The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has criticised credit card companies for making their products too complicated. It recommends that a comparison website is launched to make credit cards easier to compare with each other. The OFT found that 70% of customers do not shop around for a credit card and could be wasting money. An investigation was launched last April after it was found that the top 20 card issuers all have different ways of working out their interest charges. This means that cards with a low Annual Percentage Rate (APR) could be more expensive to use than those with a higher APR.

Scottish and Newcastle are to close its largest UK brewery. The Berkshire Brewery in Reading currently employs 360 people and produces Foster’s and Kronenbourg. It is expected the company will save 13 million a year by closing the site and moving capacity to its other UK sites.

T-Mobile and Orange are to launch a new service that will give customers a live TV service on their mobile phone. They aim to start a trial service in west London in the summer. They plan to broadcast 24 TV channels and 10 digital radio stations although have not yet said what sort of tariff customers would pay for the service. The service will offer both conventional TV channels and some premium channels.

I read this article which makes the claim that diet drinks could actually make you put on weight. Researchers in the USA have found that artificial sweeteners such as those contained in diet drinks make it harder for people to regulate their intake of food and can lead to over eating. The findings come after a study was carried out on some rats. Rats given a low calories yogurt gained more weight and body fat that those given a surgery version. The researchers say that the study could help to explain why obesity levels and the use of artificial have both increased.

In a huge crackdown on underage drinkers the supermarket chain Morrisons will ask all its customers to prove they are over 21 before it will sell them alcohol. The new measure will be put in place in stores in high risk areas and will affect all customers with no exceptions. So whether you are 21 or 80 you will need to produce proof of age. The measures seem a little extreme and whilst it might be hard to guess a younger persons age, most people can tell that a pensioner is old enough to buy alcohol.

A mushroom farm that has been operating for 50 years is due to close because of rising costs and increased competition from abroad. The farm in Godalming Surrey is one of only two left in the South East. When it closes 80 people will lose their jobs.

The blue Smartie was dropped by Nestle about three years due to concerns about artificial ingredients. At the time Nestle were able to reformulate the other coloured Smarties to get rid of the artificial ingredients and colours. However, they could find no way of recreating the distinctive blue Smartie. It appeared that Smarties have now found the answer and can create the blue sweet using a colouring from seaweed.

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