What levers could Rachel Reeves pull to help with rising prices?

Rachel Reeves updated MPs on Tuesday about the steps the government was taking to cushion the impact of the Iran war on consumers and the UK economy. The chancellor stopped short of announcing specific immediate support but said she was contingency planning for the tough months ahead.Here are some of the levers she could pull:Speculation has been rife since the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz sent oil and gas prices soaring, that the government may be forced to step in to protect households from a jump in utility bills.But Reeves gave the clearest indication yet that she has no intention of repeating the across-the-board subsidies introduced by Liz Truss in autumn 2022, which went on to cost the Treasury about £40bn, and were worth £1,350 to households in the top 10% of earners.Reeves said Truss’s approach had “left us with high levels of national debt, a cheque written then for a bill that is still being paid today”

Seven charts that reveal how unprepared Australia was for the fuel crisis

It’s been a bewildering few weeks since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran triggered a global energy shock that shows little sign of ending.Here are seven charts that tell the story so far.At the turn of this century, Australia produced 563,000 barrels of oil a day, with eight refineries supplying 98% of our total petroleum product needs.From that high point, oil and petroleum production has slumped to the point where the country relies on imports for 90% of its liquid fuel needs and oil production is at its lowest since the late 1960s.Over the past 25 years, the number of local refineries has also dropped:Mobil’s Port Stanvac refinery in South Australia was mothballed in 2003 (and permanently closed in 2009)Shell’s Clyde refinery was closed in November 2013Caltex closed its Kurnell refinery in Sydney in October 2014BP did the same with its Brisbane plant in mid-2015BP then closed its Kwinana refinery south of Fremantle in March 2021ExxonMobil’s Altona refinery in Melbourne was shuttered in August of the same year

UK manufacturers hit by sharpest rise in cost inflation since Black Wednesday in 1992

The UK’s manufacturers have suffered the sharpest one-month acceleration in costs since the aftermath of Black Wednesday in 1992 as conflict in the Middle East has driven up oil prices, new survey evidence shows.The closely watched purchasing managers’ index (PMI) lays bare the impact of the conflict on the UK economy, with growth slowing sharply across manufacturing and services and costs rising.Chris Williamson, the chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, which collects the data, said: “Output growth across manufacturing and services has slowed to a crawl as companies blamed lost business directly on the events in the Middle East, whether through heightened risk aversion among customers, surging price pressures, higher interest rates, or via travel and supply chain disruptions.“Inflationary pressures have surged higher on the back of rising energy prices and fractured supply chains.”Responding to the survey, Morgan Stanley warned the economy could potentially be dragged into “a pronounced UK recession” by the end of this year by high energy prices and interest rate hikes

Revolut warns it risks backlash over support for energy-intensive AI and crypto

The UK banking app Revolut has said it could face a backlash over its support for energy-intensive sectors such as crypto and AI, as it posted a 57% increase in profits for last year.The fintech, which can now launch as a fully fledged UK bank after a five-year wait for regulatory approval, warned in its 2025 annual report that such activities posed a “reputational risk”. Revolut offers crypto trading.Cryptocurrency mining, particularly for bitcoin, and AI datacentres demand large amounts of power, with competition for electricity supplies only getting steeper since the US-Israel war on Iran sent energy prices soaring over the past month.The company also reported a £1

Estée Lauder in talks on merger with Jean Paul Gaultier owner Puig

The US cosmetics company Estée Lauder is in talks over a potential merger with the Spanish group Puig, the owner of brands including Jean Paul Gaultier and Rabanne, to create a $40bn fashion and beauty giant.Estée Lauder is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of skin care, makeup and fragrances with a portfolio that includes Clinique, Bobbi Brown and Tom Ford Beauty.Puig, which floated on the Madrid stock market two years ago, owns brands including Charlotte Tilbury, Carolina Herrera and Dries van Noten.Both brands confirmed that they were holding discussions over a potential “business combination”, but gave no detail on the possible structure of the merger.“No final decision has been made and no agreement has been reached,” Puig said

UK vets face crackdown over fees as pet owners ‘left in the dark’ on bills

The UK’s competition watchdog has ordered vets to cap prescription fees at £21 and proposed a cost comparison website, after finding consumers had faced huge price rises and been “left in the dark” over bills.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said public satisfaction with the cost of services was “low” after a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the £6.7bn market found “there is not strong competition between veterinary businesses”, with large chains dominant.The watchdog said vets must now tell pet owners that medicines may be cheaper online, and let them know they can get a prescription and that this could save them money.Written prescription fees will be capped at £21 for the first medicine and £12

English and Welsh winemakers report sharp rise in production in 2025

English and Welsh winemakers have reported a sharp rise in production, after the hot, dry summer in 2025 and an increase in vineyard planting resulted in the second-largest UK harvest.The equivalent of 16.5m bottles were produced across the UK last year – or 124,377 hectolitres – according to figures from the wine regulator, the Food Standards Agency (FSA).This represents a 55% increase on the volumes produced a year earlier, the result of favourable growing conditions throughout the season that delivered good fruit quality and yields not seen for many years.It followed a sharp fall in 2024, when production halved to 10

Ministers rebuff trade body’s call to boost North Sea oil and gas production

The UK government has dismissed a warning from an energy trade body that failing to produce more homegrown North Sea oil and gas will leave the UK increasingly reliant on imports at a time of rising global instability.The industry group, Offshore Energies UK, has said the UK “urgently” needs a greater supply of domestically produced energy or consumers will be left “more exposed to global volatility and higher emissions”.The warning came as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week. The escalating conflict has triggered the biggest oil and gas supply shock in the history of the market and caused UK gas prices to more than double in under a month.But the industry’s call for more support to help slow the decline of the North Sea as a provider of energy was rebuffed by the government

Dow Jones Industrial Average posts best day since early February as hopes of Middle East de-escalation lift markets – as it happened

Wall Street has joined the global relief rally after Donald Trump postponed attacks on Iran’s power plants, sending a surge of optimism though trading floors.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average has jumped by 2% or 928 points to 46,505 points.Construction equipment firm Caterpillar (+4.4%), manufacturing conglomerate 3M (+3.7%) and DIY chain Home Depot (+3

The UK sleepwalked into this energy price shock | Nils Pratley

“Because of the choices we made before the conflict in the Middle East began, we are better prepared for a more volatile world”, the chief secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, claimed last week. That statement – surprise, surprise – failed to calm the bond vigilantes who had pushed the yield on 10-year government debt to a punishing 5% before Monday’s modest retreat.Murray seemed to be referring to tax increases and the chancellor’s decision to shift £150 of green levies from energy bills into general taxation. Count those if you wish but, come on, they are minor entries. The UK’s vulnerability to energy price shocks flows from bigger forces, such as our large and growing dependency on imports

Stock markets swing and oil prices fall after Trump postpones strikes on Iran power plants

Global stock markets swung wildly and oil prices fell on Monday after Donald Trump postponed US attacks on Iranian power plants for five days.European stock markets, which had been falling sharply in the hours before Trump’s social media post, mostly rose on Monday as relieved investors digested the update.The French Cac 40, the Spanish Ibex and the German Dax, which all also opened lower, were up by 0.8%, 1% and 1.2% respectively

EasyJet bookings fall because of Iran war as boss warns of air fare rises

The boss of easyJet has said the war in the Middle East has started to hit flight bookings, while the soaring price of oil would probably mean a rise in air fares by the end of the summer.The chief executive, Kenton Jarvis, said that while the airline had hedged much of its fuel into next year, avoiding soaring kerosene prices, it was “unavoidable” that some of the costs would be passed on in fares.He said forward bookings for summer had started to slow. With their proximity to the conflict, flights to Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt had been hit by the biggest drop in bookings, Jarvis said, and passengers had instead turned to the “usual suspects” of Spain, Greece and Portugal, which were “holding up pretty firmly”.He said: “We have seen a drop in bookings

Let them eat 1,600 cakes: inside Australia’s first Cake Picnic

Baker Alice Bennett, also known as Miss Trixie Drinks Tea, is the self-proclaimed queen of cakes in Melbourne. She assumes her cheeky email signature is why she was tapped as an assistant judge at Australia’s inaugural Cake Picnic. When the global phenomenon descended on Kings Domain in Melbourne last Saturday, 1,600 cakes were artfully presented and then summarily devoured as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF).Created in San Francisco in 2024 by amateur baking enthusiast Elisa Sunga, the first Cake Picnic was conceived as a way for the Californian to eat more cake than she could be bothered to bake. Her event has now toured nine cities, and will be visiting Sydney on Saturday 28 March

Joe Woodhouse’s recipes for orecchiette with chickpeas, and polenta chips with saucy chickpeas

I love pasta sauces that come together while the pasta is cooking. This one is lovely and wholesome, great for when the weather starts to warm up a little, and one of those that you can make pretty much year-round. The polenta chips, meanwhile, came about when I wanted to bulk up a plate of beans without the mess (and the pan of hot oil) that comes with making chips. The polenta can be made and set ahead, either during the day or the night before, or it will sit happily in the fridge for a couple of days.Sub in other green veg, such as shredded cavolo nero or even sliced courgettes

Fewer eggs, higher prices: Cadbury ‘doubled down’ on Easter chocolate shrinkflation, Choice finds

This year’s Easter baskets may be under-egged, as boxes of the festive chocolate treats become smaller and more expensive. An annual price comparison by Australia’s consumer watchdog has found that the cost of “pretty much all chocolate products” in the Easter egg category has gone up, said Choice journalist Liam Kennedy. But while most products have stayed the same size, some have been hit by shrinkflation as well.Cadbury are “definitely our main culprit”, Kennedy said. In 2025, Choice found that the brand’s largest pack of hollow Easter eggs reduced from 408g to 374g, while increasing in price from $12

Welcome to the United States of Mancunia

A new wave of hyper-regional hoagies, subs and pizzas are taking over Manchester’s food scene. But are they really as American as apple pie?It’s just after midday, on a chilly, wind-whipped Friday in central Manchester, and an ever-growing crowd of people in puffer jackets is spilling out from a Chinatown service alley. A few yards away, there’s another huddle of bundled-up figures, dipping into capacious paper bags to set up an improvised picnic on the junction boxes outside a corner pub. Fistfuls of crinkle-cut chips are snaffled, cans of pop are sipped, and, despite the pervading scent of bin juice and fried chicken, enormous, truncheon-sized sandwiches are unwrapped and messily dispatched.It looks a little like a staged re-enactment of Covid-era dining practices

How to make the perfect cheese khachapuri – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …

The first time I encountered what Tiko Tuskadze describes as “perhaps the most iconic of all Georgian dishes” was in her London restaurant, Little Georgia, back in the days when it was a tiny space on Broadway Market. If “traditional cheesebread … baked to order” sounded good on the menu, the reality of khachapuri was even better: a golden round of fluffy, buttery bread spilling forth frills of hot, salty dairy on to the plate (this is the kind of thing that passes for fast food in Georgia, according to Silvena Rowe, which makes me feel as if we’ve been slightly short-changed.)Tuskadze goes on to explain in her book Supra that there are “as many variations … as there are families in Georgia” – the boat-shaped, open adjaruili that Polina Chesnakova notes has “taken the internet by storm”, the Ossetian mashed potato variety and the Gurian take with hard-boiled eggs and a “supremely fluffy, slightly oniony, soufflé-like cheese filling”, which inspires Caroline Eden to share with readers of her book Green Mountains the glorious Georgian word shemomechama, “which loosely translates as, ‘I accidentally ate the whole thing’”. Here, however, I’m going to concentrate on what Chesnakova says is “by far the one most commonly consumed in Georgia itself”, and also the one that reminds Tuskadze most of home, namely imeruli khachapuri, originally from the west-central region of Imereti, which is “essentially a flat bread stuffed with buttery imeruli cheese curds and cooked on the stovetop”. Need I say more?After noting that the shape and filling varies according to region, Darra Goldstein writes in her book The Georgian Feast that, similarly, “the dough can be yeasty with a thick crust, many-layered and flaky, or tender and cake-like”, but “at home, khachapuri is more often made without yeast, with baking soda (a European import) or yoghurt used to tenderise the dough”

Cooking with Angela Hartnett: ‘I love food, but I don’t need to talk about it 24/7’

Angela Hartnett’s home kitchen isn’t a place you could recreate, however much Le Creuset you bought. A basement in east London, it has the relaxed timelessness of a villa in a Sally Rooney novel, but the embedded knowledge of a Michelin-starred chef who’s been cooking since she worked in her family’s chippy 40 and a bit years ago (she’s now 57) – every utensil exactly where your hand would be looking for it, everything mysteriously the right size.Today she’s making a poached chicken with spring vegetables. It sounds simple, and it’s maybe the fundamental paradox of food that the simpler a dish – the fewer the ingredients, the less fussing about – the easier it is to screw up. Poached chicken can come out the colour of over-washed underpants, although, to be fair, still taste delicious

Slop it like it’s hot: the rise of build-your-own takeaway salad bowls

Few things have killed the leisurely lunch like capitalism, but to really see this in action, the food court of London’s financial shadowland, Canary Wharf, is a good place to start. Wandering the warren of Prets and Itsus are Deliveroo riders and suits-on-the-clock. And they’re usually carrying the same thing: a nice big bowl of slop.A slop bowl is the universal term for a mishmash of pick-your-own dishes assembled and sold in fast-casual spots that have become the de facto working lunch. The contents vary (they tend to feature Asian and eastern Mediterranean dishes) but as the name suggests, it is always served in a bowl, and by the time you’ve got to your desk, has usually become slop

Osteria Vibrato, London W1: “Worth singing loudly about” – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Osteria Vibrato appeared last month on Greek Street, Soho, feeling to any passerby just like any other neutral-fronted Italian restaurant in this pasta-swamped part of the capital. Not much to see here. Pushing your face against the window wouldn’t achieve much, either, apart from an unsightly smear.Meanwhile, all the in-the-know people – that bunch of infuriating, generously paunched “foodies” who keep London restaurant gossip alive – understood that this particular osteria is the latest opening by Charlie Mellor, former proprietor of the Laughing Heart in Hackney, which opened in 2016 and very quickly became favoured by chefs and industry media types alike, because it took food very seriously, stayed open late and danced a dainty line between debauched and old-school cosseting. It sold pumpkin cappelletti with sage, and chicken liver paté with crisp chicken skin and jellied walnut liqueur

I lost my love of cooking after 12 years as a chef. Moving to a pig farm restored it

I was a keen-bean 15-year-old when I got my first job in a commercial kitchen in Canberra, raised on a diet of Jamie and Nigella and bursting with a passion for food. I dived headfirst into an apprenticeship and eagerly put my training into practice on my days off, cooking elaborate meals for friends and creating plenty of dirty dishes.But as the years went on, my love for the kitchen was dulled by a series of toxic workplaces, bullying bosses and long hours. Eventually, cooking for myself became a chore. I was more likely to eat cereal on my kitchen floor than do anything creative that would result in dirty dishes

Lamb shanks with orzo and rhubarb galette: Anna Tobias’ Easter recipes

Easter for me immediately brings to mind two things: cracking dyed red eggs together in the style of conkers (a Serbian Easter game that we play every year) and lamb. We always eat lamb at Easter lunch, and I suppose that simply harks back to religious tradition. Today’s lamb shank dish is a wonderfully straightforward and moreish take on a popular Greek recipe. I’ve gone for rhubarb for pudding, because it’s just so representative of this time of year – it’s also very pretty on the eye and a treat to eat, too.Prep 15 minCook 2 hrServes 650ml olive oil 6 lamb shanks Sea salt and black pepper 3 sticks celery, washed and finely chopped2 onions, peeled and finely chopped3 garlic cloves, 2 peeled and finely chopped, the other peeled1 tbsp dried oregano200g tinned chopped tomatoes (ie, ½ tin)375ml white wine 300g orzo 1 lemon 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves pickedHeat the oven to 185C (165 fan)/360F/gas 4¼

Best thing I ever ate? My first In-N-Out burger in LA

They say you never forget your first time, but for most of us, this doesn’t apply to cheeseburgers. We can’t really remember our first cheeseburger, because we start eating them at such an early age, before the memory centres of our brains are fully formed. In fact, in Wisconsin (“America’s dairyland”) babies are traditionally weaned on a fortifying diet of cheeseburgers, bratwurst and fondue, along with little sips of lager, just to make sure we acquire the taste.But while I may not be able to recall the particular details of my very first cheeseburger, the sense-memories of them are embedded deep within my subconscious. The perfect flavour-chord of ketchup, mustard and pickles on molten cheese and juicy beef occupies the same psychological space as the peppery cinnamon-and-clove aroma of my father’s Old Spice and the warmth of my mother’s hug

Reheated rivalry: why I’m the champion of leftovers

There is nothing lovelier than seeing a cook do their thing. By “doing their thing”, I do not mean just going about kitchen work – that is often excruciating to watch (why are they cutting onions like that?) I mean doing their thing: their culinary equivalent of a Mastermind subject, that one dish or process that they do so well, and with such evident pride, that the most crotchety backseat cook is forced to shut up.Take my partner’s method for making fish-finger sandwiches, which involves frying the fish fingers in butter, then creating an in-pan sweatbox to melt artisanal cheese on to them and custom blending condiments. It creates, on average, as much washing up as a full cooked dinner. Others have a special pancake hack or carrot cake recipe, and people tend not to let these things go unnoticed – it’s always my salad dressing, possessive, but we forgive their hubris, because each of us has “A Thing” of our own