A new car has been unveiled by the Indian buyers of Jaguar that costs only £1,250 making it the world’s cheapest car. It has no air conditioning, no power steering, no passenger side mirror and only one windscreen wiper but it big enough to carry four people. Called the Nano its makers hope that it will make motoring accessible to millions of Indians who can’t currently afford a car. The car measures ten foot long and five foot high and is powered by a two cylinder petrol engine. It has a top speed of 65mph and does 50 miles to the gallon.

Asda is to introduce fines for customers who park in disabled or family bays when they are not meant to be using them. The fines were rolled out yesterday across all of its stores. Any profits made from the scheme will be donated to the charity Tommy’s and to the Motability car scheme for the disabled.

Despite it being well publicised that McDonalds food is unhealthy sales are up in Britain. They are now selling more burgers than at any time since they arrived in Britain 34 years ago. Last month there were an amazing 88 million visits to McDonalds. This figure is up nearly 10 million on the previous year.  Although the McDonald’s menu has changed to include healthier options such as smoothies and wraps the most popular choices are still the traditional products such as burgers, fries and ice creams.

Land of Leather shares have lost 48% of their value after the retailer’s biggest new year sale failed to tempt customers. The results meant they had to issue a profits warning. Within minutes of issuing the announcement to the London Stock Exchange revealing a 25.5% drop in sales orders shares in the company plummeted by almost 50%.

NHS dental fees rose last year although the number of patients dropped. The amount paid by patients rose by £60 million last year, which is up 15% on the previous year. Figures show that patients paid £16.91 each in NHS dental charges in 2006/2007 compares to £14.58 the year before. This article suggests that people now have less access to NHS dentistry, that there are fewer resources and higher charges.

Marks and Spencer have managed to turn the business around and are now on track to burst though the billion pound profit mark. This is despite recent poor sales. The performance means that the business is likely to announce landmark profit figures when they issue a financial statement in May.

Several of the UK’s supermarkets have announced they will phase out the sale of battery eggs. The decision has come because of consumer concerns over the impact of cheap food on animal welfare. Sainsbury, Morrisons and the Co-op will phase out the sale of eggs from battery hens. Marks and Spencer and Waitrose have already stopped selling eggs from battery hens. Sainsbury expect to end the sale of eggs from battery hens by next year. The Co-op has similar plans and Morrisons will phase them out by 2010. Tesco are reducing the shelf space for eggs from caged hens but have not yet announced a ban.

Despite often being unhealthy ready meals are still very popular. In fact sales of ready meals have trebled in the past decade. Sales of Chinese, Indian and Thai meals have risen within the past five years with fast food sales growing by 73% between 1995 and 2005. Despite this more than 60% of people surveyed still cook at least one meal a day from scratch.

It appears that beer sales have suffered one of the worst months on record. Whilst this is obviously bad news for pubs it could also be a sign that consumer spending is slowing. The statistics which were compiled by the British Beer and Pub Association show that the volume of beer sold fell 9.7% in November. This followed a 7.7% drop in October and an 8.2% decline in September. The BBPA say that volumes in November were at their lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Other factors such as the smoking ban and people becoming more health conscious have also made life tough for the publican. So the message here, is drink more beer.