Dozens of Bank of England directors and founding subscribers invested in trafficking of enslaved Africans The Bank of England and the British financial system were for centuries deeply involved in the enslavement and transatlantic trafficking of millions of African people, according to new research on Britain’s slavery history. Research by historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders has found that the scale of the financial system’s involvement in enslavement is greater than previously known or acknowledged. The Bank of England, the central bank owned by the government since nationalisation by Clement Attlee’s Labour administration in 1946, had dozens of financiers involved in its foundation who were also significant investors in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. Continue reading...

Average wages rose by 3.9% in three months to July, signalling pensioners will receive uplift of same percentage in 2027 under triple lock The government has promised retirees they will be excluded from paying tax on the full new state pension after official figures paved the way for an inflation-beating increase above the tax-free personal allowance. Figures published on Tuesday showed that average UK wages rose by 3.9% in the three months to July, signalling that pensioners will receive an uplift of the same percentage next year under the triple lock . Continue reading...

Economists urge John Healey to press Bank to change policy that is costing the exchequer billions of pounds Economists have urged the chancellor, John Healey, to press the Bank of England to slow down its bond-selling programme that has already cost the exchequer billions of pounds. The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) meets this week to not only decide the level of interest rates but also whether they should freeze or slow the sale of government bonds, known as gilts, bought as part of the rescue operation after the 2008 banking crash. Continue reading...

As John Healey drafts his autumn budget, the US president’s policies continue to inflate debt servicing costs Britain is not entirely in control of its own destiny, from the rising cost of the weekly shop, to the vaulting cost of government borrowing. What is said and done in Westminster matters. But the global backdrop is making life tough, not least in the deeds and words of one man: Donald Trump. As John Healey drafts his plan for next month’s autumn budget, the perilous economic conditions the chancellor must navigate can be traced back to the door of the US president. Continue reading...