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The brothers trying to save the British fountain pen

Write with style, Yard O Led silver Viceroy Grand Victorian fountain pen, £1,400

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In the 19th century, around three quarters of the world’s nibs and pens were made in Birmingham. At its peak, the city was exporting writing implements at a rate of billions of nibs a year, with factory workers expected to turn out 18,000 a day. Then came the ballpoint pen, signalling the decline of British pen-making: more than 100 billion have been sold since the introduction of the Bic in 1950. Add in the impact of computers and other tech, and the number of pen makers in Birmingham has dwindled from hundreds to just one.

Yard O Led silver Viceroy Grand Victorian fountain pen, £1,400
Yard O Led silver Viceroy Grand Victorian fountain pen, £1,400

Now that maker, Yard O Led, is staging a revival. Earlier this year, owner Emma Field sold a two-thirds stake to Nick and Giles English, brothers and co-founders of Bremont watches. The pair helped revive British watchmaking 22 years ago with Bremont and, with this move, they are looking to do the same for the pen industry. If you wanted to compare Yard O Led – so named after an early pencil design that held 12 3in leads – to a watch brand, “it’d be Breguet”, says Giles, seated in an airy room in the company’s workshop in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. “Yard O Led has not been on the high street in any real guise for many years but it’s very well-known in the pen market. It deserves to be one of the great pen brands.”

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“People are starting to look at nicer writing instruments, not only for the beauty of them, but because they’re more environmentally friendly,” adds Field. “You don’t want to throw it away, you want to hold on to it; people are back into that idea.”

Brothers and co-founders of Bremont watches Giles (left) and Nick English (right) with Yard O Led co-owner Emma Field
Brothers and co-founders of Bremont watches Giles (left) and Nick English (right) with Yard O Led co-owner Emma Field

To mark the new shared ownership, the company is releasing the Lucky pen and pencil, a design selected from the Yard O Led archive for its remarkable story. The Lucky is a remake of a pencil originally released in 1934, one of which saved the life of Lt Leslie March of the Cameron Highlanders in 1942 during the second world war. It was a wedding present from his wife Margot that he kept in his chest pocket, where it stopped a bullet that would have gone through his heart. He took the dented pencil with him everywhere as his lucky charm; but two years later, arriving on the Normandy beaches after D-Day in 1944, he was killed, hit by a shell, aged 23. The story of the pencil only came to light in recent years when March’s stepbrother, who had held it in his care after March was killed, got in touch with Yard O Led and donated it to its archives. Field shows me the pencil, its barrel kinked where the bullet struck.

The Yard O Led pencil that saved the life of Lt Leslie March in 1942
The Yard O Led pencil that saved the life of Lt Leslie March in 1942
Archived Yard O Led pencils with green and red leads
Archived Yard O Led pencils with green and red leads

“We did all the drawings based on the bullet pencil because it’s the only one we have,” she says. The Lucky reissue, made in silver and gold vermeil, is a slender, four-sided instrument with delicate art deco pinstripes engraved on each face, tapering gently to the point. “It’ll be the first gold plating we’ve done in a good 30 years, and it’s done by Pete the polisher who works next door,” says Field.

Yard O Led will continue to make its classic line of pens too. Field presents me with a box filled with silver pens lined up like swords. Each is made to order by hand in the Birmingham workshop from start to finish, often by people whose parents worked for the company before them. In the hand, the silver warms to the touch and the pleasing heaviness allows it to balance perfectly on the crook of the thumb and forefinger. The ink flow and weight mean there’s no need to exert force on the point. Many surface details, such as the swirling design on the ostentatious Grand Victorian fountain pen, are chased by hand, a process that, unlike engraving, doesn’t remove the metal but reshapes it.

“We want Yard O Led to be sitting in jewellers’ shops next to Montblanc,” says Giles English. “We really want to grow,” agrees his brother. Field, meanwhile, believes these pens are going to be mainstream again. “People are going to pull out their pen as a talisman, and they’re going to have a story to tell.”

Word perfect

Choosing Keeping x Steve Harrison ceramic dip pen No 8, £1,800

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Choosing Keeping x Steve Harrison ceramic dip pen No 8, £1,800

Salt glaze potter Steve Harrison has collaborated with the cult London stationers Choosing Keeping on a desk collection. This ceramic and rose gold-plated silver calligrapher’s pen, featuring Harrison’s colour-dappled glazing, can be paired with a stoneware inkwell. choosingkeeping.com

Conway Stewart Series 58 Seamus Heaney fountain pen, from £399

Conway Stewart Series 58 Seamus Heaney fountain pen, from £399

Seamus Heaney wrote a poem in his final collection about a Conway Stewart fountain pen, with its “three gold bands in the clip-on screw-top”. The manufacturer has faithfully reproduced that design here in an edition of 250, finished at a workshop in Emsworth, Hampshire. conwaystewart.com

Cartier Santos de Cartier ballpoint pen, £1,080

Cartier Santos de Cartier ballpoint pen, £1,080

The classic ballpoint pen is elevated with engraved deep-blue lacquering. The cap is inlaid with a palladium-finished moonphase motif reminiscent of the brand’s watch faces. cartier.com

Onoto Flying Scotsman fountain pen, from £625

Onoto Flying Scotsman fountain pen, from £625

To mark the 100th birthday of the Flying Scotsman steam locomotive last year, heritage maker Onoto produced a trio of pens inspired by the engine’s liveries. This apple-green design has bronze fittings made from metal taken from the Scotsman’s bronze axle boxes and a clip shaped like a locomotive connecting rod. onoto.com

Namiki Okita Geisha and Art of Tea Urushi fountain pen, £655

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Namiki Okita Geisha and Art of Tea Urushi fountain pen, £655

A portrait of an 18th-century Kansei geisha adorns the barrel of this pen. Each one is hand-finished with traditional Japanese lacquer work and sprinkled with gold dust. It comes with a generous, stubby ink pot. abask.com

Montblanc Writers Edition Homage To Jane Austen fountain pen, POA

Montblanc Writers Edition Homage To Jane Austen fountain pen, POA

Only eight models of this pen have been made, each as finely wrought as Jane Austen’s dissections of Georgian society. It features a lace and feather pattern, a turquoise-studded cone engraved with a set of dance steps, and Austen’s silhouette on the nib. montblanc.com

Breguet Tradition fountain pen, POA

Breguet Tradition fountain pen, POA

This fountain pen of matte titanium and polished rose gold was designed in tribute to Breguet’s watches. The maker has thrown in some clever aesthetic nods to its timepieces – from the clip shaped like a watch hand to the guilloché border running along the barrel and lid. breguet.com

Gilbert House Pens Homerton fountain pen in Kenworth Truck Fordite, £325

Gilbert House Pens Homerton fountain pen in Kenworth Truck Fordite, £325

Layers of dried paint collected from car factories are suspended in the red acrylic of this hand-turned pen. They’re made by Cambridge-based Gilbert House, and available to buy at the city’s weekly All Saints Craft Market. gilberthousepens.co.uk

Dunhill Sidecar ballpoint pen, £625

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Dunhill Sidecar ballpoint pen, £625

A glossy black ballpoint pen inspired by the curves of a 1930s Steib sidecar, it features a domed cap and a sleek embossed “AD” logo on the cap. Its midcentury lines would sit well with a green-shaded banker’s lamp on a Pierre Jeanneret desk. dunhill.com

Ajoto The Pen, from £150

Ajoto The Pen, from £150

Designed by minimalist stationer Ajoto, this graceful cylindrical ballpoint pen features a twist mechanism of four parts, all handmade in Manchester. Finishes range from brushed aluminium to a matt-anodised black. ajoto.com

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M&S shoppers rush to buy ‘gorgeous’ Christmas light up centre-piece scanning for £7.50 instead of £10

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M&S shoppers rush to buy ‘gorgeous’ Christmas light up centre-piece scanning for £7.50 instead of £10

SHOPPERS are racing to Ocado to get their hands on a Christmas centre-piece scanning for £7.50 rather than £10.

The M&S Marks & Sparkle London Light Up Scented Candle has been hailed as the perfect winter goodie, especially with 15 per cent knocked off the price.

M&S has placed some popular festive treats on the shelves this year

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M&S has placed some popular festive treats on the shelves this yearCredit: Getty
The M&S Marks & Sparkle London Light Up Scented Candle can be bought on Ocado for £7.50

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The M&S Marks & Sparkle London Light Up Scented Candle can be bought on Ocado for £7.50
When the wick is lit the LEDs light up the charming London-themed artwork

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When the wick is lit the LEDs light up the charming London-themed artwork

With an iconic London scene printed on the glass jar and LEDs that light up when the wick is lit, it becomes the perfect centre-piece for any display.

The neroli, lime and bergamont infused candle has become a Christmas favourite with customers jumping to the M&S comment section to compliment it.

One user said: “This is not only a beautiful candle when lit but also when it’s not lit, it sparkles and has a beautiful fresh smell.”

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Another added: “I bought it as a beautiful London themed momento, having received it it looks beautiful with a most attractive design in a perfect subtle colour and it smells gorgeous – can’t wait to display and light it up over the festive period.”

A third user responded: “Beautiful candle, really pretty when it’s lit up. Quite a delicate scent. Bought as a present and my friend loved it!”

You can get a hold of this candle directly from the M&S website or in store for £10.

But if you want to get £2.50 discount you can head over to Ocado where it’s 75 per cent of the original price.

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Through the Ocado website you add the festive candle to your basked for £7.50.

If you don’t have an Ocado account you can sign up through the website and book a delivery slot that suits you.

First time customers can often receive a discount so make sure to check for voucher codes.

Shoppers race to buy M&S’ sparkly ‘heels of the season’ – they’re perfect for M&S but are selling out FAST

When using grocery delivery services like Ocado, there may be discounts and price drops at the checkout but keep in mind that there is often a charge for delivery.

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The price will vary depending on the delivery option, which are one-hour delivery slots, next-day delivery, and same-day delivery.

M&S also has a delivery fee so remember to factor that in when checking out your Christmas treats.

The M&S Christmas room spray has also been getting a lot of love from shoppers.

For a sweet £6 this mandarin, clove and cinnamon room spray could elevate your festive experience.

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Customers are saying it simply ‘screams Christmas.’

Another item that’s been flying off the shelves is The Magical Snowing Forest in M&S food halls, which has taken off on social media.

The chocolate box can come home with you for £15 and even has a charming snow-globe effect.

If this isn’t enough chocolate the Santa Chocolate Sleigh has been selling out fast as it’s only £5 a pop.

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The tin sleigh holds individually wrapped milk chocolates inside a parcel bag that is a replica of Santa’s sleigh.

How to save money on Christmas shopping

Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how you can save money on your Christmas shopping.

Limit the amount of presents – buying presents for all your family and friends can cost a bomb.

Instead, why not organise a Secret Santa between your inner circles so you’re not having to buy multiple presents.

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Plan ahead – if you’ve got the stamina and budget, it’s worth buying your Christmas presents for the following year in the January sales.

Make sure you shop around for the best deals by using price comparison sites so you’re not forking out more than you should though.

Buy in Boxing Day sales – some retailers start their main Christmas sales early so you can actually snap up a bargain before December 25.

Delivery may cost you a bit more, but it can be worth it if the savings are decent.

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Shop via outlet stores – you can save loads of money shopping via outlet stores like Amazon Warehouse or Office Offcuts.

They work by selling returned or slightly damaged products at a discounted rate, but usually any wear and tear is minor.

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Control of House hangs in balance as vote count continues in US

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Donald Trump’s ability to push through his legislative agenda hangs in the balance as votes continue to be counted in more than two dozen congressional races that will determine which party controls the House of Representatives.

While Trump secured a stunning victory in this week’s presidential election, and Republicans will have a majority in the US Senate, a long list of House races have yet to be called, leaving it unclear whether Republicans will hold on to the lower chamber.

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If Democrats are able to reclaim control of the House, they could act as a bulwark against the Trump White House and a Republican-held Senate.

But given the scale of Republican wins on Tuesday night many non-partisan analysts expect the lower chamber will probably remain under GOP control. Trump improved his margins in 48 out of 50 states and is on course to be the first Republican presidential candidate to win the national popular vote in two decades.

Experts at the Cook Political Report wrote in a memo on Wednesday that the “most likely outcome is a GOP trifecta, including a continued narrow Republican House majority”.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson — a close Trump ally who is expected to keep the top job in the House should Republicans hold on to the chamber — has said the GOP is “poised to have unified government in the White House, Senate and House”.

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In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Johnson said Republicans would be “ready to play ball on day one”.

“President Trump wants to be aggressive. He wants to go big, and we’re excited about that,” he said. “We’re going to get to play offence, because I’m absolutely convinced we’re going to have the White House, the Senate and the House. I think we will deliver that majority.”

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader who would probably be Speaker if Democrats were able to reclaim control of the chamber, has struck a more cautious note.

“It has yet to be decided who will control the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress,” Jeffries said on Thursday. “We must count every vote and wait until the results in Oregon, Arizona and California are clear.”

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Many close congressional races have been slow to be decided because states will continue to count mail-in ballots so long as they are postmarked by election day. California has historically been slow to count votes — and nearly a dozen races in the state have yet to be called.

The delays are not without precedent. Two years ago, after the 2022 midterms, it took more than a week for the Associated Press to call that Republicans had retaken control of the House.

While Republicans are certain to retake control of the Senate after flipping three seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, the margin of their majority also remains in the balance, with results still being tabulated in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada.

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Putin says Trump’s Ukraine proposals merit attention

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Putin says Trump’s Ukraine proposals merit attention

Russian president congratulates Republican leader on his election victory

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Chinese exports soar as Beijing prepares for Trump’s tariff threats

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Montage showing Donald Trump with an American flag backdrop, framed by a red map of the US

This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to receive the newsletter every weekday. Explore all of our newsletters here

In today’s newsletter:


Good morning. China’s exports soared in October and its trade surplus ballooned, official data showed yesterday, just days after Donald Trump won the US presidential election with promises of sweeping tariffs to suppress imports from China.

The bumper export figures are expected to inflame tensions between Trump’s incoming administration and Beijing. The president-elect, a self-described “Tariff Man”, is expected to move quickly and “ruthlessly” in threatening the US’s trading partners with steep levies on their imports once he takes office, say former trade officials and advisers.

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Trump has threatened levies of up to 20 per cent on all imports and 60 per cent on those from China — measures that are more stringent and broader than those deployed during his first term in office.

China’s October export surge was probably partly because “the prospect of a Trump victory” and anticipated tariffs spurred exporters to front-load shipments, said Shuang Ding, head of greater China economic research at Standard Chartered.

Analysts said China’s burgeoning trade surplus — which hit $95.7bn in October compared with forecasts of $75bn — would provoke Trump.

“Of course China will be on top of the list,” said Wang Dong, executive director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding at Peking University. “The stability, the relative improvement that we have been witnessing . . . will probably come to an end.” Here’s how Beijing could respond to aggressive new tariffs under a second Trump administration.

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Trump’s victory continues to reverberate around the US and the world — here’s more coverage:

  • Japan: The country’s top currency diplomat said the government was ready to take action against “excess moves” in the yen as Asian currencies showed further weakness against a resurgent US dollar in the wake of Trump’s victory.

  • ‘Brave new world’: Trump’s re-election threatens to accelerate the end of the US-led postwar order — if not render it irrelevant.

  • Blame game: Joe Biden called on Americans to “bring down the temperature” in US politics, as Democrats began pointing fingers over Harris’s heavy defeat against Trump. Some critics say the party misread voters.

  • From felon to president-elect: Trump, a twice-impeached convicted criminal, defied assassins and the political odds to win back the White House.

Sign up for our White House Watch newsletter for more analysis on the far-reaching repercussions of Trump’s second term. And here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

  • Economic data: Japan reports household spending for September and Taiwan releases October trade figures. China reports October inflation data on Saturday.

  • Results: Tata Motors and Sony report earnings.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. Nissan has launched an emergency turnaround plan that includes 9,000 job losses and a voluntary 50 per cent pay cut for chief executive Makoto Uchida after unveiling it had fallen to a quarterly loss. Japan’s third-largest carmaker said it would slash global production capacity by 20 per cent. Read more about the troubles at Nissan.

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2. The US Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point yesterday, marking a decline in the pace from September’s half-point cut. Its chair Jay Powell hailed the strength of the US economy and said he would not resign if Donald Trump asked him to.

3. Bangladesh has staved off more power cuts by India’s Adani Group after supplying the conglomerate with a new credit letter and reassurances that it will clear its mounting electricity bill. Billionaire Gautam Adani’s group began reducing electricity supplies to Bangladesh last week over a backlog of overdue payments estimated by the group to be about $850mn.

4. German opposition leader Friedrich Merz has called for snap elections as early as January following the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s government. Merz rejected the timetable set out by the German chancellor after he broke up the governing coalition, plunging Europe’s largest economy into political turmoil.

5. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said it would be “unacceptable” and “suicidal” for Europe to ask Ukraine to make concessions to Russia in exchange for a potential peace deal. The Ukrainian president’s comments came at a European security summit hosted by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has broken with EU and Nato policy to push for immediate peace.

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The Big Read

Montage showing Donald Trump with an American flag backdrop, framed by a red map of the US
© FT montage/Getty

In the end, it wasn’t even close. A presidential election long forecast to dance on a knife’s edge very quickly turned into a rout for Donald Trump. Today’s Big Read has the five maps and charts that show how the Republican candidate defied conventional assumptions about his support and redrew America’s political map.

We’re also reading . . . 

  • The lure of the strongman: Trump has fundamentally shifted the norms and ideology of American politics, writes Gideon Rachman.

  • Australian business scandals: A spate of controversies has put the country’s boards on notice, Nic Fildes explains.

  • World trade: Just how dependent is the world trading system on the US? We’re about to stress-test the question with Trump headed back to the White House, writes Alan Beattie.

Chart of the day

With their crushing defeat in this week’s US election, the Democrats joined Britain’s Tories and Japan’s Liberal Democrats in 2024’s graveyard of incumbents in an unprecedented year of elections, writes our chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch.

Take a break from the news

Our Lego-loving food writer Tim Hayward dined at the Mini Chef café at the toymakers’ Danish headquarters. A meal prepared by tiny plastic people sparked a revelation about hospitality.

© Simon Bailly

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More growth, inflation and uncertainty: the BoE’s Budget verdict

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The Bank of England has delivered its verdict on Rachel Reeves’ Budget: it will bring higher growth and higher prices in the short term, and new uncertainty over the outlook for the economy further ahead.

The UK chancellor’s £70bn boost to spending has reinforced the monetary policy committee’s caution about the scope for further interest rate cuts, following the reduction from 5 per cent to 4.75 per cent on Thursday.

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Budget measures will add 0.75 percentage points to GDP and around 0.5 percentage points to consumer price inflation in a year’s time, the MPC said. But the impact of the biggest tax change — the £26bn increase in employers’ national insurance contributions — is much harder to assess.

Policymakers, already wary of cutting rates too fast in the face of persistent wage pressures, want to see how businesses respond to a change that will make it much more expensive to hire low-wage workers.

“A gradual approach to removing monetary policy restraint will help us to observe how this plays out, along with other risks to the inflation outlook,” governor Andrew Bailey told reporters on Thursday.

The MPC’s new forecasts show consumer price inflation will be running at 2.7 per cent in the final quarter of 2025 — well above its previous forecast of 2.2 per cent. It will fall below the 2 per cent target only in mid-2027, a full year later than the committee expected in August. The higher inflation is largely because of the combined effects of the Budget measures.

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The main driver is the big, front-loaded increase in government consumption and investment, which will pump up demand in the near-term, while any improvements in the supply capacity of the economy will take much longer to materialise.

The MPC now expects spare capacity in the economy to open up later, and to a smaller extent, than it expected in August — on the face of it pointing to a slower pace of rate reductions in the coming quarters.

The inflation forecasts also reflect the direct effects on prices of the rise in the cap on bus fares, the introduction of VAT on private school fees and the increase in vehicle excise duty, which will all take effect next year.

Plans to increase fuel duty in line with inflation from 2026 are also factored into the BoE’s new forecast, although previous chancellors have repeatedly failed to follow through on fuel duty uprating.

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Far more uncertain, however, is the effect of the chancellor’s big tax hike on businesses through employers’ national insurance contributions.

Employers could respond in several ways, Bailey said: by raising prices, accepting lower profits, improving productivity, holding down wages or cutting employment. The overall effect was unpredictable as it would rely on the strength of consumer demand and workers’ bargaining power.

“There is obviously a lot we will learn about the effects of the Budget as they pass through. It’s important we all have the time to do that,” he said.

Clare Lombardelli, the BoE’s deputy governor for monetary policy, noted that the effects would differ between sectors: “It is very uncertain . . . we will want to observe it and talk to businesses about precisely how they plan to respond.”

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The BoE’s task will be all the harder because poor data means it is still very hard to assess how strong the jobs market is, and whether workers are in a position to resist attempts to squeeze their pay.

Economists said it was striking, given the material impact of the Budget measures, that the BoE had not signalled any change in its policy stance, with Bailey saying it would not be right “to conclude that the path for interest rates will be very different due to the Budget”.

Its forecasts are premised on market expectations for interest rates in the run-up to the Budget, which implied the benchmark rate would fall to 3.5 per cent in three years.

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Since that forecast was finalised, market expectations for bank rate at the end of 2025 have risen by nearly 0.5 percentage points.

But Sandra Horsfield, economist at Investec, said the implications of the two major developments since the BoE’s August forecasts — the UK Budget and US election — remained far from clear.

She said: “The MPC has chosen a middle path as its baseline, but stressed uncertainties on both sides — and its willingness to react should that judgment be wrong.”

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Time-warp northern English ‘town’ named top festive day out – with train station grotto and retro Christmas treats

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Beamish, a huge open-air museum in the north of England, has been named a top place for a festive day out

A HUGE open-air museum has been named one of the UK’s top Christmas breaks for 2024.

Visit England named Beamish as one of eight “uber-festive” places Brits should visit this year.

Beamish, a huge open-air museum in the north of England, has been named a top place for a festive day out

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Beamish, a huge open-air museum in the north of England, has been named a top place for a festive day outCredit: Alamy
Rooms inside the replica buildings are decorated with retro Christmas decorations like paper chains

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Rooms inside the replica buildings are decorated with retro Christmas decorations like paper chainsCredit: Alamy

According to Visit England, the eight attractions each offer something different from “festive light trails with your mates, Christmas afternoon tea with your mum, romantic evenings at German Christmas markets and December days out with the kids to meet Santa”.

And one of the places in Visit England‘s top picks is the “living museum” of Beamish in County Durham.

The huge open-air museum allows visitors to see what life would have been like in the UK between the 1820s and 1950s.

From November 23 until December 24, its replica homes, pubs, shops and businesses will be transformed into a huge festive attraction.

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The sprawling 300-acre estate will be decked out with golden fairy lights, pine garlands and a huge Christmas tree

Some of the replica homes will be set for Christmas too with traditional grub on display.

Visitors can sample some retro sweets at the 1990s town sweet shop and listen to festive music in the countdown to Christmas.

The northern attraction will also be serving a range of “yuletide treats”.

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Even though there aren’t any specifics on its website, its onsite team rooms will most likely be serving traditional mince pies and other baked goods.

For younger visitors, Beamish will also play host to the big man himself with a Christmas Grotto.

Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market was crowned 8th place in Best Christmas Markets in Europe 2024 by European Best Destinations

Father Christmas will be meeting kids inside his grotto at Rowley Station Goods Yards. Grotto visits cost an additional £8 per child.

The Visit England website reads: “Experience wonderful festivities and enjoy a wintery stroll around the open-air museum grounds, made extra special by the unique surroundings.

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“Afterwards, see the traditional decorations, enjoy festive treats and find that perfect present for someone special.”

Beamish will also be open for evening visits on set days throughout December for visitors who want to experience the open-air attraction after dark.

Previous visitors have been impressed by the festive offering at Beamish, with one writing on TripAdvisor: “Beamish is a yearly festive visit for us of which this year we were truly blessed to waddle around the day after a sprinkling of snow.

“It was truly magical and added to the Christmas spirit.”

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Another added: “We have been to visit at Christmas and I have to say it is one of the best Santa experiences our kids have been to.”

One of the main reasons it remains so popular is that its tickets are all annual passes.

From £17.35 for kids, £27.95 for adults, or £71 for a family of four, ticket holders can visit the museum as many times as they like for a year following the day of their first visit.

One of the best Santa experiences our kids have been to

Visit England named seven other places in its list of top festive days out, including Winchester, Chester, Norwich and York.

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The four cities were praised for their Christmas Markets, with wooden stalls and chalets descending on each destination every year.

The chocolate-box villages of the Cotswolds like Broadway, Chipping Camden and Bourton-on-the-Water were also named as top places for a festive day out by Visit England.

Bourton-on-the-Water celebrates the festive season by putting a Christmas tree in its river.

The tiny Cornish village of Mousehole also made the cut thanks to its sea light show.

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Also on the list was Mompesson House in Salisbury, with its Dickensian-style rooms hosting festive activities.

Three unusual Christmas markets to visit

HERE are three other unusual Christmas markets to visit in Europe.

Kerststad Valkenburg, the Netherlands 

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The award-winning Christmas market covers every corner of the town, with events at several locations, including several underground caves. One of these is the Velvet Cave Christmas Market, which is situated underneath Valkenburg’s ruined castle. It is home to more than 50 stalls selling handmade gifts and other items.

Fraueninsel Christmas Market

Every winter, the island of Fraueninsel (also known as Frauenchiemsee), in Bavaria, Germany is transformed into a festive attraction thanks to its Christmas market. Fraueninsel is the second-largest island on Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria and is the only island in Germany with its very own Christmas market.

Fraueninsel Christmas Market has been described as one of the “most wonderful” in Bavaria by The Best Places to Visit in Germany. The Christmas market spills across the entirety of the island with both decorations and lights hung from trees and lampposts. There are over 90 wooden stalls at the market that sell handmade gifts, mulled wine, and local delicacies.

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Winter Wonder Weeks, the Netherlands

Each year, Leiden in the Netherlands is transformed into a picturesque winter wonderland. The award-winning Christmas Market covers the entire city, with attractions held outside Hooglandse Kerkgracht (a gothic church) and Garenmarktplein (a square in the city).

Known as Winter Wonder Weeks, the Christmas market was previously named the best in Europe in 2016. The Christmas market spans across the entire town, with one of its most unique features being its floating ice rink.

Meanwhile, this travel writer thinks their hometown has the best Christmas attraction in the UK.

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A city in Germany has been dubbed “Christmas city” because it has one of the world’s oldest and most famous Christmas markets.

Festive activities like carol singing also take place at Beamish on set dates in November and December

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Festive activities like carol singing also take place at Beamish on set dates in November and DecemberCredit: Beamish Museum
Christmas at Beamish will run from November 23 until December 24

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Christmas at Beamish will run from November 23 until December 24Credit: Alamy

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