The Government has today announced that in November the new junior ISAs are likely to launch, a way to save £3,000 a year tax free for your children… except, erm, well, most children’s savings are tax free anyway. This new scheme is the replacement for Child Trust Funds (CTFs), see junior ISAs news for the basics. With...

Having eased off the running a bit over the winter I’m back with a vengeance at the moment, and this weekend tried my first ever 10k outdoors. I didn’t follow an organised route, I just ran on my own using a runners watch to measure. I have done a few 10ks on treadmills before (see 10k in...

Don’t worry nothing nefarious, over the last year we’ve been experimenting with a new type of technology to work with articles – you may’ve noticed it, but as we’re using it more and more I thought it’s worth a speedy blog to get your thoughts. The problem Most news and other articles on the web are usually...

Just read this morning that Google has been granted a US patent on its doodles. In other words, it now owns the right to ‘change logos’ on websites. This is frankly a ridiculous decision, but while its unlikely to impact us, just to be safe I’m now seeking legal advice on whether we have to stop doing...

I was doing a live budget commentary on twitter (follow it there) for those who missed it, here are the tweets in order. Spelling mistakes and grammar have been corrected… 1. And we’re off – let’s see what Georgy boy has to say #budget (first sentence he’s flagged he’s going to cut petrol). 2. “Not a tax...

Student loans are currently a good debt, there’s no ‘real’ interest cost and you only repay if you earn enough and the debt’s wiped after 30 years or so (depending when you took it out). Yet a little debated clause in the new loan system has a big negative impact. So this week to do what I...

Having spotted a small comment on it (in the Guardian) I’ve been sent an exact transcript of what Richard Brasher, the new UK Chief Executive of Tesco, actually said about us. It’s a short comment, but as always when its from the king of UK retailers there’s a big impact (thanks very much to Steve Hawkes, The...

This is my second blog on mean, mode and median in just a week – surely that’s far from average. However, I’ve just been reading about the differences between the arithmetic mean and the geometric mean and would love it if there are maths nerds out there who can tell me when it’s appropriate to use each....

This morning I put the phone down from making an emergency call to the police. I felt slightly trepidatious doing it, trying to decide whether it counts as an emergency or not. Here’s what happened…I was on my scooter on the A40 Westway (which is a three lane dual carriageway, see NB about speed limit) at the...