Britain's business in the spotlight - for the wrong reasons

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2016

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Around the same time that once-loved High Street retailer BHS was tumbling into administration, the journalist Roberto Saviano, who spent more 10 years exposing the criminal workings of the Mafia, announced to the Hay Literary Festival that Britain was the most corrupt country on the planet.

Our financial affairs, it seems are being eyed with interest and suspicion around the world.

What better way to celebrate then, than to have another high-profile inquiry into the shenanigans behind the BHS collapse in front of Parliament and the world media?

Last week we heard of death threats in the boardroom. This week was the turn of BHS’s previous owner Sir Philip Green to face the panel of MPs, who asked some pointed questions about the company’s demise.

Why had he sold it for a quid?

Had he taken millions of pounds out of the company knowing that the British Government would be liable for its multi-million pound pensions hole?

Or did he really believe the company would be better off in the hands of a new, twice-bankrupt owner?

Green wasn’t happy. He’s made some promises but they lacked detail and conviction. The saga is far from over. His wife, the beneficiary of much of the tax-free BHS millions, is likely to be next in the ‘dock’.

Also this week, we have another look at the childlike lies peddled by EU referendum campaigners.

It’s an important debate, this EU thing. Britain might be about to commit economic suicide but the campaigns have been, frankly, pathetic.

Meanwhile…

Inflation is flat lining – are we about to face a cut in interest rates?

Investors are pulling money out of UK – but where are they finding opportunities?

And finally…

Nine years on from the financial crisis, around 100,000 people who bought off-plan properties that never got built in Spain have a chance of getting their money back.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is money brought to you in partnership with NS&I, giving you 100% security for your savings.
0:14.6	Consuming issues with Georgie Frost, making the pound in your pocket go that little bit further.
0:23.9	Welcome to This is Money and Share Radio's podcast in partnership with NS&I.
0:28.9	I'm Sarah Pennell standing in for Georgie Frost, here with you on DAB across the country, online and through the Share Radio mobile app every weekday from nine until midday,
0:39.4	sharing ideas about money. And I'm joined in the studio by editor Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce,
0:45.2	Consumer Affairs editor from This Is Money, to talk through some of the stories on their
0:49.7	award-winning website that they've been investigating over the last seven days. And on the agenda today,
0:56.0	we're going to be looking at what else, Brexit, of course. Well, we can certainly survive outside the
1:01.1	EU. I think the question for us is how do we thrive? How do we do best? How do we create opportunities
1:06.5	and jobs and chances for our children and our grandchildren. That to me is what this debate is about.
1:11.6	Also, Bank of England rates remain the same amidst fears of the economic shock of us pulling out of the EU.
1:18.6	A vote to leave the European Union could have material economic effects on the exchange rate, on demand,
1:24.6	and on the economy's supply potential.
1:26.6	New O&S figures show continued stagnation of inflation.
1:30.5	Will it ever get towards the 2% Bank of England target?
1:34.7	Nervous investors are funneling their money out of the EU and picking a somewhat surprising
1:39.1	safe haven.
1:39.9	The Japanese number one concern obviously is the perpetuity of the Britain being the window for the Japanese European businesses.
1:49.0	The Spanish Supreme Court that rules UK citizens may receive compensation for Spanish developers going bust.
1:56.5	This is Money is presented in partnership with NS and I.
2:06.7	Now let's get straight into it. Where can we start?
2:11.2	But of course, with the rolling BHS scandal. Now, the team and Georgie Frost spoke about it last week,
	...

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