The Government must look after ordinarily working people as growth lowest for four years. GMB union has called for urgent action on the cost of living crisis as retail sales growth slumped to its lowest level for four years. Figures from the ONS this morning show that the annual retail sales growth rate was the lowest since April 2013. Non-food stores were the main contributing factors to this slowdown with an annual fall of 1.2% and predominantly food stores saw...

Today marks the first ever National Clean Air Day, a chance for the whole country to come together and improve air quality through collective action. Air pollution contributes to 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK but progress on this issue has been glacially slow. Recently the government was successfully taken to court by NGO Client Earth for failing to meet pledges on air pollution, forcing the publication of a new clean air plan by 31 July. A draft air quality plan for...

On International Working Animal Day (15 June), Geoffrey Dennis, Chief Executive of the charity SPANA, argues that animals still play a vital but largely ignored role in keeping the world’s economy moving. If you’ve just spent another miserable morning fighting your way through rush hour traffic to get to work today, you may be forgiven if you find yourself yearning for a time before the streets were crammed bumper to bumper with polluting cars and trucks. Go back to the...

There is no single "best" way to conduct personal financial affairs.  In fact, since each person's resources, experiences, and financial goals are unique, there are actually countless approaches to money management - some more successful than others.  While you may not exactly be able to copy another person's financial success, it does make sense to observe and learn from others' experiences.  Because in the end, despite differences in the ways we address financial concerns, some practices (balanced budget) furnish universal...

Iron & Wine will release Beast Epic, his first new material in over four years, on 25th August via Sub Pop. The new LP features eleven new compositions that share a certain kinship with his earlier material. The video for lead track “Call It Dreaming,” is also out in the world right now. Watch it below: Iron & Wine’s principal songwriter Sam Beam had this to say of the album: “I must confess that I’ve always shied away from album introductions...

Last July Paul had a call that we all dread: an uncle of his had taken ill, and he knew straight away from the tone of the lady informing him, from the hospital, that it did not sound good. What made this situation more complex was that his uncle lived in Thailand. Paul, from Peterborough, said: “The next day we received another call saying that his situation had not improved overnight, and we faced the difficult position of giving approval...

Printing can be traced back thousands of years, with first recordings reportedly in 3000BC. It depends what you consider printing to be, as print can either be defined as quite literally a mark printed onto a surface, or a text or picture created by a printing process. However, you can see a timeline of the chronological order of how the printing industry has developed here. We’ll be looking over the printing that has changed history, starting with woodblock printing. We...

Recruitment entrepreneur James Reed is calling on business leaders to give generously to the Grenfell Tower appeal after donating £100,000 out of his own pocket. A Big Give fundraising page has been launched after a fire ravaged an apartment block in North Kensington on Wednesday morning. So far almost a quarter of a million pounds has been donated on the page, with all donations matched by The Big Give. He is now appealing to other business leaders across the capital to offer what they can,...

Council penny pinching and accepting the lowest bid was to blame for a huge blaze in a tower block which killed at least 12 people, a former worker claimed. The woman, who worked as a property manager for Conservative controlled Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council for 20 years said the deadly blaze could have been prevented if the council had spend money upgrading it. But Grenfell Tower, run by Tenant Management Organisation for the Royal Borough of Kensington...