Editor’s notes: Forget about Murdoch, media dominance is now an online battle December 16, 2016 For a while this week it felt as if we’d slipped back five years, as Ed Miliband and Vince Cable dusted down their criticisms of Rupert Murdoch. 21st Century Fox’s bid for Sky saw the former Labour leader take to Twitter like a student protester. “Do we want Rupert Murdoch controlling even more of [the] [...]
Why the UK must reassess its tax treaties with developing economies December 16, 2016 Before becoming a Member of Parliament, I undertook 27 international assignments, mainly in the developing world – 16 of them were in Africa. Often my funding would be from some source of aid, whether from the charitable sector, a UN agency or a developed country’s aid programme. But as I became more and more interested in the [...]
London just got the first ever contactless payment beer pump December 16, 2016 It looks like bartenders are the latest workers to be threatened by robotic replacements. The world's first contactless, self-pouring beer pump prototype has been launched by Barclaycard. Set up in Henry's Cafe and Bar in Piccadilly, the first-of-its-kind contraption has been dubbed "Pay @ Pump", and it's designed to help pubs and bars reduce queuing times [...]
Tata leadership race must show open mind December 16, 2016 Trump, May, Modi: protectionism takes many forms, and has many masters (and mistresses). In India, a curious case of economic nationalism is quietly unfolding at the country’s most significant conglomerate. In one sense, that’s unsurprising – India’s track record of foreign ownership restrictions in industries like insurance, banking and technology, is a lengthy one. But at [...]
Putting his foot down: Nissan boss says sales will be driven up in 2017 by global demand December 16, 2016 The owner of one of the UK's largest car plants has said 2017 will be a year of record sales for the firm. Nissan's co chief exec Carlos Ghosn said 2016's political events wouldn't stop the Japanese carmaker from taking great strides and selling more cars than ever. Read more: Greg Clark says Nissan letter could be published [...]
The energy answer is blowing in the wind December 16, 2016 | City Talk "Let's go fly a kite up to the highest height." And get wind of this: you can generate energy at the same time. It's true. You may have seen wind turbines working their energy magic across the UK countryside – but how about kites doing the same thing? These commercial kites achieve 'high flight speeds', over 100mph in [...]
No, 2016 has not been the worst year ever December 16, 2016 If you're looking for some Christmas cheer, avoid the latest meme sweeping the internet, for 2016 was apparently the worst year ever. Perhaps the singer James Blunt best encapsulated the gloomy mood on Twitter: “If you thought 2016 was bad – I’m releasing an album in 2017.” Blunt aside, there’s much wrong with this pessimism. Most [...]
The tech revolution – not Brexit – will reshape the face of London December 16, 2016 London's office market will change more in the next five years than in the 15 years since the 2001 dot-com crash, as a combination of factors much bigger than Britain’s exit from the EU come into play across the capital. While there has been so much discussion on the future of London’s banking cluster since [...]
It’d be a Christmas miracle if the chancellor delivered on these three festive reforms December 16, 2016 While Philip Hammond hasn’t been chancellor for long, he has already adopted George Osborne’s style of giveaways – the gifts aren’t simply bought by taxpayers, but are often funded by taxpayer money that hasn’t been raised yet. Of course, this kind of gift-giving rarely places the goods in the hands of the people who need [...]
Britain is still the best place to found a business in Europe – but entrepreneurs are nervous about Brexit December 16, 2016 The extraordinary growth in the number of companies founded in the UK since the financial crisis has been one of the standout economic success stories of the past decade. In a world of increasing competition for “enterprise hub” status, the UK is now one of the top global magnets for entrepreneurs. This is a hard [...]