Clare Maclennan, divisional director of commemorative coins at the Royal Mint, said: “This is the first time that we’ve celebrated the story of UK coins on a coin, and it pays homage to centuries of designers, innovators and makers at the Royal Mint.
Could you have to pay your bank to save money?
Trump pick testifies in tense Supreme Court hearingAmy Coney Barrett said she was “honoured and humbled” by her controversial Supreme Court nomination.
It comes as the government prepares to unveil new restrictions for England.
BA boss says there is no need to fire and rehire staff
Hong Kong has long been known as Asia’s premier financial hub, functioning as China’s window to the wider world while enjoying a kind of freedom unheard of on the mainland. But the protests and a new security law imposed by Beijing are threatening the city’s identity. So how is this affecting the more than seven million residents in Hong Kong?Our Asia business correspondent Karishma Vaswani has been speaking to some of them.
“And it is not just about being recognised for doing a good job, it is also about being able to blame someone else if something goes wrong. Often things, good or bad, at work are a team effort. And if you are actually in the office with the boss, then if something does go wrong, you can sneakily say, ‘It was John’s fault.'”
The UK economy may have grown by as much as 17% in the three months to the end of September, says the EY Item Club, but slower growth may follow.Shoppers splurged during the period as coronavirus lockdown restrictions were lifted, it said.It is a rosier vision than the one offered by Item Club economists in the summer, but they warned that growth for the rest of 2020 would be far slower.Growth for the final three months will be 1% or less, they predicted.”The UK economy has done well to recover faster than expected so far,” said Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club.”Consumer spending has bounced back strongly, while housing sector activity has also seen a pick-up, in part thanks to the stamp duty holiday.”The economy probably grew 16-17% in the third quarter of the year compared with the second quarter, it said. It had been expecting growth of 12%.Trade deal riskWhile government help such as the furlough programme has provided “much-needed support”, growth will now begin to fade, said Mr Archer.The end of the furlough scheme, under which workers had part of their salary paid by the government, will mean higher unemployment and sluggish growth, said the forecasters, who use a similar economic model to the Treasury.That said, the UK economy is now predicted to regain its pre-pandemic size in the second half of 2023. Back in July, the EY Item Club did not expect that to happen until late 2024.Official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed last week that The UK economy continued its recovery in August, growing by 2.1% in the month, as the Eat Out to Help Out scheme boosted restaurants.It was, however, smaller than economists had estimated and helped drag down the estimated pace of recovery for the year.As with any economic forecast, there are factors which could speed up or slow down the recovery, the economists said.A vaccine is likely to help the economy, but there are more likely threats to growth than there are surprise boosts.Factors that could weigh down growth include a drop in consumer spending, more lockdown measures, slow Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU and a spike in unemployment.”The latest forecast also notes that, even if further virus outbreaks are contained and major restrictions on economic activity are avoided, consumers and businesses could remain cautious in their behaviour for an extended period,” the report said.The Club’s estimates assume a simple free trade agreement with the EU by the end of the year.Without an agreement, growth of 4.8% is forecast in 2021, down from 6%, while growth in 2022 would be cut to 2.6% from 2.9%.
The retail industry has accused the government of failing to act on the exploitation of UK garment workers.In a second letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said there has been no “significant action… to bring this injustice to an end”.The BRC, which signed the letter with MPs, estimates workers have lost £27m in unpaid earnings since July.The Home Office said it was working to stamp out exploitation and abuse.In July, companies including Marks & Spencer, Next and Asos – along with investors, MPs and human rights groups – called on the government to implement a scheme to ensure textile workers were paid a legal minimum wage.The group’s letter to Ms Patel said: “We are writing as a broad coalition of parliamentarians, businesses, investors and civil society organisations about our concerns regarding the unethical labour practices taking place in garment factories across the UK. “We request that urgent action is taken by the government to implement a ‘fit to trade’ licensing scheme that ensures all garment factories are meeting their legal obligations to their employees.” That letter followed revelations about conditions in textile factories in Leicester that prompted fashion group Boohoo to launch an urgent review into its suppliers.A Sunday Times investigation about conditions in Leicester factories found that some staff were paid below the legal minimum and worked without coronavirus safety measures in place.’Robbed’But in the second letter to the home secretary, disclosed on Sunday, the BRC and Dr Lisa Cameron MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles & Fashion, said there had been little response.Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “Despite numerous reports in the media, and a previous letter to the home secretary signed by over 50 MPs and peers and more than 40 retailers, investors and NGOs, we have not seen any significant action from government to bring this injustice to an end. “All the while garment workers are robbed of tens of millions of pounds in wages.”The BRC said that although it had discussed the plight of garment workers with officials since July, it had not received an official response to its first letter.The MPs’ group has estimated that more than 10,000 garment factory workers are being paid an average of £3.50 an hour – well below the National Minimum Wage of £8.72.Dr Cameron said: “It is vital the home secretary takes action to introduce a licensing scheme for UK garment manufacturers and puts the rights of workers at the heart of the industry.”But the Home Office said it was wrong to suggest nothing was being done, adding that bad employers were being targeted by the authorities to ensure they complied with the law.In a statement to the BBC, the Home Office said: “Exploiting vulnerable workers for commercial gain is despicable and we expect businesses to do all they can to tackle abuse and exploitation in their supply chains. “We are deeply concerned by the appalling reports of illegal and unsafe working conditions for garment workers in Leicester, and will ensure perpetrators face the full force of the law if evidence comes to light through the work of our new specialist Taskforce, led by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.”
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