Small businesses have called for an end to "downright unfair" practices after a major manufacturer renewed a call for a payment if suppliers want to remain on its books.

BRITISH business secretary Vince Cable said UBS’s $2.3 billion (€1.68bn) unauthorised trading loss underlines the case for John Vickers’s plan to force banks to insulate their consumer units from their investment banking operations.

UK Telecoms group BT has received more than 100 applications for each of its apprenticeship places this year, the company said today.

PRESSURE was growing yesterday in Britain, on the first day of British Summer Time, for a change to the clocks to give another hour of daylight in the evenings throughout the year.