Press reports today say that the Department for Transport’s list of cuts includes an accelerated timetable for raising the qualifying age for the English bus passes scheme.

Since April 2008, older people and some disabled people have been eligible for free off-peak bus travel. There is a strategy for increasing the qualifying age in line with the raising of the state pension age, so that it will be 65 for men and women by 2020.

Every Department has to send the Treasury a set of cuts that would achieve 25 per cent savings and a set that would achieve 40 per cent. To

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Pat McFadden, the Shadow Business Minister, made a thoughtful speech to the Fabian Society this morning. He resolutely defended the last Labour Government’s economic record, questioned the Con-Lib decision to “cut faster and deeper than we (i.e. Labour) would”, rubbished the idea that the UK was in a similar economic position to Greece and made the case for active industrial policies in pursuit of growth. It’s well summarised by Sunder at Next Left.

It was all good stuff. The controversial bit came in the following two sentences: “‘Fight the cuts’ is a tempting slogan in Opposition, and there are indeed some that must be fought. But if that is

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Subscription software offers some cost-saving opportunities for the typical small business. 

 

Where more traditional software limits the number of computers it can be used on—requiring a separate license for your home computer and for your office computer—many subscription software options simply require that you have enough user names for each employee that will be using the software. 

 

More often than not, subscription software is web-based, allowing you access to the tools you and your business need from any computer with an internet connection.

 

The reduction in cost goes beyond just the number of licenses.

Gold Tuesday rose 1.3 percent, the most in more than three weeks. Singapore’s government Wednesday raised the forecast for full-year economic growth to as much as 15 percent, while Intel Corp. reported record second-quarter sales and topped analysts’ estimates with its forecast for the coming period. Most European stocks rose and U.S. index futures rallied. Asian shares gained.

Improving economic data and news “limits gold prices to trade higher,” said Bayram Dincer, an analyst at LGT Capital Management in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland.

Gold for immediate delivery added 55 cents to US$1,212.90 an ounce at 10:03 a.m. in London. Prices gained as much as 0.2 percent and fell as much as 0.1 percent Wednesday. Bul

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Westminster Council has now also published the financial report from its recent Cabinet meeting. This documents the £14 million of cuts to services that it is proposing in response to central government funding reductions.

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