Britain’s charity shops are under pressure. Oxfam is reportedly considering closing up to 100 High Street stores, after other major charities have closed theirs.
There is a fascinating and rather uncomfortable cultural battle taking place in Germany which deserves much more attention in Britain. It is not really about whether taxpayers should fund art.
If you live in Wick and have ever been told by an online retailer that your postcode is an "island" postcode, you could be forgiven for wondering whether somebody has looked at a map. Wick is on the Scottish mainland.
Scotland has a population problem. The Scottish Government is increasingly clear about that as Birth rates are low, the population is ageing and some parts of the country are struggling to maintain the working-age population needed to support businesses, public services and local communities.
Britain is preparing to spend substantially more on defence. Yet at almost the same time as the Government is announcing increased defence investment, one of the Royal Navy's major amphibious assault ships is being sold to Brazil.
10.6 million Brits are planning an overnight holiday in the UK this bank holiday, bringing an estimated £4.3 billion boost to the economy. Tourism is forecast to contribute £161 billion to the UK economy annually by 2030, supporting jobs and growth across the country.
The British Embassy and Crown Agents Bank brought together financial sector leaders from Guatemala and Honduras to discuss trade, investment and economic growth. The British Embassy, together with Crown Agents Bank (CAB), hosted executive breakfast discussions with financial sector leaders from Guatemala and Honduras.
Politics runs on promises. Build more.
There is a financial habit that many pensioners have developed over the years which is perfectly understandable: keep some money in the bank, earn a bit of interest and leave it alone. For people who have spent a lifetime saving, the attraction is obvious.
Britain has spent years arguing about immigration, but the latest figures reveal something rather more interesting than another argument about numbers. The flow of overseas workers into Britain is falling rapidly.
Nationalisation has become the word British politicians dare not say, and the reason they give is always the same: it is unaffordable. They claim that just taking water back into public ownership would cost over £100 billion, but that claim is outright nonsense, and it is worth understanding exactly why.
There are some government programmes whose real value is difficult to measure simply by counting the money spent or the number of items distributed. Scotland's Bookbug programme is one of them.
The next argument about technology in the workplace may not be about computers, mobile phones or artificial intelligence. It could be about spectacles.
Rent is not just the money you pay a landlord. In economics, it means something far bigger, and far more significant.
Britain has a strange relationship with retirement. We spend much of our political time worrying that there will not be enough people of working age to pay for the growing costs of an ageing population, while at the same time treating a particular birthday as though it marks the end of a person's useful economic life.
Denmark has done something that should make Britain sit up and take notice. Its Parliament has legislated for the country's retirement age to reach 70 by 2040.
There was a time when measles was becoming something most parents in Britain barely had to think about. Vaccination had changed the picture so dramatically that measles seemed to belong to another generation.
Britain's Immigration Numbers Are Changing — But the Story Is More Complicated Than the Headlines Britain's immigration system is changing rapidly, but the latest official figures suggest that there is no single story that can accurately be described simply as "immigration going up" or "immigration coming down". The Home Office has published its latest Immigration System Statistics, covering the year ending June 2026, and the figures show significant falls in work visas, study visas, family visas and small-boat arrivals.
There may be no more appropriate time to ask Highland Council whether we need to rethink the way we remember those who have died. The Council has just launched a six-week consultation on its draft Greenspace Biodiversity Management Strategy 2026-2030.
The national debt is nearing £3 trillion, and almost everything said about that claim is wrong. It is not a debt in the way a household mortgage or a credit card is a debt - it is just the nation's savings.