“Barclays faces potential fresh criminal charges over Qatar fundraising”

Jul 31, 2018 | Banking

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

Barclays is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. Those reasons are laid bare in ‘The Bank that Lived a Little’ which tells of its excesses in ‘The Age of the Very Free Market’ (funnily enough, the age of the last Labour Government!) For instance, in 2005, PPI sales made up 42% of its profits. And in 2006, the new boss of Barclaycard was offered a £7m signing on package. Barclays survived without a Government bailout by getting a mega loan from Qatar and, in that part of the world, mega loans come with a few conditions. Those now coming home to roost.

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“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is  that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.