Farage steps up calls for Bank of England to halt bond sales

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has stepped up calls for the Bank of England to halt bond sales and cut the interest it pays to UK banks, after a meeting with its governor, Andrew Bailey.They met on Thursday morning at the Bank’s Threadneedle Street headquarters along with the Reform MP Richard Tice, after an exchange of letters in which the governor agreed to a meeting.Farage and Tice would like to see politicians take a firmer grip on the operation of the institution, made independent by Gordon Brown when he was chancellor, in 1997.In a statement released after the meeting, Tice said: “If parliament, via the chancellor of the exchequer, gave a different steer to the Bank of England this could significantly reduce the need for tax rises at the budget.“Subsequently I will be writing to the chancellor and the leader of the house requesting an urgent debate as soon as parliament returns

Co-op says ‘malicious’ cyber-attack has hit profits by £80m

The Co-op has fallen into the red after it suffered an £80m hit to profits as a result of a “malicious” cyber-attack this year.The group, which owns more than 2,000 grocery stores and more than 800 funeral parlours, was forced to shut down parts of its IT systems in April after it discovered an attempted hack.Shoppers faced gaps on shelves as a result of the attack, while its funeral parlours had to operate some services via paper-based systems without access to digital services.On Thursday, the retailer said it estimated the disruption lost it £206m in revenue, and hit its operating profit by £80m in the first half of its financial year. It now estimates a £120m hit to full-year profits as a result of the cyber-attack

First new Qantas Airbus jets come with one toilet for every 90 economy passengers – worse than Jetstar, Scoot and Ryanair

The first three aircraft in Qantas’s new fleet will arrive with a worse economy passenger-to-toilet ratio than on planes used by budget carriers Scoot, Ryanair and Jetstar.After ordering the Airbus 321XLR aircraft in 2022 to replace its ageing Boeing 737s, Qantas on Thursday used the new planes on commercial flights for the first time on the Sydney to Melbourne and Sydney to Perth routes.But the aircraft also come with a passenger-to-toilet ratio in economy of just one toilet for every 90 passengers.Qantas ordered the planes with three toilets and 200 seats, configured with two toilets for the 180 economy seats and one toilet for the 20 business class seats at the front of the aircraft.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailBy comparison, Ryanair’s Boeing 737 carries 197 economy passengers, with three toilets to share between them, a passenger-to-toilet ratio of 66, according to the airline seat data tracker seatmaps

Ed Miliband looking into more North Sea drilling despite Labour pledge

Ed Miliband is planning to encourage drilling in the North Sea despite a manifesto promise not to grant new licences on new parts of the British sea bed.The energy secretary is looking at ways in which the government can allow companies to look for and produce more oil and gas without breaking Labour’s pre-election pledge not to issue new licences on new fields.The plans, which will be announced in the coming months as part of a wider strategy for the North Sea, come amid pressure on one side from climate activists to stop all drilling, and on the other from Donald Trump to “drill, baby, drill”.A government spokesperson said: “The strategy will set out how the government intends to meet its manifesto commitments to ensure no new licenses to explore new fields and maintaining existing fields for their lifetime.” They said the government would meet its manifesto commitments “in full”

Australia, along with other OECD countries, is mired in mediocrity – and the RBA seems intent on keeping us there | Greg Jericho

As Rebecca Shaw so perfectly put it, the world is being burned down by losers, but when did we decide to be OK with mediocrity? When did we decide to aim no higher than the middle – whether in politics or economics?This week the OECD released its latest report on the global economy, where the pretence is that things are mostly normal and fine. The report’s title was Finding the Right Balance in Uncertain Times. And I had to think, “balance” between what?The clear issue is Donald Trump, whose policies often seem like thought bubbles based on whatever unscientific garbage he heard on TV in the 1980s and still thinks is true. But we can’t mention that and so instead we talk about “uncertain times” and needing to find a balance between that and, I guess, reality?Similarly, the IMF’s most recent report in April was A Critical Juncture Amid Policy Shifts.Ah yes, policy shifts where Trump put a tariff on every country including those uninhabited by humans, and is instigating an authoritarian regime in the world’s biggest economy

Bank of England urged to do more to tackle climate crisis

A coalition of 10 campaign groups is calling on the Bank of England to do more to tackle the climate crisis, a decade after the then governor Mark Carney warned of the “tragedy of the horizon”.Carney, now prime minister of Canada, argued in a speech at Lloyd’s of London in September 2015 that the short time-horizons of politicians and policymakers made it difficult to tackle the climate emergency, despite the threat it posed to the global financial system.Carney said: “The combination of the weight of scientific evidence and the dynamics of the financial system suggest that, in the fullness of time, climate change will threaten financial resilience and longer-term prosperity. While there is still time to act, the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking.”Ten years on, the environmental groups Greenpeace and WWF and the thinktanks the New Economics Foundation and Positive Money are among the signatories to a new briefing, calling on the Bank to take more decisive action