Butterfly impression

19/09/2022

Hundreds of Liverpool container workers set for two-week strike

Latest pay dispute could further disrupt UK supply chains already hit by walkouts at Felixstowe port
Hundreds of workers at one of the UK’s largest container ports will go on strike for two weeks from Monday evening in a dispute over pay, in a move that could further disrupt UK supply chains.
Unite members at the Port of Liverpool will begin the industrial action hours after the Queen’s funeral, having turned down a pay offer from the Peel Ports Group , which owns the site.
Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/19/hundreds-of-liverpool-container-workers-set-for-two-week-strike

19/09/2022

I fear rejection if I reapply for my John Lewis credit card

My sister-in-law was turned down when she did so after it changed provider from HSBC to NewDay
I have had a John Lewis card since the 1980s – first when it was a store card and then, when it changed, a credit card.
It is my go-to method of payment, both in and out of store, and I pay off the entire balance every month. I’ve been doing so for the past 40 years.
Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/sep/19/i-fear-rejection-if-i-reapply-for-my-john-lewis-credit-card

19/09/2022

Big five UK energy companies turning away new customers

Home movers and customers seeking better service wrongly told to stay with current supplier because of volatile market
Householders in Britain who want to sign up to a new energy company are apparently being obstructed by the largest suppliers, in potential breach of their licence obligations.
The “big five” energy companies are informing those who apply online for a tariff that they should remain with their current supplier because of the volatile energy market. According to the industry regulator, Ofgem, suppliers are obliged to accept new customers as a condition of their licence.
Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/sep/19/big-five-uk-energy-companies-turning-away-new-customers

19/09/2022

Should Sunday opening restrictions be loosened in the UK? We ask an expert

There are far more factors at play than overtime bonuses and religious considerations, says the CEO of the Association of Convenience Stores
Every so often the question is raised: are Sunday trading laws too restrictive? They were briefly loosened in 2012, for the Olympic Games, but Tory plans to change the rules failed in 2016 and 2020. I asked James Lowman, CEO of the Association of Convenience Stores, about it.
What are the Sunday trading rules?
Since 1994, in England and Wales, a store over 3,000 sq feet (280 sq metres) – roughly the size of a doubles tennis court – can open for only six consecutive hours on a Sunday between 10am and 6pm.
Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/09/should-sunday-opening-restrictions-be-loosened-in-the-uk-we-ask-an-expert

19/09/2022

Don’t mention rationing: why energy crisis may need another Truss U-turn

National Grid is taking blackout risk seriously, yet PM remains reluctant to take action to limit energy usage
Alarms blare as a huge storm crashes in off the North Sea, taking out the St Fergus gas terminal in Aberdeenshire. A power failure renders the Hatfield Moor gas storage facility in Yorkshire useless. A foreign power attacks subsea power cables from Norway.
Stay calm, it’s only a drill. These are the sorts of eventualities that the energy industry will simulate next week, as a routine annual emergency gas shortage drill takes on national significance. The length of the “Exercise Degree”, which is run by National Grid, has been doubled this year from two days to four days and takes place on 13-14 September and 4-5 October. It could not come at a more relevant time: debate is raging over how probable blackouts are this winter and whether Liz Truss’s energy bills freeze increases that probability because she has not encourage rationing.
Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/09/rationing-energy-crisis-liz-truss-blackouts-usage

19/09/2022

‘Handout’-hater Liz Truss frightens those of us struggling to improve our lives | Sharron Spice

Her freeze on energy bills doesn’t go far enough – and people fighting to stay afloat will end up paying for it later
This article is part of the heat or eat diaries : dispatches from the frontline of Britain’s cost of living emergency I watch Liz Truss and I see a woman wearing a Margaret Thatcher mask. But we are not in the 70s or 80s any more: we are in 2022. I watched the Tory leadership contest. Not out of interest, but out of confusion and despair. It was frightening.
Tax cuts? What does that mean to people like me? They won’t do anything to help us. In her speech on Tuesday she barely mentioned the high cost of living, and nothing to do with benefits. My food bills are OK at the moment, but I’m hoarding: tinned stuff that will last a long time in case money gets tight in winter.
Sharron Spice is in her 30s and lives in London. She tweets at
Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/09/liz-truss-handout-hater-energy-cap-cost-of-living-crisis

18/09/2022

Potter begins Chelsea tenure with a draw in the UCL

Football: New Chelsea manager Graham Potter has had to settle for a draw with RB Salzburg in the Champions League.

Football: New Chelsea manager Graham Potter has had to settle for a draw with RB Salzburg in the Champions League.

17/09/2022

Shared ownership: a low-cost way to buy a home – but is there a catch?

It is touted as a cheaper way to get on the property ladder, but there can be drawbacks. We weigh up the pros and cons
Shared ownership is promoted as the low-cost, low-deposit path for first-time buyers to escape the rent trap. But is the part-rent, part-buy model the staircase to heaven or hell?
For Caitlin Bucktrout and her partner, Sam Ward, both 25, it has been heavenly. They picked up the keys to their newly built three-bed semi near Headingley in Leeds in February 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic threw the country into lockdown.
Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/sep/10/shared-ownership-cost-buy-home-property