The Senate's hounding of BP is nauseating

Telegraph
"It is against this rather encouraging background that we should view the shameless political show-boating of the US Senate in trying to haul BP’s departing chief executive Tony Hayward to Washington (along with former Justice Secretary Jack Straw and Scotland’s Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill) to interrogate them on whether BP lobbied for the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdulbaset al-Megrahi. Wisely, all three have told the Senate to take a running jump. There is something nauseating about this continued hounding of BP by American law-makers. They live in the most oil-dependent country on the planet yet seem obsessed with kicking the companies that have to do the dirty work of getting the black stuff into their gas-guzzlers. ....Their attempt to make political mileage out of this should be treated with the contempt it deserves."

Every pound coin in UK could be scrapped as one in 36 is now fake

Daily Mail
"Record numbers of fake £1 coins in circulation could force the Royal Mint to scrap every one and reissue the entire denomination.The number of fakes now stands at 41million in Britain – one in every 36 coins in current use.This is an unprecedented amount and suggests that the proportion of counterfeit coins had tripled in the last decade.The situation has worsened since last year, when one in 40 £1 coins was fake.Experts and MPs said the level of fakes were so high there was now a serious risk that consumer confidence in Britain's most popular coin was becoming compromised.With increased security measures making it easier to spot counterfeit notes, the £1 coin is becoming more popular.The figures were published in a Parliamentary answer supplied by Justine Greening, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury to Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP."

Interest Rates 'Will Stay At 0.5% Until 2014'

Sky News
"According to Ernst & Young's Item Club, the Bank of England's base rate will remain on hold at 0.5%, where it has been since March 2009, until 2014.Such a freeze would be welcomed by borrowers, who will enjoy lower mortgage and other loan repayments, but would be bad news for anyone who relies on an income from savings.Item says the low interest rate will be necessary to counterbalance slowing inflation as the Government's spending cuts come into force.Andrew Goodwin, senior economic advisor to the Item Club, told Sky News: "The VAT rise will keep inflation rates high in the short term, but come 2012 I would expect inflation to be well below the 2% target."Item believes this will happen as the effects of VAT and high energy prices wear off - and spare capacity in the economy affects firms' pricing decisions and employees' wages. "I think unless interest rates are pinned to the floor in the way they are now for the next three to four years, we'll see inflation get progressively lower," Mr Goodwin added."

India warned of stagflation risk as price of food soars

Telegraph
"As David Cameron leads a giant delegation of British businessman to India, the tiger economy is facing the worst overheating crisis in a decade and may have to jam on the brakes. "

UK economy grows at the fastest pace in four years

Telegraph
"Mr Osborne said: "Today's figures show the private sector contributing all but 0.1pc of the growth in the second quarter, and put beyond doubt that it was right to begin acting on the deficit now." "While I am cautiously optimistic about the path for the economy, the job is not yet done. The priority now is to implement the Budget policies which support rebalancing and help ensure the sustained growth that the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast this year and next." The pound jumped more than a cent against the dollar to $1.54 on the release of the figures.Nonetheless, leading economists warned the growth could be "as good as it gets" for the UK economy. "

One baby in four born to migrants: Number of foreign-born mothers has doubled

Daily Mail
"Almost a quarter of babies are born to immigrant mothers, an official breakdown showed yesterday.It found that 24.7 per cent of children born last year have mothers who were born abroad – and that their numbers have doubled since the late 1990s.The sharply rising numbers of babies with foreign-born mothers came despite an overall fall in births.The figures produced fresh warnings to ministers that immigration rates must be brought down to avoid the growing threat of overpopulation in Britain."

It's Still Getting Worse

BOM
"When it comes to our horrendous fiscal deficit, the Labour Party, the BBC, and the rest of the left have long argued that we can afford to wait before starting with the knife. Today's rather nasty public borrowing stats underline just how deluded (and self-serving) that argument is."

UK deficit fears reappear as debts hits £927bn

Telegraph
"Plans to cut Britain's mountainous national debt have been given fresh urgency by new figures showing that the state of the public finances is even worse than feared. .....George Osborne, who announced £113bn of spending cuts and tax rises in the Budget to shake off market concerns and preserve the UK's AAA credit rating, said: "The public finance numbers today remind us why we need to get on top of the budget deficit."

Cameron walks into diplomatic nightmare as Lockerbie furore overshadows first visit to White House

Daily Mail
Hypocrisy of U.S. oil firms who deal with Gaddafi

"Politicians in Washington have been accused of hypocrisy for their criticism of Britain and BP over links to Libya.It turns out that American energy companies have been leading the charge when it comes to forging links with Colonel Gaddafi's regime.Since Libya re-opened for business in 2005, US oil giants such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron have been piling in to stake their claim for Africa's largest oil reserves.More than 50 American energy companies, compared to just four from the UK, have signed contracts with Tripoli for oil exploration and invested tens of billions of pounds in the country.Experts said pursuing such an agenda while criticising British companies that do the same thing shows America wants to 'have its cake and eat it'.Exxon, the world's largest oil company, has set up a special subsidiary, Exxon Mobil Libya Ltd, to keeping business running smoothly.So keen is the petro-chemical giant to get on the right side of the authorities, it is even funding £18million of initiatives to educate impoverished children as part of a countrywide social responsibility drive."

UK's finances hit by borrowing high

Yahoo News/PA
"The woes facing Britain's battered finances showed few signs of easing as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed the budget deficit widened by another £700 million in June to £12.6 billion.Last month's public sector net borrowing was £200 million less than the £14.7 billion seen a year ago, but was more than the £13.5 billion expected by analysts.Figures excluding the temporary effects of State financial intervention showed borrowing rose to £15.2 billion up from £14.9 billion in June 2009."

No more DVDs, Mr President: Why Barack Obama should tread carefully with David Cameron

Telegraph
"It is important never to underestimate the extent to which this US administration is capable of riling America’s allies, from removing a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office within days of taking office to the president playing golf on the day of the funeral of the Polish president, tragically killed in a plane crash. Or siding with Argentina’s calls for UN-brokered negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands, and throwing key allies Poland and the Czech Republic under the Russian bus. Or siding with Marxists in Honduras, and humiliating the Prime Minister of Israel. The list is endless.

In fact, the Obama team has done more to offend America’s friends than all post-war American administrations put together. Throw into the mix some strong anti-British and anti-foreign sentiment among some Democrats on Capitol Hill in the wake of the BP Gulf oil spill, and you have the potential for another diplomatic incident."

Moody's cut Ireland's credit rating

Reuters
"Some of the euro zone's toughest spending cuts last year gave Ireland respite from the market assault on other peripheral euro zone countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal. But Dublin's fiscal discipline has been all but overshadowed by fresh rounds of bad news from the banks. The cost of bailing out nationalised Anglo Irish Bank last year gave Ireland a budget deficit of 14 percent of gross domestic product, the highest in Europe, and this could rise to 20 percent this year, the state-funded Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said last week ."