Podcasts

To finish off in what turned out to be a remarkable year, no year in review in the conventional sense, and no bog-standard, bank-type economic outlook 2017. Rather, and in keeping with the time of year, here is a list of nine economic lessons (but no carols) that we learned. ‘Learn’ may be a bit strong in many cases, so perhaps ‘became more aware’, instead.

As Christmas approaches many families will be spending several days in each other’s company. Now this could mean peace love and harmony, but in reality will probably mean a few rows. Roman Tagoe, head of content at music site Deezer rather optimistically thinks one way to soothe family feuds around the Christmas table is via music especially festive classics, as he told Share's Melanie Wray.

Georgie Frost hears why one Muslim-owned restaurant, Shish in Sidcup is promising to give elderly and homeless people a free three-course dinner on Christmas Day so ‘no one eats alone’. The man who came up with the idea is manager Irfan Genc and spoke to Georgie on the line.

The British medical funding firm, Assured Fertility, believes recent advances in IVF, have made this offer possible. Georgie finds out about a company specialising in In Vitro fertilisation - commonly known as IVF - is offering a ‘baby or your money back’ scheme which has no age cut off. To find out more, Georgie Frost was joined by the company's fertility specialist James Armitage.

The Payment Systems Regulator says banks are not shouldering enough responsibility when customers lose their cash after being tricked into transferring money by scams. Share’s Melanie Wray hears from consumer group Which's head of campaigns Pete Moorey told about the sophisticated payment scams they are seeing and Which’s "super complaint".

Now, we all rely on our credit card from time to time to buy the odd bits and bobs. Many people are not just using their credit card for unessential items but instead rely on their credit cards to pay essential bills. Georgie hears from debt expert Ian Williams how 7 million of us have borrowed money to pay for food, while another 4.5 million have had to borrow to pay their rent or mortgage.

Georgie Frost is joined in the studio by MoneySuperMarket.com web editor Kevin Pratt. Today on the agenda, they discuss broadband being set up in the most rural areas. Plus, British companies being forced to publicly disclose data breaches . All these stories and more on The News Review.

Paul Kelly, Owner of Kelly Turkeys, joined Share Radio to talk on the business of selling and producing turkeys. We started by asking him if there is an overall slight decline in turkey sales.

Josh Lowe, Reporter at Newsweek, joined Share Radio for his weekly take on politics. He talked Europe-wide manhunt for Berlin suspect and the implications for Chancellor Merkel, the news that one of Jeremy Corbyn’s most persistent critics quit as a Labour MP to take a job in the nuclear industry, and the recently published letters sent by Donald Trump to then-Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, part of an intense lobbying campaign against plans for an offshore wind project near Mr Trump's Aberdeenshire golf resort.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the "general and indiscriminate retention" of emails and electronic communications by governments is illegal. The ruling could lead to challenges against the UK's new Investigatory Powers Act. This legal challenge was initially brought to determine the legality of GCHQ's bulk interception of call records and online messages. James Castro-Edwards, Partner and Head of Data Protection Law at Wedlake Bell LLP, joined Share Radio to discuss.