redundancies.

The roles will come from within group operations, group executive functions, risk, wholesale and insurance divisions. Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees in a careful and sensitive way.

The group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the group.

Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy. Compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort.

In fact, during 2009, 2010 and 2011, slightly less than 50% of the role reductions made as part of integration have led to people leaving the group through redundancy. There are 990 role reductions from today’s announcement.

Unions reacted angrily, claiming the decision was ‘devastating news for the employees. General Secretary of the Accord trade Union, Ged Nichols, said:

Today’s confirmation that Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is to shed nearly 1,000 more jobs on top of the 30,000 that have been lost since the Halifax Bank of Scotland Group was taken over just three years ago is devastating news for the employees who will be affected and the communities in which they live.

Newcastle, Romford and Scunthorpe are areas that cannot afford to lose the high-quality jobs that will go as a result of today’s announcement.
Whilst Accord has informed LBG that it must do everything possible to avoid compulsory redundancies and work with us to provide support and guidance to those affected, the truth is that even those who volunteer to go will find it difficult to find alternative employment in these difficult economic times.

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written by Robert Pollard for New Statesman

IMF and eurozone insist on further cuts in exchange for £110bn bailout fund.

Athens was plunged further into crisis this weekend after Greek ministers passed a fresh austerity package in exchange for a £110bn eurozone and IMF bailout aimed at avoiding the government defaulting on its debt and forcing Greece to leave the euro. It is the second eurozone bailout Greece has received in the last two years.

The decision led to violent scenes on the streets of Athens as protestors opposing further austerity clashed with riot police, setting fire to over 40 buildings as social and political tension reached new heights. Angry at the latest measures, which include public sector job losses and wage and pension reductions, protestors rioted and looted on a scale rarely seen inside the Greek capital. The violence spread to towns and cities outside of Athens, including the islands of Corfu and Crete.

Teargas was fired by police as the demonstrators launched firebombs in Syntagma square where 40 policeman and dozens of citizens were injured. Cinemas, shops and banks were burnt in reaction to “the occupation” of politicians and lenders from outside Greece imposing sanctions to keep the country afloat. Protestors feel that the benefit from any subsequent bailout is outweighed by the long-term damage the cuts will have on the social fabric of Greece.

Greek prime minister, Lukas Papademos, had warned prior to the vote that the country would suffer untold damage if the package was not passed, claiming savings accounts would be lost and schools and hospitals would be closed. Analysts said that a Greek default would have endangered any prospect of a eurozone recovery.

In a speech to parliament before the vote took place he said: “Vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won’t be tolerated”.

The measures were passed after a controversial vote in which MPs voted 199-74 in favour, with 43 ministers from the Socialist and New Democracy coalition expelled after the vote for either abstaining or voting against the party line. Earlier in the week, five ministers, including two from Pasok, had quit in opposition to further austerity.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said: “When you have to choose between bad and worse, you will pick what is bad to avoid what is worse”. Ministers from the eurozone will now convene on Wednesday in Brussels to ratify the measures before any bailout funds can be sanctioned.

Included in the latest austerity package are:

- 15,000 public-sector job cuts
- liberalisation of labour laws
- lowering the minimum wage by 20 per cent from 751 euros a month to 600 euros

The social unrest in Greece is now so severe that many question the country’s ability to return to prosperity after five years of recession in which living standards have declined dramatically.

A total of six English clubs make up the top 20 but Spanish giants remain in pole position.

Real Madrid’s revenue of £401m for the 2010/11 season means they remain top of the Deloitte European Money League for the seventh year in a row as football continues to defy the financial crisis.

Barcelona are second and Manchester United third, with Arsenal and Chelsea in fifth and sixth respectively. The top six remain the same for the fourth consecutive year.

The gap between United and the two Spanish clubs increased again despite United’s revenue continuing to grow. This is largely due to the ability of Spanish teams to negotiate their own television rights and therefore claim a larger slice of TV revenue. Manchester United’s early exit from this season’s Champions League means the gap is likely to increase further when next year’s list is published.

German side Schalke were the biggest climbers, leaping six places into tenth, however, Manchester City’s participation in this year’s Champions League, coupled with their huge Etihad sponsorship deal, means they will likely replace the German side the top 10 in 12 months time.

A total of six English clubs, the highest from any country, comprise the top 20, with a further five in the top 40 (Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Everton, West Ham United and Sunderland), further evidence that the Premier League is now Europe’s top club competition.

In total, the top 20 clubs have achieved 3 per cent growth on the previous year’s figures, more than double that of the countries represented in the list.

The report also highlights the extreme concentration of wealth amongst Europe’s elite. In total, the combined revenues of the top 20 clubs on the list accounts for a quarter of the total revenues across the European football market (4.4 billion Euros), a staggering statistic which shows the disparity between those competing in European competitions and those who aren’t.

Dan Jones, Partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, commented:

Continued growth of the top 20 clubs during 2010/11 emphasises the strength of football’s top clubs, especially in these tough economic times. Whilst revenue growth has slowed from 8% in 2009/10 to 3% in 2010/11, their large and loyal supporter bases, ability to drive strong broadcast audiences and continuing attraction to corporate partners has made them relatively resilient to the economic downturn.

Barca’s shirt deal with the Qatar Foundation, will further boost the club’s revenue in 2011/12. Nonetheless, Real Madrid will be confident it can remain at the top of the Money League next year. The two clubs’ on-pitch performance, particularly in this season’s Champions League, will have a big influence on the final outcome.

Social networking site unveils plans for $5bn IPO.

Facebook, the world’s largest and most popular social networking site, has announced it will sell shares that value the company at $100bn. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) is expected to be the largest since Google’s in 2004.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, who created and launched the site whilst studying at Harvard University, is set have a $28bn stake. The site currently has 845m users and announced a profit of $1bn last year, a 65 per cent ($606m) increase on the previous year’s figures.

Already there have been suggestions that around 1,000 current and former employees could become millionaires once the process is complete.

The site filed for floatation on Wednesday after the US stock markets ceased trading. A document submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed some interesting facts. Zuckerberg has a 28.4 per cent share of Facebook, and of its 845m users, a massive 443m use the site daily. It also showed that the site’s revenue increased 88 per cent between 2010 and 2011.

The document also showed that Sheryl Sandberg, the former Google executive who is now Facebook’s chief operating officer, earned a salary $295,833 in 2011, with a further $30.8m of stock awards. The former chief of staff to the US Treasury is now widely expected to become Facebook’s public face on Wall Street.

Zuckerberg released a letter to the public ahead of the sale which said:

We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services

These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.

Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.

The estimated $100bn value of Facebook is comparable to that of Amazon and McDonald’s, however still falls short of online giants Google and Yahoo.

The batch of millionaires set to be created by the sale of Facebook includes Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of the site, and 7.6 per cent stakeholder. Sean Parker, the founding president, will also become a millionaire with his 4 per cent share. Parker also launched Napster, a music downloading site that ran into legal difficulties over claims of copyright infringement. U2 frontman Bono will also reap financial rewards thanks to his stake in Elevation Partners, which has $120m worth of shares in Facebook.

Question marks remain over how Facebook plans to maintain growth. Peter Cohan, founder of Cohan associates, a management consultancy firm, has suggested long-term success is far less certain than some believe. “Quite simply, there is no other company out there that could pull off this valuation. People are dying to get into this company because they are on Facebook, it’s irrational if you look at the numbers”. He added that, “three months after the IPO, the first earnings report will be the key. If Facebook beats expectations, it will be fine. If it doesn’t, it will get trashed.”

The success of Facebook is further evidence as to the power of the internet in terms of social and political change. Eight years have passed since its creation and the site has been responsible for a Hollywood film, the coining of new verb phrases, and used as a tool for the uprising in Egypt. Facebook’s decision to float on the stock market has now also created the world’s youngest billionaire and proves that social networking is a potentially lucrative sector of the internet.

Fastest rise in factory output prices for 9 months.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released on Friday morning have shown that UK producer prices rose 0.5 per cent for the year to January 2012. It represents the largest increase in a single month since April, with increased petrol, alcohol and clothing prices said to be the cause. The figure is higher than the expected 0.4 per cent increase.

Output inflation rates were down from 4.8 per cent in December to 4.1 per cent, their lowest annual rate since 2010, providing some relief to businesses hit by raw material price increases.

However, the drop in output inflation was not as significant as economists had hoped for, with fears now growing that producer price inflation could start to put pressure on the wider economy.

A separate report released by the ONS has revealed that the construction sector contracted by 0.5 per cent during the final 3 months of 2011 when compared with the previous quarter.

Social network now boasts 145 million users as revenue doubles.

LinkedIn, the social networking site that allows professionals to connect, has seen significant growth in revenue and users during the final three months of 2011, as 14 million new profiles were added and revenue reached £106m.

The dramatic surge in new users has seen the site reach 145 million users worldwide, an increase of 10 per cent during quarter 4. Revenue is up 105 per cent on the same period in 2010 and shows the company consolidating itself as a leading social networking site.

After an initial IPO in May, which saw stock rise to $109, the company share price fell dramatically soon after, raising fears that the value of the site had been somewhat overblown. The latest figures should begin to allay shareholder fears, with the company now predicating even more impressive numbers in the coming year.

In a statement on the company’s website, chief executive Jeff Weiner said: “It was a fitting end to a memorable year in which we reinforced our position as the pre-eminent professional network on the web.”

The company also hired 200 new members of staff during the fourth of quarter of 2011 and now has over 2,000 employees.

The news comes shortly after rival site Facebook announced plans to float on the stock market later in the year. LinkedIn’s latest figures will give a further boost to the social networking industry ahead of Facebook’s floatation.

Increase in listeners for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

According to the latest batch of audience figures released by Rajar, the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 has had a surge in listeners.

The influential news programme presented by John Humphrys now commands an audience close to its highest ever, with an average weekly listenership of 7.15m. It is also just 90,000 listeners less than Chris Moyles gets on his Radio 1 breakfast show.

The increase in Today’s popularity has been attributed to growing concerns of the UK economy, with listeners’ fears of another recession cited as an important factor.

There was also excellent news for BBC 6 Music, a station threatened with closure in 2010 before an online campaign saved the station. On the eve of its 10th birthday, 1.5m listeners tuned in, an impressive number for a digital station dedicated to alternative music. 6 Music has seen its listenership double since the threat to axe it from the BBC’s portfolio, something which has turned out to be one of the most effective marketing campaigns in recent memory.

5 Live saw the largest decrease in listeners, with a weekly audience of 6.23m, almost 1m less than they commanded during the same period in 2010.

Radio 2 is still, by some distance, the most popular radio station in the UK, with an average weekly reach of 14.27m. The Chris Evans breakfast show commands 8.86m listeners, making it the most popular radio show in the country.

The importance of the Rajar audience figures is evermore significant in light of the BBC’s decision to reduce its radio spend. Proposals to remove £15m from the local radio budget have been touted, with 280 jobs set to be lost if the plans go ahead. Local radio figures did increase by 45,000 compared to the previous quarter but this figure is still less than in 2010.

Social networking site unveils plans for $5bn IPO.

Facebook, the world’s largest and most popular social networking site, has announced it will sell shares that value the company at $100bn. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) is expected to be the largest since Google’s in 2004.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, who created and launched the site whilst studying at Harvard University, is set have a $28bn stake. The site currently has 845m users and announced a profit of $1bn last year, a 65 per cent ($606m) increase on the previous year’s figures.

Already there have been suggestions that around 1,000 current and former employees could become millionaires once the process is complete.

The site filed for floatation on Wednesday after the US stock markets ceased trading. A document submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commissionrevealed some interesting facts. Zuckerberg has a 28.4 per cent share of Facebook, and of its 845m users, a massive 443m use the site daily. It also showed that the site’s revenue increased 88 per cent between 2010 and 2011.

The document also showed that Sheryl Sandberg, the former Google executive who is now Facebook’s chief operating officer, earned a salary $295,833 in 2011, with a further $30.8m of stock awards. The former chief of staff to the US Treasury is now widely expected to become Facebook’s public face on Wall Street.

Zuckerberg released a letter to the public ahead of the sale which said:

We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services

These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.

Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.

The estimated $100bn value of Facebook is comparable to that of Amazon and McDonald’s, however still falls short of online giants Google and Yahoo.

The batch of millionaires set to be created by the sale of Facebook includes Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of the site, and 7.6 per cent stakeholder. Sean Parker, the founding president, will also become a millionaire with his 4 per cent share. Parker also launched Napster, a music downloading site that ran into legal difficulties over claims of copyright infringement. U2 frontman Bono will also reap financial rewards thanks to his stake in Elevation Partners, which has $120m worth of shares in Facebook.

Question marks remain over how Facebook plans to maintain growth. Peter Cohan, founder of Cohan associates, a management consultancy firm, has suggested long-term success is far less certain than some believe. “Quite simply, there is no other company out there that could pull off this valuation. People are dying to get into this company because they are on Facebook, it’s irrational if you look at the numbers”. He added that, “three months after the IPO, the first earnings report will be the key. If Facebook beats expectations, it will be fine. If it doesn’t, it will get trashed.”

The success of Facebook is further evidence as to the power of the internet in terms of social and political change. Eight years have passed since its creation and the site has been responsible for a Hollywood film, the coining of new verb phrases, and used as a tool for the uprising in Egypt. Facebook’s decision to float on the stock market has now also created the world’s youngest billionaire and proves that social networking is a potentially lucrative sector of the internet.

Chancellor’s obsession with spending cuts could cause ‘lasting damage’ to UK economy.

The fears of those who feel the government’s economic policy is flawed have been echoed by the director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR). Jonathan Portes, who served in the Cabinet Office under Gordon Brown, has claimed that George Osborne’s dogmatic insistence that austerity measures are the only way to improve the UK economy is causing ‘lasting damage’.

Portes has argued that the current high unemployment figures make the need for immediate stimulus increasingly urgent. Osborne’s refusal to ease austerity measures in the short-term are undermining the UK’s recovery in the long-term, something Portes believes could lead to entrenched economic adversity.

He said:

We are accepting a significant degree of long-term economic and social damage.

It’s not primarily about bigger growth next year. It’s about the long-run economic and social damage … that we are deliberately doing.

Portes was speaking at an NIESR event where their latest set of economic forecasts were announced. Their figures suggest that the UK is headed back into recession, with growth continuing to stall for the foreseeable future. They suggest a £15bn government investment in 2012 would add 0.7 per cent to the growth figures for the next 12 months, provided interest rates remained at their current level.

They also said that if the current fiscal squeeze is continued, the UK economy could contract by a further 0.1 per cent this year. This comes after news that the UK economy shrank in the final quarter of last year.

Furthermore, with unemployment standing at 8.4 per cent, its highest since 1995, the NIESR predicts it will reach 9.1 per cent towards the end of the year, which equates to 3 million people unemployed.

In his article for The Staggers here on the New Statesman, Portes claims that ‘deficient demand’ is the main problem facing the UK economy, and that the Chancellor’s current approach is exacerbating the situation.

Osborne’s refusal to negotiate the pace at which he implements his austerity measures has, so far, been undying, repeatedly insisting there is ‘no alternative’ to the government’s plans. However, with the intervention of a leading economic think tank like the NIESR, it raises further doubts over the credibility of his plan. As Alistair Darling noted in his New Statesman interview this week, Osborne has already revised down his own forecasts on four occasions since becoming Chancellor in May 2010.

Xstrata and Glencore in talks over merger deal.

Xstrata and Glencore, two giant raw materials firms, are in talks over a possible merger that if successful would create a new company potentially worth £50m.

The two Swiss companies have urged caution, claiming talks over an all-share merger of equals may not lead to a deal being completed, but suggestions are that an announcement could be made on Tuesday when Xstrata release its annual results.

If the landmark deal did come to fruition, the possibility of two of the largest mining companies joining forces has already led to talk of a new breed of ‘super-miners’. The new company would offer skills and knowledge in all areas of mining and their combined skill sets would create a powerful new firm and potentially alter the landscape of the industry at large. Many mining professionals are already predicting a sea change across the industry, with rival firms, such as Anglo American and Rio Tinto, expected to alter their strategies in order to keep pace.

It is unclear as to who would assume the role of chief executive, although early suggestions are that Xstrata’s Mick Davis would lead the new firm. Ivan Glasenberg, Davis’ opposite number at Glencore, is expected to fill the deputy role temporarily before moving on to pastures new.

The head of natural resources at Liberum Capital, Michael Rawlinson, claimed the timing of the deal surprised some, saying: “The market is surprised that [Xstrata chief executive] Mick Davis has caved in so quickly [to Glencore]. However, the longer they left it, the less chance Xstrata had to get a premium. In three years’ time, Glencore would have been a seasoned stock with a bigger institutional share register. So there is an argument ‘why not do a deal now and get a small premium”.

Many believe that a merger would mean the liberalisation of both companies, with their combined powers offering the potential for significant progress in the field.

Former Labour Chancellor disapproves of government move.

The decision to strip Fred Goodwin of his knighthood has been criticised by former Chancellor Alistair Darling, who described the move as “tawdry” and taken “on a whim”.

Darling led a chorus of discontent from various high-profile figures who questioned whether the removal of the former RBS boss’ honour was the correct ruling.

Darling said:

There is something tawdry about the government directing its fire at Fred Goodwin alone; if it’s right to annul his knighthood, what about the honours of others who were involved in RBS and HBOS?

If policy is not based on principle but is about individuals, the government will carry on being blown in the wind.

Committees can see the way the wind is blowing. I think the minute he was referred, the outcome was inevitable.

I’m not here to defend Sir Fred… I just think we’re getting into awful trouble here if we go after people on a whim and we don’t have a clear set of principles against which we can judge people, it’s not right.

Darling, Labour MP for Edinburgh South West, was not the only one to denounce the decision, with leading business figures also voicing their concerns. Former F1 world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, a friend of Goodwin’s, said he was worried that the move was “poor for the constitution and very dangerous for the future”. The Institute of Directors warned of creating “anti-business hysteria” that would ultimately prove damaging to the UK’s claim of being an attractive place to do business.

The leaders of the major political parties were united in their view that the move was correct, with David Cameron describing it as “the right decision”, and Labour leader Ed Miliband saying he felt it was “only the start of the change we need in our boardrooms”.

Unemployment figures increase as debt crisis continues to engulf the region.

According to the Eurostat agency, unemployment across the eurozone hit record levels at the end of 2011, with the jobless rate standing at 10.4 per cent at the end of December.

With 16.5 million people across the 17 single currency countries unemployed, an increase of 751,000 on the 2010 figures, it represents the worst unemployment levels since the euro was launched in 1999.

Spain has the highest rate, with 22.9 per cent of people out of work, while Austria has the lowest with 4.1 per cent unemployed. The debt crisis that has flooded the region has seen unemployment rise steadily throughout 2011 and the problems show little sign of abating.

Employment difficulties extend to the EU, with 23.8 million (9.9 per cent) unemployed across the 27 EU nations.

Citigroup economist Guillaume Menuet believes that 2012 will see further job losses across the Europe:

If you think about the direction of employment expectations that you see across various business surveys, the outlook for employment doesn’t look particularly enticing, simply because the uncertainty is very high.

In many cases you find firms continuing to delay investment projects. For those that are still making profits, hiring is being frozen, and for those which are under pressure to hit results or losing money, job losses are becoming the only solution that they have.

These disappointing figures will raise further questions about the suitability of austerity measures in times of economic uncertainty. Many economists believe reductions in government spending is the least effective way of dealing with a debt crisis and the figures released today will likely reaffirm those beliefs.

French President ready to implement a financial transaction tax and hopes move will encourage other countries to follow.

Nicolas Sarkozy is ready to resist pressure from France’s finance sector and introduce a 0.1 per cent tax on financial transactions.

The French president proposes to introduce the ‘Tobin Tax’ regardless of whether other EU countries do the same, saying he hopes the decision will encourage others to follow suit. He believes that the measure will improve the economic difficulties facing France.

What we want to do is create a shockwave and set an example that there is absolutely no reason why those who helped bring about the crisis shouldn’t pay to restore the finances

We hope the tax will generate €1bn (£800m) of new income and thus cut our budget deficit.

Some in France believe the move is purely political. With the French elections looming, and Sarkozy trailing socialist candidate Francois Hollande in the polls, many French commentators believe this to be a move aimed at improving his own ratings.

Here in the UK, David Cameron has continually refused to embrace the Tobin Tax, claiming that worldwide implementation would be the only way of making the tax a success.

A spokesman for the UK arm of the Robin Hood Tax campaign said:

Sarkozy has shown he is capable of reining in the banks and ensuring they pay more in tax. Why then is David Cameron so resistant when the idea is backed by the British people?

If he’s serious about us ‘all being in this together’ he needs to get on and introduce Britain’s own tax to make banks pay their fair share.

Sarkozy’s decision will place further pressure on Cameron to adopt the tax in Britain. Labour’s Ed Miliband, a known advocate of the tax, may see this as an opportunity to press the Prime Minister on the issue.

Downing Street says “We are not going to micro-manage bonuses”.

David Cameron will not force any RBS executives to turn down bonus payments, despite growing calls for government intervention on executive pay.

On Sunday, RBS chief executive Stephen Hester announced that he will not be accepting his proposed £963,000 bonus after pressure grew for him to decline the award.

A spokeswoman for Downing Street said:

We are not going to micro-manage bonuses. They are doing a good job and making good progress.

The prime minister’s view was that he wanted the bonuses to be lower.

He always made it clear that it was a matter for Mr Hester whether he took that bonus or not, and that should remain the case. Reward for good performance is not in itself a bad thing.

Before Hester’s decision was announced, Labour MPs had threatened to force a commons vote on the issue. Ed Miliband has now said it should not be a “one-off episode” and that the government needed to make “real change” to the bonus payment system, calling for workers at every company to have a say on the pay of the top earners.

I think it is right that Labour had the parliamentary vote and I think that it was the threat of that parliamentary vote that led to change.

But I don’t think this can be just a one-off episode, because if we don’t deal with this systematically, if we don’t deal with the issue of bankers’ bonuses in a proper way, this kind of thing is just going to re-occur.

This isn’t the best way of setting the pay for top chief executives, let’s be honest about it.

That is why we need real change – real change in the boardroom and new rules and real change from the Government to say tax the bankers’ bonuses until we see the change in behaviour that we need.

This issue has become party political in recent months, with Labour continually challenging the government’s position in order to appear tough on executive pay. However, it seems that government are not keen to intervene and are instead happy to let individual companies set bonus levels.

Rise of mobile internet access set to spark sharp rise in G20 web value.

Over the next 4 years the total value of the web economy in G20 countries will almost double in value, a new study has claimed today.

The report suggests that the current £1.5tn value will reach £2.7tn by 2016, with the rise of mobile internet access the main source of growth in the sector. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released the figures after internet giants Google commissioned the research.

The cost of smartphones has reduced rapidly in recent times, with a basic version now costing only $100. It is estimated that by 2016, 80 per cent of people accessing the internet will do so via a mobile handset.

It is claimed that internet access is set to become far more widespread, with 3bn users by 2016 – almost half the worlds entire population.

The BCG study outlines a ‘new internet’ age, where social interaction between companies and customers will become widespread. It says that the majority of web users will live in emerging markets, with internet access no longer a luxury for most people.

The research also suggests that the UK is one of the most advanced e-commerce economies in the world, something which will delight David Cameron, who has spoken of his desire to make London “one of the world’s great technology centres”.

Japanese game makers announce sharp drop in quarterly profits amid emergence of new gaming platforms.

After a sharp decline in quarterly profits, Nintendo are now forecasting a loss of £370m over the next 12 months.

It is thought that the company’s traditional videogame approach has been severely damaged by internet-based games and smartphone devices, which continue to increase in popularity.

“To say that [the days of consoles] are over is likely an overstatement, but social-network and internet-delivered games are growing and structurally changing the future of the industry, which is a strong wind against Nintendo,” said Shigeo Sugawara, senior investment manager at asset managers Sompo Japan Nipponkoa.

Nintendo were responsible for the creation of the Super Mario franchise, a dominant brand in the videogame sector for many years. More recently they created the Nintendo DS and the Wii games console but the versatility of smartphone and tablet devices appears to be having a severe effect on their sales.

The chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Tokyo, Mitsushige Akino, believes that their era of dominance may be coming to a close. “Their time of growth [from consoles] is over, and, while I don’t think the company will cease to exist, if they don’t move into new categories, they will no doubt lose the great scale they’ve amassed,” he said.

Nintendo have plans to launch the successor to the Wii in Japan, Europe, Australia and the US at the end of 2012, however, some analysts believe that they will struggle to generate the same level of excitement they managed with previous releases. It seems Nintendo must now adapt to the changing world of video gaming, with large companies such as Google TV looking to enter the market.

Cabinet office publish list of 277 people who rejected OBEs, CBEs and knighthoods over the past 40 years.

The names of people who have rejected honours from the Queen has been released after Cabinet Office officials were forced to publish the information. LS Lowry, CS Lewis, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud are among the most notable names on the list.

Here are 10 who turned down honours.

Roald Dahl – OBE, 1986

Henry Moore – Knight, 1951

Alfred Hitchcock – CBE 1962

Lucian Freud – CBE, 1977

Aldous Huxley – Knight, 1959

CS Lewis – CBE 1952

Evelyn Waugh – CBE 1959

LS Lowry – OBE, CBE, Kt, CH, between 1955-1976

Francis Bacon – CBE 1960

Robert Graves – CBE 1957, CH 1984

Between 1951 and 1999, 277 people declined honours, with 89 rejected MBEs, 89 OBEs, 61 CBEs and 27 knighthoods. The most remarkable example is artist LS Lowry who turned down an honour on 5 occasions, including the offer of a knighthood in 1968.

The published list contains names of those who turned down and honours and have since died. Another list was leaked in 2003 which showed that David Bowie and French and Saunders had also turned down awards.

Former RBS head could lose his knighthood as Cameron talks tough on executive pay.

David Cameron has called for the removal of Fred Goodwin’s knighthood after formally asking the honours committee to revoke the award.

The former head of RBS was given the honour as recognition for his “services to banking” but his role in the near collapse of the bank, which caused thousands of job losses, has led to calls for him to be stripped of the award.

Cameron said:

“I think it is right that there is a proper process that is followed for something of this order. There is a forfeiture committee in terms of honours that exists, and it will now examine this issue. I think it is right that it does so.

Obviously it will want to take account of the Financial Services Authority report, which I think is material and important because of what it says about the failures of RBS and what went wrong and who is responsible and the rest of it.”

Cameron’s decision to go public with the announcement is an unusual one since it breaches the confidentiality agreement between government and Whitehall. Any references to the removal of knighthoods are usually kept confidential until the forfeiture committee makes its decision.

The announcement follows his speech on the future of capitalism where he questioned the link between hard work and executive pay. It seems clear that Cameron is keen to make inroads in the debate surrounding the future of capitalism after losing ground to Ed Miliband in recent months. Miliband has made the topic a key aspect of Labour’s opposition, something Conservative strategists are keen to hijack.

Cameron also said that RBS chief executive Stephen Hester must take a lower bonus payment than the £2m he received in 2011.

Interest rates set to remain low until 2016 as fears of double-dip recession continue to grow.

A leading economic think tank has claimed that growth will remain so low for the next four years that the current base rate of 0.5 per cent will remain until 2016. Their dire growth figures suggest that the Bank of England has little choice but to keep interest rates at their current level.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) also claims that Britain has already fallen back into recession, with the British economy shrinking over the last 3 quarters of 2011 and continuing to do so.

The Ernst and Young ITEM Club concur with the findings made by the CEBR after their forecasts have shown Britain is likely in recession.

£279.5m deal agreed for Robert Wiseman Dairies after swift negotiations with German company Müller.

German dairy company Müller Group have agreed a deal with Robert Wiseman Dairies which will see the Scottish company bought for £279.5m.

The deal represents a 60 per cent increase on the share price from the day prior to the deal and sees the Müller Group grow its operations across Europe.

Robert Wiseman Dairies has grown significantly since its humble beginnings in the 1940s. Then, it was a small firm operating on a family farm in East Kilbride. Today the company supplies 30 per cent of Britain’s milk making a takeover an attractive proposition for the ambitious Müller Group.

The difficult economic climate saw Robert Wiseman Dairies announce a fall in profits for 2011 but there has been a 30 per cent increase in the value of the company over the last month with share prices reaching 389p before the takeover was completed.

Tom Harris causes further embarrassment to Labour after uploading spoof video of Alex Salmond.

Labour MP, Tom Harris, has quit his role as internet advisor for the Scottish Labour Party after posting a video depicting First Minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond as Hitler.

The video, which has previously been used to mock various high profile politicians such as Gordon Brown, takes footage from the movie Downfall, a film focused on Hitler’s final 12 days in Nazi Germany, with the subtitled words of Alex Salmond added to the images.

Harris has since apologised for his role in the incident but after a meeting with leader Johann Lamont he decided to step down.

Harris, the Labour MP for Glasgow South, said:

“Having spoken to Johann, I have decided to step down from leading the party’s social media review.

The video I posted has been a well worn joke used to parody a range of public figures.

However, context is everything and in the context of Johann’s and my desire to improve the level of political debate on social media and the context of Joan McAlpine‘s much more serious statements about all political opponents of the SNP being anti-Scottish, my actions have been an unhelpful distraction for which I apologise.”

Harris ran for leadership of the Scottish Labour Party last year before losing badly to Lamont at the ballot box. The incident provides further embarrassment for Labour who have suffered a series of unhelpful events in recent weeks, including Maurice Glasman’s critique of Ed Miliband’s leadership skills.

SNP ministers have been quick to condemn the footage, claiming the video is “tasteless” and “hugely embarrassing” for Labour.

A spokesperson for the SNP added that: “It is silly, negative nonsense like this that helps explain why Labour are in the doldrums in Scotland”.

Labour responded by claiming that the party were keen to engage in “an adult debate” about the future of Scotland, adding that “Attention is now focussing again on the SNP’s refusal to take any action against their official ministerial aide Joan McAlpine for outrageously questioning people’s Scottishness and patriotism if, like most people, they don’t support separation.”

written by Robert Pollard

It’s time for the ‘Passions Just Like Mine Best Album of 2011′ award, and this year’s winner is, of course, Laura Marling for her superb 3rd album A Creature I Don’t know. See if you agree with the list below….

Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know

Beirut – The Rip Tide

Atlas Sound – Parallax

Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi

Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Wild Beasts – Smother

Real Estate – Days

War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

As another great year for music draws to a close I thought it only right that I join the legions of other people who have compiled their ‘Best Of’ lists. Below are the best songs of 2011 in my opinion.

1 – Laura Marling – Sophia

2 – Anna Calvi – Blackout

3 – Beirut – Santa Fe

4 – Kurt Vile – Baby’s Arms

5 – Beirut – East Harlem

6 – Atlas Sound – Mona Lisa

7 – Laura Marling – The Beast

8 – Real Estate – It’s Real

9 – Kurt Vile – Runner Ups

10 – Anna Calvi – Desire

11 – Lana Del Rey – Video Games

12 – Bon Iver – Perth

Every now and then an opportunity arises to make seismic changes to the social, economic and political landscape. The last time this truly happened in Britain was when Thatcher strode into power, where, after years of economic hardship, she decided that the way to deliver prosperity was to deregulate our banks, giving free rein to those working in the finance sector. The ideology was simple. Thatcher did not mind those at the very top becoming super rich because it meant that money would trickle down to the rest of society and Britain would be wealthy once again. By rolling back the state, lowering taxes for the rich, privatising  government-owned enterprises and deregulating the markets, she set in motion the economic approach we still see today. At the same time, Ronald Reagan was implementing the same economic paradigm across the Atlantic. It became known as the neoliberal agenda and it has dominated British and American politics ever since. Tony Blair was a strong advocate of this approach. He had more of a social conscience than Thatcher, and invested more heavily in education, health and other public services, but on the whole he followed the neoliberal agenda meticulously. His close advisor, Peter Mandelson, once famously said he was ‘very comfortable with some people becoming filthy rich’. That statement sums up neoliberalism as well as the direction of the Labour Party under Blair.

Despite some clear benefits of the system which saw living standards improve, there have been many ugly side effects. The gap between rich and poor has widened incomprehensibly and the ‘winner takes all’ mentality so prevalent across business has seeped into society. Money is now so important that people will behave any which way they have to in order to earn and spend it, whilst endless consumerist messages are shovelled down our throats urging us to spend. The inequality of wealth distribution remains, for many, the biggest source of frustration, with the top 1% of earners incredibly rich compared to the bottom 50%. This unrest was already bubbling under before the coalition government exacerbated the situation with a series of unfair cuts which have hurt some of the most vulnerable people in our society. What sort of message is being sent out when government forces honest, hardworking people who have little excess cash to clear up an economic mess they did not create? It’s a disgrace and large numbers of people are clicking on.

Anybody in need of statistical evidence to really highlight the effects of the neoliberal agenda should look no further than George Monibot’s recent Guardian article; an article in which he questions the existence of skill in the financial sector. He writes that…

“Between 1947 and 1979, productivity in the US rose by 119%, while the income of the bottom fifth of the population rose by 122%. But from 1979 to 2009, productivity rose by 80%, while the income of the bottom fifth fell by 4%. In roughly the same period, the income of the top 1% rose by 270%.

In the UK, the money earned by the poorest tenth fell by 12% between 1999 and 2009, while the money made by the richest 10th rose by 37%. The Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, climbed in this country from 26 in 1979 to 40 in 2009”. 

There are people gathered outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London as I write this. They have been described as ‘anti-capitalist protesters’ which, in many ways, they are, but their grievances are far more nuanced than that descriptor suggests. Their campaign is linked to the government’s austerity package, pension reform, neoliberalism and ethics in business. It seems a new coalition may well be developing; a social coalition of trade unions, public sector workers, women’s groups and students, all people who have been targeted by this government as the ones who should pay for our economic woes. If the Labour Party can also be bold enough to join in and add political weight to the campaign, which Ed Miliband has done to some degree this week, the chances of change would be significantly increased. Not only is the right thing to do, but it is an opportunity for Labour to redefine themselves and they must exploit it. The reaction from those in power has been quite revealing. In the US, President Obama welcomed and embraced the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement, while David Cameron and Theresa May have openly condemned those outside St. Paul’s. May’s derision was made clear on her recent appearance on Question Time, with the downright disregard she showed towards the protesters rather uncomfortable to watch and rightly pounced on by Ed Balls, the Labour Shadow Chancellor.

They may have been derided in some quarters but these protestors represent the thoughts and feelings of many disaffected people, alienated by neoliberal politics and the emergence of the super rich. The Tories can try to write them off as insignificant all they like, it will only increase the perception that their party is totally out of touch with the thoughts and feelings of the majority. It is in the Tories’ best interests to protect the status quo. The majority of them, certainly the cabinet ministers, are very, very rich people, and neoliberalism has served them and their families wonderfully well. Why would they seek to change something that has provided them with a life of luxury?

There are, of course, strong arguments that suggest capitalism is the best economic paradigm in that it encourages each individual to reach their full potential, meaning we make more medical, technological and, ultimately, social advances under capitalist rule. There are also those who believe that alternative systems are proven failures, and that capitalism is the only one which can lay claim to being a success, however, since the spectacular collapse of the banking system, which raised serious question marks about the longevity and fairness of capitalism, this argument has subsided somewhat. Clear alternatives are yet to emerge but what is evident is that change has to come, in some form or another. Extreme capitalist excesses must be curbed and the hardworking people who make this country successful must be rewarded for their endeavours. Statistics such as those presented above make depressing reading and surely cannot be pushed any further.

So, if you hear someone try to dismiss the protestors as riders of a bandwagon, or members of the loony left, then think of me – someone who agrees wholeheartedly with their concerns but hasn’t got the balls to leave my comfortable existence and join those outside St Paul’s. They are representing countless people like me across this country and deserve great credit for their stoicism and the determination in their belief that they can encourage change. This may well be the latest opportunity for us to implement significant alterations to a system badly in need of reform.

written by Robert Pollard

Manchester Cathedral, a stunning, centuries old church that sits proudly in the centre of the city, opened its time-worn doors to the public once more as Laura Marling continued her tour of British cathedrals. This beautiful building is fast becoming the most popular music venue in the city, with its outstanding acoustics and stunning facade, it provides a truly wonderful experience for music fans. When one of the great artists of modern times is thrown into the mix things become even more memorable and Laura Marling certainly falls into that category. She is carving out a special career; one littered with great studio releases and poignant live performances, and with her success comes creative control. She can fill venues much larger than this but her desire to be part of something memorable means her fans get an intimate treat.

She stepped out into the hushed surroundings and faced an expectant set of fans. Marling’s career has thus far been so unblemished and brilliant that her live appearances are now hugely anticipated, as her fans assess the latest chapter in her ever evolving musical story. This level of expectancy is testament to her current standing, but it brings with it an added pressure; a pressure on which she seems to thrive. Her ability to craft excellent songs is consistent, and they transfer beautifully to the stage, with her ever improving guitar skills, her brilliant band of musicians and her pure vocal combining to great effect. You could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium such is the spell she cast, mesmerizing her audience with the nuances of her sound.

The Beast, one of the stand out tracks from her latest LP, sounded incredible tonight, with sudden surges in intensity that reverberated dramatically around the grandiose church hall. Sophia was another of the new songs to really resonate, with such adept musicianship and a gorgeous vocal delivery it is the latest in a long line of classic Marling tracks. However, it was the stripped back version of Night Terror, a song from her debut LP, that really stole the show. The studio version is full of instrumentation and musical dynamic, but the test of a truly great track is how it stands up when played with just a voice and an acoustic, and this version tonight was so spectacularly delicate and beautiful that it brought a whole new meaning to the track.

Laura Marling is fast becoming the greatest songwriter of her generation. In a music world so often criticised for manufacturing artists on multi million pound karaoke shows, she proudly represents true music ability. She writes songs so mature and intelligent that they belie her tender years and it is frightening to think what she could achieve if she continues in her current vain. Here, in a church dating back to 1215, she brought timeless songs and gave everyone exactly what they were expecting – a performance full of brilliance and beauty. Long may her ascent continue.

photography by Sam Ellis  

words by Robert Pollard – photography by Sam Ellis

For a long time now Beirut have astounded many of us with the quality of their output. They have an unerring ability to write songs that capture the past beautifully, and in Zach Condon they have one of the most talented musicians of this generation. They arrived in Manchester as part of a tour promoting The Rip Tide, their latest full length album, and the sell out crowd was left in no doubt that Beirut are back.

As soon as Zach Condon sang the first lines of ‘Scenic World’ it was clear that this was going to be a special night, with his mellifluous croon filling every inch of the room. His voice may be the most striking aspect of his repertoire but he is also a skilled musician, flitting between lead vocals, ukelele and trumpet with inspiring adeptness. The rest of the ensemble add brass flourishes that are as stunning as they are loud, and it is these moments which make the audience cheer with glee. Condon’s Morrissey inspired croon is rich and chocolatey and gives the band their edge, and tonight he is on great form.

The songs from the new album sounded great, fitting nicely into the rest of the beirut back catalogue. ‘Goshen’, ‘Santa Fe’ and ‘East Harlem’ stand out as the best of the new bunch, displaying more of a pop oriented approach than previous work, yet retaining much of the Balkan folk tendencies that helped Beirut garner a reputation of being a weird and wonderful band. Their european sound is pervasive as ever, and the loudest cheer of the night is saved for ‘Postcards From Italy’, simply one of the most gorgeous songs recorded in recent times. ‘Nantes’ also sounds as fresh as ever, however, the absence of the original drumbeat means it misses some of its drive.

The length of set was also notable, with the longest encore i’ve ever witnessed providing a fitting end to a lovely evening. Beirut have been considered a great band for many years, ever since their stunning debut and on this evidence their brilliance shows no signs of abating. Zach Condon has ideas flowing out of him and whilst other, much more feted bands come and go, losing momentum and fans in equal measure, Condon’s talent will ensure he can continue to write songs that delight his fans. The continued rise of Beirut is one of the great musical stories of recent times. What started as a bedroom project for the music obsessed Condon, has led to three brilliant LP’s and gigs of this magnitude with his ensemble of musicians. Beirut are back.

Watch the video for ‘Santa Fe’ here

The absurd gap between the rich and poor has, in many people’s eyes, gone too far. Wealth is spread extremely unequally in our country, and while rich bankers and businessman have trousered money whilst behaving so recklessly that the entire banking system almost collapsed, the majority of people have been left with little and are now expected to clean up the mess by accepting pay freezes, job losses and various other damaging government cuts. Miliband has called into question the longevity and fairness of the neoliberal agenda which has dominated British and American politics for 30 years, becoming the first leader to attack the model and call for a new economic paradigm; one which places more emphasis on responsibility and integrity in society, and rewards the endeavours of the masses. The days of deregulation are seemingly over in Miliband’s eyes.

Although light on policy detail, these were encouraging themes on which he must now build. If he can concoct a set of clear policy measures which convince the British people that a better society is possible if capitalism is tamed, he may just provide an alternative political agenda that captures the imagination of our society. Thanks to the global financial crisis and the revolutions in the Middle East, the merits of unrestrained capitalism have come under the microscope, and Miliband clearly aims to capitalise on this changing narrative by offering an alternative view of our economic system. The complete failure of the free market system has seen anti-capitalists find their voices, and Miliband has joined in, and although his speech avoided the terms ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’, they were evidently part of his thinking.

It may prove to be a risky strategy but Ed Miliband’s speech signals a shift to the left, drastically different from the days of Tony Blair. Miliband has begun a journey towards new centre-left thinking and watching it develop will be intriguing. Will he gain enough support to really tackle economic inequality? Or will his strategy prove too risky, so much so that he abandons his vision? In light of the revelations that the Conservative Party is receiving huge sums of money from businesses working in the finance sector, it makes Ed Miliband’s proposed break from neoliberalism even more welcome to me and I will be supporting him if he continues to fight for a fairer system. If the figures presented by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism are true then it would seem that the Conservative’s are in the pocket of the city, and at a time when the boys in the city have caused so much damage to our country’s economic stability I find that difficult to take.

What Miliband has done is offer the electorate something different – a vision of British society that rewards fairness and ethics in business, giving the clearest indication yet that a leading British politician is ready to move beyond the neoliberal agenda started by Thatcher and Reagan and continued so forcefully by leaders ever since. The idea that reducing regulation in the finance sector helps create wealth held sway after the dire economic situation of the 1970’s but the byproduct of such an approach has seen a winner takes all mentality engulf society – capitalism gone mad.

Inside the conference it was clear that the Blairites were fuming, but for the ordinary party members there was a sense of their party’s traditional values may be returning. Tony Blair’s dogmatic and aggressive pursuit of the neoliberal agenda seems out of touch now, and Miliband’s speech is a clear indication that he is ready to abandon New Labour ideology, preferring instead a fairer economic approach, steeped in socialist values fit for the modern world. OK it’s not Marxism in full flight but there is a socialist agenda at play in Miliband’s ideas and it will be very interesting to see what policy detail he initiates to lift his rhetoric off the page.

It is clear however that if a shift in economic paradigm is to be realised it will take more than one party conference speech to achieve. Miliband must brief his shadow cabinet ministers so that all are in a position to argue and push for change. The AV referendum proved that change is often difficult to substantiate and requires a harmonious and well thought out strategy to make headway. Clearly the severity of the financial crisis has made people acutely aware that the extreme capitalist culture that has gripped the city is dangerous and that it has resulted in an obscene wealth imbalance, so the ground work has been laid. Miliband and his senior ministers must now capitalise on this and push for the seismic change that will reduce the power of fat cat executives and return some prosperity and power to the common people. There seems to be new focus on exactly what the centre-left vision should be – and that is long overdue. Those who wanted something different may just be about to get it.

Last night’s Radio 2 In Concert featured Laura Marling playing an intimate gig recorded at BBC Maida Vale studios in London. It was a beautiful performance and one which can be heard on BBC iPlayer for the next seven days.

It is difficult to write about Laura without using endless clichés to describe her talent, something British journalists have done with staggering regularity since she burst onto the scene aged 17. Such banal language fails to capture the true essence of her ability. She is, in my opinion, the best songwriter to come out of Britain in many years, and the success she is receiving is richly deserved. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have provided her were with much inspiration, and, together with her own musical vision, she is consistently producing brilliant folk music suitable for the contemporary music world. Many have tried to bring folk in line with modern tastes and few have come anywhere near, yet Laura Marling is doing it with ease.

With 3 albums to her name she already looks set to become one of the most prolific writers of her generation. Quite how she did not pick up the 2010 Mercury Prize for her second album, I Speak Because I Can, is beyond me but her career will be judged on its longevity and the quality of her releases, and if her work so far is anything to go by she should end up being considered a huge success.