By Valentina Magri Signs of life are stirring from Britain’s labour market after several years of stagnant growth. That’s the conclusion of the latest CBI-Accenture employment trends survey, conducted between September and October 2013. The respondents - senior executives from firms of all sizes and sectors - reported there is light at the end of the tunnel for the jobs market, with 51 per cent of employers expecting their workforce to be larger this year and only 12 per cent...

What’s right with the left, is what’s left of the right, right?   By Joe Mellor, In house Reporter  When I was a child growing up watching political programmes on a Sunday morning (I know, I should have got out more) I believed that Labour and Tory politicians would not talk, let alone socialise together outside of work. I imagined Neil Kinnock would elbow drop Nigel Lawson in the cloisters of the Houses of Parliament, after the Chancellor’s autumn statement....

By Valentina Magri Languages and China European languages are no more rewarding than those from further afield. At least, that’s the opinion of prime minister David Cameron, who said on his return from the trip to China: “By the time the children born today leave school, China is set to be the world’s largest economy. So it’s time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin”. The reason is simple: Britain...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic Twenty fourteen has begun with a shameful dose of xenophobia as 'floods' of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants 'invade' British shores, pillaging our lax benefits system and 'robbing' hard-working Brits of much-needed employment. Scaremongering and sensationalism are commonplace in the dark corners of the British media, particularly among publications which use it as a life line to dupe those with more fear than sense to disperse with their 50p pieces. As economic uncertainty...

By Valentina Magri 'Life is beautiful' is not just the title of a famous Italian comedy-drama, as of 2013, it may be also the statement of the typical English citizen. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently released a report entitled 'How’s Life in 2013', measuring the well-being of English people using the Better Life Index. The measure of the well-being is interesting for at least two reasons. The first is that it assesses individual and societal...

By Cagri Cobanoglu – the foreign news editor of Akşam – a national Turkish daily After more than a decade in power, the AK Party of Turkey is facing its biggest crisis yet. After a massive corruption scandal involving sons of three cabinet ministers broke out on 17 December, the government has had to deal with several accusations from different political circles. It was equally telling that prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could not stop investigation against his ministers’ sons...

By Drew Nicol 2013 has been a historic year for women’s sport. TV presenter Clare Balding, prophesised back in January that: “When the history of sport is written in 100 years’ time they will look back at 2012 and the Olympics and Paralympics and see the impact in 2013.” – How right she was. The legacy of the Olympics has galvanised millions of people who previously had little or no knowledge of women’s sports beyond the mainstream to become active...

By Rebecca Doodson, Senior Conduct & Compliance Officer at the Association of Accountancy Technicians (AAT) Allegations of tax avoidance by large companies over the past year have caused outrage from many, not least from small businesses. This outrage is not necessarily unfounded. BBC Business have reported that Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said “ approach was firmer… when pursuing small businesses” and seemed to “lose its nerve” when chasing tax from large multinational companies. HMRC have “strongly disputed” these...

By Pieter Cranenbroek – International Politics Blogger It has been an eventful year for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community (LGBT). Germany recently became the first European country to add an extra gender box on forms, which gives recognition and expression to intersex and transgender people, whereas same-sex marriage laws have entered into force in four countries this year. However, in the week that the UK announced the official date for same-sex marriage to be allowed in England and Wales,...