Guardian News

Aggressive price cuts and double points strategy has limited impact as Tesco sales growth is lower than expected Tesco reported slower than expected quarterly sales growth today, disappointing some City analysts who had expected its recent marketing blitz to pay off before Christmas. Tesco has been offering its 16 million Clubcard holders “double points” on [...]

Emergency package to help engineering apprenticeships, start-up businesses and manufacturers after loss of 1,700 jobs Lord Mandelson has unveiled a £60m emergency assistance package to help the north-east reinvent itself as a hi-tech industrial zone days after Corus announced that it was closing a steelworks with the loss of 1,700 jobs in the area. Wider [...]

• Jan Sramek graduated from LSE with a ‘high’ first• Czech-born trader started his first company at 13 While his contemporaries are probably still learning the ropes in their first jobs and coming to terms with the end of university, Jan Sramek is already making waves in the Square Mile. The 22-year-old Goldman Sachs trader [...]

• Dubai government finance chief says some assets may be sold• Creditors could be forced to accept short and late repayments Dubai World may sell off domestic and overseas assets as it attempts to rescue itself from the burden of $60bn (£36.5bn) debts, the emirate’s government said today. The stricken conglomerate, which owns a variety [...]

Long-unfashionable Ford hatchback will be sold in US as a stylish European car as Americans warm to economical vehicles From Croydon to Carlisle, you can barely venture into a British car park without spotting a Ford Fiesta. A budget-conscious presence on the streets since 1976, it is a scrappy little workhorse for shopping or commuting. [...]

• Margaret Thatcher introduced a levy on banks in 1981• New Labour targeted utilities after coming to power in 1997 Windfall taxes are often championed by the political left as a good way of recouping cash from “fat cats” seen to have made excessive profits. But in fact Margaret Thatcher’s government was one of the [...]

Minute-by-minute coverage of Alistair Darling’s statement to parliament today, perhaps the biggest political event left before the next general election 9.57am: The Times is carrying a piece by Vincent Cable in which the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman says Darling should do a Roy Jenkins: Jenkins, it will be remembered, inherited Harold Wilson’s devalued “pound in [...]

Business secretary denies suggestions new levy will result in highly paid City workers leaving UK Lord Mandelson told bankers today that the one-off tax that will be imposed on their bonuses in today’s pre-budget report was not designed to “teach them a lesson”. The business secretary told BBC News that the tax on bankers’ bonuses [...]

• Golfer drops from sixth to 24th on influence index• World No1 currently earns reported £110m-a-year The amount of money Tiger Woods earns from his product endorsements could be at risk after the series of revelations about his private life has lowered his standing with the public. Woods had been ranked as the sixth most [...]

• Greece credit downgrade hits Asian markets• Pre-budget report will dominate City trading• Boardroom shake-up at easyJet With just a few hours to go before Alistair Darling stands up to deliver this year’s pre-budget report, City traders are in a particularly cautious mood. Yesterday markets around the world took something of a bath, after Greece’s [...]