Almost two-thirds of low-income families say they struggle to buy essentials such as clothes, heating & food, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Inflation is dramatically down from its highs - so the cost of living crisis is largely about uneven effects of economic trouble.

Latest: Consumer confidence up for 3rd month in a row, thanks in large part to a bump in sentiment among baby boomers (aged 62-80). But don’t mistake this for recovery: only around 1 in 10 expect the economy to improve, according to latest stats from BRC this morning @britishretail.bsky.social

Don’t Look Up - odd that still much criticism of any gov’t attempt to limit North Sea oil drilling when we are getting repeated heat waves and hosepipe bans and clear evidence of climate damage. Surely we need to act quicker to change energy not slower?

Many welcome PM’s cut in energy bills which replaces digital ID scheme But no one mentions the ID scheme was meant to reduce number of illegal workers who increase supply & cut workers pay So not clear if new scheme is overall better or worse for workers than Keir’s policy

The new PM’s first policy - VAT cut on electricity bills - is already in doubt 1 hour and 50 mins after it was announced. PM said it’s funded by money assigned to the digital ID card roll out. Now revealed that no money was assigned to digital IDs - so claim about how it’s funded now in question

The boss of JP Morgan has warned new PM of moving against what might look like another juicy money target - banks. Jamie Dimon said there would be “adverse consequences” if Burnham targeted lenders with windfall taxes. Banks currently face a 3% charge on top of corporation tax.

Rise in the ‘fake meeting’ - office workers so filled with meetings that they don’t have time to do any actual work, are creating fake meetings in their dairies to stop bosses calling them in for pointless meetings & to enable them to get real work done. www.ft.com/content/0291...

Watch out for potential move on pension pots of higher tax payers - no news yet from new PM on that, but with plans for a lot of government spending, he’s in a corner on how to fund it.

New PM to announce cut in energy bills of £45 as he will remove VAT on electricity bills in the first of a series of major economic announcements expected today.

The start of The Great Bursting? Global tech stocks fell sharply on Friday, as investors dumped some of the biggest winners from the AI boom. The Nasdaq 100 fell 2% in early trading on Friday, adding to a 1.6% drop on Thursday, says FT.

Today’s health-care system is designed to treat illness, not prevent it. So fascinating to see the most valuable pharma company in the world, US business Lilly, has started developing medicines that prevent illness rather than cure it. Could be the money maker of the century

How do you raise tax without raising tax levels … this is how: 2 million more people will higher-rate tax than in 2023-24. The number of workers paying the higher or additional rate of tax soar as frozen thresholds pull hundreds of thousands more earners into the top tax bands just this year.

China’s Robo Cops are coming - just seen this as part of Hong Kong’s tech fest

When China’s ‘weakest’ growth is still more than 6 times better than UK’s. China has unveiled one of its lowest quarterly growth rates in decades. China’s GDP rose 4.3% in 2nd quarter lowest score since the introduction of GDP reporting in early 1990s, apart from COVID.

The appeal of the Rich List…The journalist who started it at the Sunday Times said when they introduced it “Circulation soared 18 per cent — absolutely unheard of. It blew all their minds.”

More pain for first time buyers. The speed of house-price rises are forcing first-time buyers to wait nine months longer to get on the ladder than they would have had to five years ago, according to new figures from ONS

The dancing fighting robots of Hong Kong - this definitely got one of the biggest crowds at the Leap East tech fest

Forget electric bikes - get ready for electric legs - these are created by Shenzhen Kenqing Technology - I’ve been investigating at the Leap East tech festival in Hong Kong. Amazing stuff. They also help you walk up mountains

Sign of the times - here in Hong Kong, shops are now selling digital wallets for your crypto currency. Coming to a corner store near you soon?

Tonight’s restaurant promised me my meal will not only expel my wind but says this will cure my dizziness. It sounds better than the pigs lungs but neither are great for my vegetarian diet. Real Chinese food is not like it is at home

The bar tender is slow but reliable - just part of the biggest tech event in the world for which I am one of the hosts. 25,000 people will attend here in Hong Kong and we’ll be talking to the most innovative tech leaders on the planet Leap East - starts tomorrow.

Breaking: Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.7%, following a growth of 0.6% in the three months to March 2026. Services were again the driver with particular strength in computer programming, while construction showed some further signs of recovery after a weak winter.

Doctors to go on strike but argument over pay is more nuanced than either side makes out. BMA claims real pay eroded by 1/5 since 2008/9. True but as Taxpayers’ Alliance says, disingenuous to pick 2008/9 as starting point because pay rose strongly in run up to that date see below for fuller picture

The true sign of a British summer: the wafting sound of slightly sozzled neighbours shouting incoherently in their garden.

Are we getting sicker or just more eager to seek a reason to stay off work? Something big has happened as doctors have doubled the number of sick notes they’ve given since 2016

Just to set it in context - huge attention on the morning radio programmes that inflation is 2.8% and expected to rise. It’s still less than half of what it was in 2023 when it was 7.3% and there was no talk of government trying to limit bread and milk prices. So why now?

When getting to Birmingham costs as much as going to the moon. HS2 now costing in region of £100billion. That’s more than NASA’s mission to the moon

Is it true that no one knows how to operate the heating in a hotel bedroom

The real worry is the low level of pension savings generally. £156,000 at 4% return would only provide you with £120 a week.

Private landlords are getting out of the business. But it’s not as simple as it first seems. Individual small landlords are selling but properties being bought by large commercial landlords according to estate agent Connells Group, the UK’s largest high street estate agency

Woman have half the pension of men. According to a report by the Pensions Commission, women approaching retirement have on average half the private pension savings of men, with a median pension wealth of £81,000 versus £156,000.

Breaking: British Gas has agreed to pay £20m to compensate customers who were victims of forced fitting of prepayment meters. Three years ago it was revealed that debt agents working for British Gas broke into the homes of vulnerable customers to fit prepayment energy meters.

In his speech China’s Xi Jinping talked about war in Greece, in 431BC “Can China & the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ What’s he on about? The Thucydides Trap is when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war.

2nd in a series of unusual books from the library I’m working in…as the nation heads to the pub this evening for a Friday night drink, I’ll be digging into the page turner that is‘19 centuries of drink in England’

Do you have any cash? Bank of England says we need “cash as a contingency”. Blackout across Spain & elsewhere in 2025 left 60 million people without power & caused card payments to stop working, meaning businesses were only able to accept cash. But how many of us keep any?

Although the economy hit the gym(a little) most people’s wallets are still on the sofa…. The UK economy expanded 0.6% in the first quarter, figures this morning show. So no recession, but people’s finances still too weak to party

Is your chocolate cheating you? In a landmark German case about chocolate "shrinkflation", a court has found that Milka's classic Alpine Milk bar broke competition law. Cutting the amount of chocolate but keeping the same kind of wrapper meant customers were being misled.

When bad news is good news. Good news for 1st time buyers - estate agents at their gloomiest about prices in more than 2 years, according to RICS survey. Not good if you’re selling but a real opportunity for 1st time buyers to get on the ladder

Eurovision on Saturday. Watch out for the Norwegian entry which is peak Eurovision with 50% of its lyrics being “ya ya ya”. For all that - it’s very good

I’m going Cuban tonight with the amazing Roberto Fonseca and his band. Catch him while you can whilst he’s on tour youtube.com/watch?v=T5FV...

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" - It's hailing outside. Clearly Shakespeare also got caught in unseasonal weather - but this is definitely odd!!!!

Big row over Benedict Cumberbatch & road rage cyclist. I’m not surprised. I’ve taken my bike inside & put it on blocks to use as exercise bike as other cyclists, not motorists, were so aggressive. Shouting at me to go faster & generally being unpleasant.Usually young men in bikes that cost hundreds

The huge irony of Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ call to promote oil and his war in Iran is that it is turning people away from oil. New evidence today that sales of used pure electric cars reached a record high in the first three months of the year.

Britain is expected to lose 163,000 jobs this year amid the economic woes caused by the Iran war with lower income regions set to be hit hardest, according to a EY ITEM club report Two of the lowest income regions – South Wales and the Humber – expected to suffer the most.

Do we care? Despite the huge amount of coverage of local elections most of the country weren’t interested enough to vote and in places such as Elephant & Castle in London 70% decided a vote just wasn’t worth it. The overall winner may well have been ‘none of the above’

When is a rally not a rally? Wall Street’s rebound has been driven by the smallest number of stocks on record, pushing US market concentration to an all-time high and prompting warnings about the “fragility” of the rally. Moves in just one sector could lead to huge falls in the index.

Local authorities raised spending on children’s care providers (many owned by private equity) by 20% above inflation in the past two years, as companies raise prices & diagnoses of autism & other conditions increase, according to report by Revolution Consulting.

Breaking: Santander plans to phase out the TSB name from Britain’s high street after more than 215 years, following its takeover of the UK retail lender, according to exclusive report in the FT

Sainsbury, Morrisons and Iceland have called on the Competition and Markets Authority to subject Aldi and Lidl to a set of rules, that forbid large chains from using restrictive land clauses to prevent rivals opening stores nearby.

Airlines have cancelled 13,000 flights in a move that may disrupt half-term holidays, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Booking package holidays which offer more protection may seem more appealing for many as well as getting insurance the moment you book your flights