Business comment, opinions on the business news

Let’s hear it for good service ...

OVER the years I have to accept that I have often been critical of the levels of service and attitude provided by Government departments and their various agencies. Read

Equality aids profit as well as justice

WOMEN account for more than half the population and make up more than half the workforce, and this is likely to increase in the immediate future. Read

APRIL 6, 2008 is an important date in the financial calendar. It represents the Govern- ment’s next common commencement date (CCD), when a number of key departments will issue changes to UK business regulations. Read

Kevin Rowan, regional secretary, Northern TUC

Small firms lead the way for training

WHAT a pleasure it was to see the North East’s own John Wright on the national web pages of the TUC. Read

Financial expert reviews the Rock

The renowned City analyst Justin Urquhart Stewart appeared in Hexham last week at AYP Financial’s Wise Investment Event. Here, to coincide with his visit to the North East, he outlines his thoughts on the latest turn of events at ‘The Rock’ Read

Andrew Miller, regional head of Barclays Wealth

Right now, UK Government bond market is favoured

SINCE the start of the year, the UK government bond market has reacted in a broadly predictable fashion to day-to-day news flow. Yields soared in the second half of January as equity markets tumbled, but recovered again in early February. Read

Andrew Hebden, assistant editor (business), The Journal

Many good firms could use Rock’s employees

IN the midst of such a momentous week for the North East, it has been hard to hold a conversation with a business- man or woman in the region without talk eventually getting round to the Northern Rock saga. Read

Waiting game begins for thousands of North East Rock employees

NATIONALISATION has loomed large for Northern Rock since the scale of the crisis facing the bank emerged last September, but that did not detract from the sense of shock felt when Alistair Darling announced the move at 4pm yesterday. Read

Nicholas Craig, partner at Watson Burton

Auschwitz visit is not for the faint-hearted

I SEE pickled cucumbers in an altogether new light. I have just returned from a week in and around Krakow, living life as a communist, being driven in a Trabant, visiting Nova Huta and seeing the horrors of Auschwitz, all in the company of a bizarre, larger than life guide intent on revealing the “real” Krakow. Read

Ian Shepherdson, former Wall Street and City economist

In trouble on all fronts

The Bank of England’s quarter-point cut in interest rates yesterday will make no difference at all to the performance of the economy in the near-term. Read

Switch on to the benefits

Going green is not just a way for Teesside companies to fulfil their environmental obligations - it can also save them a lot of money, says GUY BASHFORD, Envirowise regional manager for the North-east Read

Keith Leslie, The TTE Technical Training Group

Apprenticeships can have positive effects

TRAINING new talent is vital for the future of the Tees Valley economy. But apprenticeships need more support from employers. That’s according to KEITH LESLIE, apprenticeship business director at The TTE Technical Training Group. Read

Praise for skills policy

WHILE the wrangling and turf wars over which public sector agency is responsible for what in terms of education, training and skills, continues to vex many, there remains a good deal to congratulate the Government on when it comes to skills policy. Read

Liz Smith, assistant regional director of the CBI in the North-East,

Fighting climate change

LAST week’s CBI National Conference saw the launch of our Climate Change Task Force Report. Read

People must have somewhere to live

OVER the past few weeks it has been difficult to read a newspaper or watch a television news bulletin without being reminded of the major task facing organisations like Coast and Country. Read

Peter Jackson, former business editor of The Journal and now a director of Press Ahead

That sinking feeling

LAST week I explained why, with a back-of-a-fag-packet calculation, £500bn was not an unreasonable figure for the exposure of world banks to sub-prime mortgage debt. Read

We will have the last laugh

FOLLOWING the recent absurd Channel 4 knock at Middlesbrough - naming the town as the UK’s worst place to live in its Location, Location, Location show - I’m still rocking with anger. Read