Dr John Henry Looney’s business, Sustainable Direction, obtained a loan from peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle. Small businesses are starved of loans from Britain’s cash-strapped banks and savers are receiving miserable interest rates on their deposits. How about bringing them together on the internet and cutting out the banks, so that businesses find loans and savers [...]

Up to 10 MPs are accused of using bad language, shouting and even making veiled threats in their dealings with Ipsa. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA Oh dear – MPs are in the firing line again over their dealings with the new expenses police, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa). Up to 10 are accused of using [...]

Under William Hague, the Foriegn Office is reviewing the publication of its annual human rights report. Photograph: Sang Tan/PA What ought we to make of the stories that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has “scrapped” its annual report on human rights? The FCO has made a rather strongly worded statement referring not to scrapping the [...]

Pension age might have to reach 72 to keep costs at current levels. Photograph: Roger Bamber/Alamy In the midst of squeezed public spending and budget cuts, the coalition government has announced plans for a radical retirement shakeup that would include scrapping the default retirement age. Today, a report by the Pensions Policy Institute predicts that [...]

Europe minister Denis MacShane admitted a volunteer was reduced to tears while briefing him on new expenses rules. Photograph: Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images Staff running parliament’s new expenses system have been verbally abused and reduced to tears by MPs frustrated by the tough new...