Chancellor George Osborne gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee on 15 July. Photograph: PA Britain’s biggest banks are preparing to conduct extensive research with 1,000 small businesses to try to answer ministers’ demands to know why bank lending has collapsed during... 

Tony Blair. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian It may seem as if Tony Blair has never really been away in the three years since he stepped down as prime minister in June 2007 after 10 years in Downing Street. A flood of books, continuing controversies and above all, the unquiet legacy... 

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns in the Gulf of Mexico. The blast killed 11 people and created the biggest oil spil in US history. Photograph: AP BP admitted today its managers on the Deepwater Horizon missed key warning signs in the hours before the explosion aboard the oil rig, but an internal... 

Who’s doing well out of private equity dealing? Photograph: David Levene Here’s a statistic that tells a tale: in the first half of this year, most of the activity in the private equity industry was generated by buyout firms trading businesses among themselves. The ratio was 56%,...