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Here we go again. The debate about the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum — should they, shouldn’t they be returned to Greece, where a sparkling purpose-built museum overlooking the Acropolis from which the sculptures were wrenched by Lord Elgin from 1801-05 sits waiting for them — seems to go on for ever. It was

Liz Truss, the Tory leadership frontrunner, has rejected “handouts” as the best way to help households through the worst income squeeze in 60 years, promising instead tax cuts and radical economic reform. Truss, in an interview with the Financial Times, defied the “abacus economics” of the Treasury, insisting she would press ahead with tax cuts

In days gone by, Conservatives used to be in favour of conserving things. Liz Truss, whose political identity was formed during the tumult of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, is in a hurry to challenge orthodoxies, overhaul institutions, and generally shake things up. “There are things I very much care about conserving,” the foreign secretary said, looking

Bordeaux Index, the world’s largest fine-wine trader, is toasting surging sales as investors flock to rare vintages in part as a hedge against rampant inflation. Revenues at the fine wine merchant reached £80mn in the six months to June 30, up 37 per cent on the same period last year. That puts the London-headquartered company

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin have pledged to deepen economic ties between their countries as Moscow seeks to soften the blow of western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. After a four-hour meeting at Putin’s residence in Sochi on Friday, the Russian and Turkish presidents released a joint statement pledging to raise their

For two days straight, Chinese military officials have been delivering a message of triumph to the public. The exercises with which the People’s Liberation Army is punishing Taiwan for hosting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi feature “multiple firsts”, they gloated on state television. “Our firepower covers all of Taiwan, and we can strike wherever we

The Bank of England has come under growing criticism from Conservative MPs who claim the central bank has been too slow in tackling surging inflation. Andrew Bailey, the bank’s governor, warned this week consumer price inflation, which already hit a 40-year high of 9.4 per cent in June, will exceed 13 per cent by the

Rishi Sunak, one of the Conservative leadership hopefuls, has sparked cross-party outrage after he was filmed telling party members in Tunbridge Wells how he had shifted money from “deprived urban areas” to fund projects in the Kent commuter belt. The former UK chancellor’s comments, made in a sun-drenched garden, appeared to cut across the government’s

Senior managers have agreed a 4 per cent pay increase with the operator of the UK’s rail infrastructure, potentially cushioning the blow from strikes later this month. The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association on Friday said managers at Network Rail had voted in favour of the pay deal, which also includes better job security and a

The writer is author of ‘Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The Surprising Story of the British Economy’ The Bank of England’s new forecasts make for exceptionally grim reading. In recent months the bank’s governor Andrew Bailey has warned that the institution is walking “a narrow path” between the risks of continuing high inflation and

The Frank Gehry-designed headquarters that Facebook moved into in 2015 was a cavernous, elongated warehouse with concrete floors and a deliberately unfinished feel. At the very centre of the 500-yard, open-plan sprawl was a nest of desks where Mark Zuckerberg and his top lieutenants could congregate. The massive scale, the bustle and the sense of

Millions of people struggling with the rising cost of living are facing growing financial pain over the coming months as higher UK inflation leads to surging bills for variable and fixed-rate mortgage borrowers. The Bank of England on Thursday raised its main interest rate by 0.5 of a percentage point to 1.75 per cent, the

UK government bond yields fell on Friday as traders shifted their expectations that the world’s largest central banks would prioritise tackling inflation ahead of economic growth. The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilt yield fell 0.02 percentage points to trade at 1.90 per cent in early trading as investors digested Thursday’s news that the UK

Joan Laporta is not one to mince his words. The president of FC Barcelona claimed in June that the club had been “clinically dead” when he took the reins in March last year, but that it had now moved to intensive care after some emergency financial surgery. His goal was to convince those in front

The US economy unexpectedly added 528,000 jobs last month, as payroll growth soared even in the face of tighter monetary policy and waning fiscal support, easing fears of a recession. The data, which showed the unemployment rate edging down to 3.5 per cent from 3.6 per cent, showed an acceleration in the pace of job

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe studies the thick menu, leafing through its pages in search of the various tastes she is craving. There’s an aubergine platter that she’s had before and wants to try again, a squid tempura, a spinach salad and the black cod with miso, which she tells me is unmissable. Although it is just the

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has rejected claims from Conservative MPs that the UK’s central bank acted too slowly to tackle surging inflation and defended its operational independence and mandate. Asked on Friday about whether he would remain in post no matter what changes were implemented by the successor to outgoing prime minister Boris

This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday. The biggest and most important story in the UK at the moment, full stop, is just how grim the economic picture is. That is true for politics, too. Some thoughts

China’s military has sent planes and warships to probe Taiwan’s defences for a second day, escalating a crisis that has prompted one of the island’s richest men to donate millions of dollars to its security. Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Friday that multiple groups of Chinese warplanes and warships had been operating in the area

Oh, poor fund managers. Why the long faces? July was great! The S&P 500 put in its best performance since late 2020, with a 9 per cent rally. It was one of the best months in the market of all time. Sure, the withdrawal of largesse by the world’s most important central banks introduces a

The battle between Asia and Europe to lock in gas supplies is stepping up a gear, heightening the risks of a further surge in prices that would add fresh fuel to the cost of living crisis. Japan and South Korea, the world’s second and third-biggest importers of liquefied natural gas, are looking to secure supplies