Новости за 17.04.2015

Are politicians listening to voters' financial concerns? That's one of the questions posed in a new BBC Radio 4 programme broadcast this week, in which I took part. Two groups of voters were given a chance to share their feelings about whether the Britain provides a financially stable society – and the results were fascinating.

I chatted to two people this week who had found themselves struggling. One was out of work in London, the other works full-time in Scunthorpe. What do they have in common? Neither knew they could be eligible for financial help.

Last week I highlighted the No Pain, No Gain portfolio's debt to the drinks industry. But one constituent's sobering performance is undermining the cheer factor: Stock Spirits, recruited a year ago, has become a bitter disappointment. Yet according to the investment house Jefferies, and the company itself, trading could improve significantly.

If you ever so gently cup a hand to your ear and listen carefully, two things are almost guaranteed to happen. First, you will look to those around you (and to any passing members of Her Majesty's Plod), like the worst kind of gurning nutjob.

Q. I was shocked when I looked at my American Express account statement to see a charge of £79 for membership of Amazon Prime. I have not bought anything from Amazon for a long time and I have certainly never subscribed to Prime (which offers film downloads and priority delivery of goods).

I started my career in financial services 33 years ago. At the time, pensions were not a big topic and rarely featured in the headlines.

Donate your old bike to a worthy cause and you could get £500 off the price of a new one. The trade-in deal is being offered at branches of Evans Cycles until June.

Scammers stole an estimated £2.2m from holidaymakers in 2014. A report by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) section of the City of London Police revealed that 1,569 cases of holiday booking fraud were reported to the force's Action Fraud.

What's on offer?

The balance transfer segment of the credit card market continues to get the most high profile coverage which sadly means good value long-term cards are often overlooked.

Well, it's happened again. Another cold call about my pension – this one with a few novel touches I'd like to share with you. When it comes to snuffling out the wealthy and gullible, there seems no end to the ingenuity of parts of our financial services "industry".

A woman diagnosed with herpes at the age of 20 has written an emotional essay about living with the common condition to fight the stigma surrounding it.

The abuse of power is an ever-topical theme, though one that is itself open to mistreatment by axe-grinding, opportunistic directors.  But in this stunning account of Measure for Measure – Declan Donnellan's stripped-back, modern-dress co-production between Cheek By Jowl and Moscow's Pushkin Theatre – the parallels with the Putin era never feel remotely forced. 

Gear up for a summer of alfresco dining with our pick of the grilling machines

It took Covent Garden centuries to get round to staging Rossini’s light-hearted homage to Mozart, but when they did – with the directorial team of Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier, and Christian Fenouillat – they struck gold: now back in its fourth revival, this Turco is the biggest crowd-pleaser in their repertory.

Sir Kenneth Branagh has gone from treading the boards of the West End to being an internationally acclaimed director, in demand in Hollywood after blockbuster hits like Cinderella and Thor.

It is the same Jessica Ennis-Hill, but different.

Jessica Ennis-Hill is seeking to get her World Championship silver medal in South Korea in 2011 upgraded to gold in the wake of the winner Tatyana Chernova’s doping ban.

The chief executive of the National Theatre has shocked the British arts world by stepping down just six months into the job.