Taxpayer should contribute £23 million a year to political parties

Adrian Lewis retained his PDC World Darts Championships title with victory in this year's final at Alexandra Palace.

Ministers' plan to end excessive charges for consumers paying for goods and services by credit or debit cards is a welcome gift for 2012. There has been mounting public anger in recent years over the surcharges imposed by a range of companies when paying by card. The most notorious offenders have been some of the budget airlines, notably Ryanair, although the practice is now far more widespread than that. Indeed even the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency surcharges those who choose to pay their car tax online with a credit card. Under the new plans, from the end of next year it will be illegal for companies to charge in this way, on pain of substantial fines.

British dealers and auction houses will lose works of art to rival markets in New York, Geneva and Hong Kong when a European sales levy known as droit de suite is implemented on New Year's Day, it was claimed today.