Bradford & Bingley Plc surprised the market today with an emergency £300m cash call to bolster its balance sheet, just a month after saying it had no plans to do so.

Sainsbury's crowned a three-year turnaround plan today by ringing up bumper annual profits of £488 million.

Grocery giant Tesco unveiled its biggest ever deal today after agreeing to spend nearly £1 billion on beefing up its hypermarket presence in South Korea.

Ken Clarke, the last Tory Chancellor, once said he soon lost interest in that chronic obsession of Chancellors – tax reform – after realising that, whatever you did, there would always be winners and losers, and that you would be blamed by the losers while being given no credit whatsoever by the winners.

It has long been apparent that the Labour Government is heading into much rougher economic waters than the benign conditions enjoyed through most of its 11-year rule.