Crystal Amber lays out case for its portfolio after bumper year - Crystal Amber's NAV increased by 32.9% over the year to the end of June 2017. They declared interim dividends of 2.5 pence in both July 2016 and December 2016, in line with the dividend policy of 5.0 pence per year. Including the dividends paid during the period, the NAV total return per share over the year ended 30 June 2017 was 36.1%. Successful exits from investments in Grainger, Pinewood Group and...

Apple have told their UK customers that they want their stores to be as close to a UK town square experience as possible. Sarah Jaziek, head of marketing said: “We have invested heavily in the UK town square market product, our focus groups revealed that we really needed a group of drunks to brawl just as the stores close. “So now at 6.02pm each day, thirty or so AI robots will appear from nowhere and start to attack each other,...

The education sector is being hit heavily by slow growth in real-term pay, according to online supply teacher portal The Supply Register. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) this week reported that teachers’ salaries in England were worth 12 per cent less in 2015 than in 2005. The study, published on Tuesday, comes as pressure grows on the government to lift the 1 per cent public sector pay cap that is contributing to a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, according...

You would think the banking industry would learn but sadly it appears not, according to a new report. The Adam Smith Institute, a leading think-tank, have said that the banking sector is an “accident waiting to happen.” The report has been published to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Northern Rock crisis, that led to a run on the bank. This new report, which was authored by Kevin Dowd, Finance and Economics Professor at Durham University, was scathing on...

Xi's behaviour suggests he might buck the trend set by predecessor Hu Jintao. Tracking the rise and fall of political stars has been a major occupation of China watchers for decades. In a one party system where the selection of leaders is a closely guarded state secret, this job is necessarily a difficult one, and speculation ahead of major political events runs rampant. The National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is held twice a decade to decide the...

The Conservative Party is to take control of a powerful Commons committee after a crucial motion was passed by a majority of just 19 late last night, giving them the ability to scrutinise Brexit legislation without wider parliamentary input. The motion, brought by Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, has been described by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a way of rigging the parliamentary system after the Tories found a work-around for navigating the Brexit process with a minority government. Traditionally, minority governments do not...

‘Government con trick’ sees billions stripped from budgets to deny real-pay rise to lower-paid 55 per cent of workers GMB, the union for public sector workers, accuses Theresa May of ignoring the ‘forgotten’ three million public sector staff in a major new report today [September 13 2017). The majority of public sector workers – 55 per cent - including council workers, front-line school and police support staff, and civil servants are not covered by a Pay Review Body, For years,...

Shocking new analysis shows 75% of TA apprentices are paid just £3.50 an hour GMB, the union for teaching assistants, has warned that apprentices are being used as ‘cheap labour’ and are vulnerable to exploitation as education cuts bite. Analysis of 190 teaching assistant apprenticeship vacancies reveals that 75 per cent of roles are advertised on the legal minimum of £3.50 an hour. The average wage offered across all vacancies was just £3.81. Teaching assistants are being paid 43 per...

A 52 million year old ankle fossil dug up in France shows the first primates were high flying acrobats... throwing human evolution on its head. The shape and size of the tiny bone suggests our earliest ancestors flexed and sharply extended their ankles - to launch into the air. They spent most of their time in the branches rather than on the ground, but just how nimble they were as they moved around in the treetops has been hotly disputed....