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Tag: british
2009-01-07 00:30:15| Fast Company
Last Christmas, while cleaning up after dinner, I accidentally knicked one of my sister in laws cherished Waterford crystal goblets. It cost me $75 to replace the thing, but its a good thing I did. Those glasses are worth substantially more ...
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brands
british
bankruptcy
2009-01-06 19:38:34| Business - International Herald Tribune
The proposed levy, of 12.3 million over two years, may be needed to meet the cost of research into gambling addiction and treatment.
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companies
face
british
gambling
2009-01-06 01:06:44| Guardian Unlimited Business - more business news
Now that the boutique hotel trappings of Egyptian cotton sheets, walk-in slate showers and elegant dark wood have been adopted by even the most modest places to stay, tourists might think we live in an era of luxury for all. But a report from undercover hotel inspectors published today reveals a grimier reality beneath the surface of the British hospitality industry.Researchers for Which? Holiday magazine who checked into 16 budget hotels in London and Manchester pretending to be ordinary guests found mouldy mattresses, stained duvets and dirty toilets at some leading chains. Ibis performed "particularly badly", the team said, and Travelodge was also criticised in their report.The results of the investigation come as domestic tourism is preparing for a boom, with credit-squeezed holidaymakers tightening their belts, and cost-conscious business travellers trading down.Despite these favourable conditions, Which? said it was concerned by the standards of cleanliness it found.The team, consisting of a researcher and a microbiologist, said their "most disturbing" discovery was a mattress in the Ibis on Charles Street, Manchester, which was so badly soiled that the cover had started to fray and mould had begun to grow. A duvet at the Ibis on Portland Street in the same city was stained, with the microbiologist suggesting one of the marks was blood. There was "something sticky on the bedside table surface", the report added.The Ibis Euston in London was home to the dirtiest toilet the researchers found, with urine and faeces around the edge of the seat and urine streaked down the pedestal, according to the report. On the bedroom floor they observed a stray fingernail and food debris.Which? said bathrooms at the five Travelodges it visited were unclean and it was concerned that bacteria found in four of the rooms could indicate poor cleaning.At the chain's Gray's Inn Road hotel in London, inspectors found "appalling" levels of dust under the bed. "It was so bad that when we kicked the carpet, dust rose before our eyes and our consultant's footprint was left outlined on the floor. The wall behind the curtains was also thick with ground-in dirt, which contained a handprint streaked down the wall."At Blackfriars Street in Manchester, a Travelodge room had mould around the bath, and in Ancoats Street the inspectors found a stained duvet and mattress.Which? Holiday's researcher, Amanda Diamond, said the results were a surprise. "When we set out to do the report we really thought we would find nothing; we thought it would be more to do with comparing budget hotel chains, given that the market is growing and more people are looking for cheaper rooms in the current economic climate. We took a microbiologist as a precaution. We certainly didn't expect to find rooms in such poor condition."Research published by Travelodge this week suggested that more than half of Britons plan to stay in the UK for their summer break this year. Overseas travel declined by 10.5% in October, according to the Office for National Statistics, and trips to Spain - British tourists' favourite destination by far - fell 15% last year, the Spanish tourism ministry said.Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn, plans to double its rooms in the UK to 55,000 within five years while Travelodge hopes to have 55 new properties by 2015 and raise capacity from 24,600 rooms to 70,000 by 2020.Lorna Cowan, editor of Which? Holiday, said: "Although this investigation was just a snapshot, it does raise concerns about the cleanliness of some budget hotel chains. It's clear from our research that some of the hotels are getting it right when appropriate cleaning methods are being used. Paying guests should be guaranteed, at the very least, a clean room. "There doesn't seem to be one single accepted standard for hygiene in hotels across the UK, and we would like to see this change." An Ibis spokesman said: "Ibis treats matters of cleanliness and hygiene as critically important. We were, therefore, very disappointed to see the results of the investigation which showed standards that are totally unacceptable to us. "We have clear procedures in place to ensure that housekeeping standards are to the highest levels. Clearly the Which? investigation indicates that those procedures are not being implemented in some cases and we have taken immediate remedial actions to ensure we deliver the standards of cleanliness that all our guests have the right to expect."We have submitted the results Which? obtained to an established independent health and safety consultant, who has confirmed that nothing in those results constitutes a danger to public health."A Travelodge spokesman said the chain rejected any suggestion that Which? or its customers should be concerned at the level of bacteria found. "According to a leading independent microbiologist that reviewed Which's findings, the levels of bacteria found were so low that they could not cause any health risk whatsoever."With regard to the isolated incidents of dust, we would like to reassure customers that we immediately remedied these cases through strengthening of cleaning procedures and superior cleaning materials."Our six million customers should always enjoy a good quality stay, so this report has helped us by highlighting a handful of cases where we needed to improve."HotelsUnited KingdomBudget travelTravel & leisureguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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2009-01-05 01:02:32| Guardian Unlimited Business - more business news
This year promises to be a watershed in British broadcasting. By the end of this month we will have the options of a rescue package for beleaguered Channel 4, and of relief for ITV from some of its regional commitments and restraints - with Ofcom giving its final policy recommendations to the government from the public service broadcasting review in two weeks' time.The regulator spent the end of 2008 tackling the cuts faced by regional programmes, news, religious, arts and children's programmes. It came up with a public service contestable fund, which would allow providers, including existing broadcasters, to bid for funds for broadcasting in these areas. There are objections to this plan - concerns that it could result in unwatchable content, and that this form of funding is a way of raiding the BBC licence fee, for which support is weakening. But even if topslicing the licence fee appears increasingly unpopular, Ofcom has been looking at using BBC Worldwide to give C4 direct financial relief. This idea has run into even stiffer opposition, particularly from the BBC, which has proposed a range of partnership deals - including sharing the iPlayer - but Ofcom's chief executive, Ed Richards, insists it will appear in the final list of options. This despite a hardening line that C4 should not be given a direct cash subsidy - lobbyists including ITV and Channel Five and critics point to the broadcaster's high salaries and the problems that direct funding would bring to a provocative, independent C4. There are also problems with state aid: an attempt by the DCMS to give C4 £14m of licence-fee money for digital switch-over costs in 2007 fell foul of European Commission state aid rules.This is the final year of Luke Johnson's chairmanship of C4, and he will be hoping for a face-saving deal before a successor is announced by Ofcom. But any Plan B for an independent C4 rests on it shrinking back to a commissioning base and building up assets by owning its programmes. Ofcom is opposed to the privatisation of C4 and believes in its importance in providing plurality to the BBC. The idea of uniting C4 and commercially owned Channel Five to create a broadcaster of greater scale was floated - and abandoned - four years ago. It was unclear how it could possibly work.As if that weren't enough excitement for the new year, around a week after Ofcom gives its recommendations, Stephen Carter, the communications minister, will publish his initial report on Digital Britain. Beyond C4, he will concentrate on accelerating the spread of broadband to every UK household - access that he sees as "potentially transformative". But he accepts there is a serious issue in the future funding of children's programmes, impartial news, and the reduction in real terms in the price of television advertising. Unlike Richards, Carter has political power. But he cannot fix everything. and his review is unlikely, for example, to find a way to fix digital radio.Overhanging all of this is the recession - the woes of broadcasters are dwarfed by those of the rest of the economy. The government, wary of begging, has in any case allocated no time in the current session of parliament for media or communications legislation, required for a change in status for C4. But Carter points out that does not mean inaction - and he will almost certainly draw up the agenda for a communications green paper this year. But that could be sunk by an election in 2010 that the Conservatives could win.Overall the crunch means there is scant chance of extra public money coming into the broadcasting system through, for example, the Ofcom-led auction of freed-up spectrum that will start during the year, as digital switchover accelerates. The proceeds are now expected to go to the Treasury. The option of an industry levy on digital media to support public service content remains open, but there seems little support for this.Ofcom will have a new chairman from April 1 and could see a change of approach. For its part, the BBC Trust faces the challenge of cementing its authority, and updating editorial guidelines after Sachsgate. In February it will propose tougher limits for BBC Worldwide's commercial expansion, demanding it focuses on BBC programming. Ofcom will also decide how to spend the £68m once earmarked for local video news to bolster its most important public service strands.For advertising-funded channels, the crisis looks set to worsen - and Michael Grade's performance as executive chairman of ITV is coming under scrutiny. ITV is expected to confirm it cannot maintain its £1bn a year investment in original British content.Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading will pronounce shortly on the future of the contracts rights renewal (CRR) mechanism, which holds ITV's ad prices to 2003 levels. Abolition seems out of the question, but ITV expects to get some relief, perhaps by being able to raise rates for spot adverts in blockbusters. The downside could be that its digital channels are included in CRR.BSkyB and presumably its subscription services mark 20 years of broadcasting on 5 February, and the chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, with 9 million subscribers, appears relatively bullish. But BSkyB has not faced a recession so deep before. It believes bargain broadband will help to stabilise subscriptions. It also intends to fight to keep its 17.9% stake in ITV.Along with Setanta, it will watch with huge interest the government's review of listed sports events - the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, is thought to be keen to add to the list, regarding the loss of test match cricket to subscription services as a mistake.TelevisionOfcomPolitics and the mediaAndy BurnhamChannel 4ITVITVguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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2009-01-02 23:36:18| Currency Trading News by DailyFX
The British Pound saw an especially volatile week of currency trading, as illiquid market conditions fueled truly shocking moves in the British Pound/US...
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rate
bank
british
england