Loans to pioneers are a gamble — and the government wants to give more
Lending public money to a Gloucestershire-based graphene company was looking like a good idea, until it announced this year it was running out of cash. The company, called Versarien and listed on the Alternative Investment Market, took the loan in 2020 from the government agency Innovate UK to expand the manufacture of its graphene technology for commercial use in products such as seats and concrete. However, Versarien put itself up for sale in September and the following month Time to Act, a Middlesbrough-based engineering company, came forward, initially saying it would buy the company for several hundred thousand pounds and take responsibility for the Innovate UK loan. But then it backed away and last week Versarien went into administration, leaving taxpayers — which had supported the company with a range of grants as well as the loan since 2010 — to join the queue of creditors. Time To Act is now in discussions with the administrators as a potential buyer of some of the assets.
Source:The Times
December 08, 2025 00:06 UTC
Raise minimum pension contribution to boost growth, says L&G boss
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Source:The Times
December 08, 2025 00:03 UTC
Recruitment stalls amid rising staff costs
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Source:The Times
December 08, 2025 00:03 UTC
Keir Starmer: Apprenticeships should have equal footing with degrees
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Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 22:31 UTC
Staff to be encouraged to join union under new employment bill
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Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 22:03 UTC
Weight-loss drug users told to do weights or risk ageing 10 years
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Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 21:50 UTC
Four arrested after student stabbed to death in Southampton
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Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 21:47 UTC
First-time buyers were older and more indebted than ever last year
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Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 21:45 UTC
World Cup 2026: Thirteen different kick-off times at next year's tournament
North America is a big place and the World Cup will be hosted across 16 cities, spanning four time zones and three countries, at locations up to 2,800 miles apart. All of that, plus the heat at that time of the year, provided an additional layer of complication when it came to deciding kick-off times. There are also 05:00 BST games in Vancouver (Australia versus European Play-Off C winner on Saturday, 13 June) and Guadalupe, Mexico (Tunisia versus Japan on Saturday, 20 June). In total there will be 35 group-stage games that kick-off between 00:00 BST and 05:00 BST, which is almost half of the 72 fixtures for that stage of the tournament. The most common kick-off time is 20:00 BST, with 12 group-stage games taking place then.
Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 19:20 UTC
From football tickets to gigs, MPs accept £300,000 of gifts in a year
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Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 18:02 UTC
Sinking of passenger ship SS Tilawa commemorated on 83rd anniv in UK
MUMBAI: The sinking of the passenger-cargo liner, SS Tilawa, which sailed from Mumbai in 1942, was commemorated on the 83rd anniversary at a public function in Leicester, UK, recently. Three days earlier, SS Tilawa, owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company, set sail from the Mumbai dock en route to Mombasa, Maputo, and Durban. After scanning the waters for two days, HMS Birmingham and SS Carthage rescued the majority of the 958 people on board. "Interestingly, five months after Tilawa's sinking, the same Japanese crew and submarine rescued and provided safe passage to Indian freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra. "The first micro museum dedicated to HMS Kelly and SS Tilawa in Hebburn, Newcastle, has been planned.
Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 17:41 UTC
David Lammy accused of twisting rape case figures for jury trials plan
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Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 16:34 UTC
The Times deletes grossly misleading Gaza photo
Within days, Collier noted, the photo – and the Gaza photographer’s framing of it – was published by the BBC, Daily Express, Sky News, CNN, The Guardian, Daily Mail, New York Times, The Times and many others, in a manner reinforcing the false child starvation narrative. The medical records Collier obtained noted that Mohammed also suffers from hypoxemia (low oxygen in the blood), possibly linked to a suspected genetic disorder. In fact, we were able to convince the Guardian to revise a caption under a photo of the boy to note that he suffers from cerebral palsy. Shortly after our X post, the photo of the sick boy was removed from the article, and the paragraph with the grossly misleading sentence about Gaza was completely deleted. However, contrary to normal journalistic practices, editors failed to add an addendum explaining the corrections.
Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 14:35 UTC
Top award for South Wilts Grammar School in Salisbury
South Wilts Grammar School, on Stratford Road, was given the prestigious accolade for the first time in the newspaper's Parent Power Guide 2026. South Wilts, a girls' grammar school with a coeducational sixth form, described the award as a reflection of its “exceptional and continually improving academic outcomes, the breadth and quality of opportunities offered beyond the classroom, and the remarkable achievements of students across all areas of school life”. The school is delighted with the recognition (Image: South Wilts Grammar School)South Wilts headteacher Dr Amanda Smith said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this award. Helen Davies, editor of The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide, said: “The educational landscape is testing – budget challenges, rising student mental health issues, special educational needs and an increasingly uncertain future. Parent Power enables parents to compare the performance of a school with others in the same area and nationally.
Source:The Times
December 07, 2025 14:22 UTC