Sedentary office lifestyles are as bad for you as smoking, so why do we all do it? April 19, 2017 “Sitting is the smoking of our generation,” you may have heard. It’s a maxim touted by health experts and the press alike, borne from our increasingly sedentary lifestyles. But why is it that, especially in London offices, many of us remain so inactive for hours at a time? A new report commissioned by Lendlease and [...]
Theresa May’s snap General Election is good news for Brexit and the United Kingdom by calling the SNP’s bluff and destroying Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour April 19, 2017 The Prime Minister’s gambit of calling an early General Election is an audacious move not without risk. But if she not only wins but wins well, it should mean a significant change in how the UK looks by the mid-2020s. Theresa May certainly caught everyone by surprise yesterday when she stood in Downing Street and [...]
UK employers are spending less on training than other major EU economies, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) April 19, 2017 The UK is in the grips of a skills crisis with employers spending less on training than other major EU economies, according to a new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The analysis found that “two decades of under-investment” has contributed to the country lagging behind its competitors in Europe and [...]
General Election 2017: Theresa May has made the right decision to seek a mandate of her own, but the task ahead of her is enormous April 19, 2017 The Prime Minister said she “reluctantly” concluded that a General Election on 8 June is the right thing to do. Just how reluctant a PM can be with a 21-point poll lead is up for debate, but having previously insisted that she wouldn’t go to the country, May now says it is the only way [...]
General Election 2017: Does the early vote make a soft Brexit more likely? April 18, 2017 Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London, says Yes. Whether Brexit ends up being hard or soft obviously depends on a whole lot more than whether Theresa May has a bigger parliamentary majority than the one she currently enjoys. We’re dealing, after all, with 27 member states and a very complex [...]
UK house prices: What the General Election means for the property market April 18, 2017 Yet another General Election in the UK means one thing for those trying to sell their homes: uncertainty, in spades, according to the UK property market. What does it mean? Here’s what experts think. Read more: Want to buy a house? London’s bad but the rest of the UK isn’t much better Lessons from history [...]
Fintech patents jump in “arms race” between banks and startups: These are the 10 countries filing the most April 18, 2017 The number of patents being filed for financial technology have jumped amid an “arms race” between fintech startups and banks, new figures reveal. Global fintech patents have grown by 49 per cent in the past five years, reaching 9,545 in 2016 according to official global filings. “The surge in patents reflects both the proliferation of [...]
Sterling rises to four-month high as Prime Minister Theresa May announces General Election for 8 June April 18, 2017 Sterling rebounded to a four-month high after Prime Minister Theresa May announced a snap General Election on 8 June. The pound had sunk prior to May’s pledge, as uncertainty surrounded the scheduled statement. But cable recovered after the PM revealed her plan for an election. Late on Tuesday night the pound was trading above $1.28, [...]
London’s Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer is finally under construction April 18, 2017 Work on London’s ‘super sewer’ has finally begun, in an effort to stop the flow of waste into the Thames. Tideway workers have begun work on digging a hole with a 30m diameter, the same size as St Paul’s Cathedral’s dome, which marks the central point of a new 16-mile tunnel. The capital’s Victorian sewers [...]
Gold prices: The yellow has found a new pocket of opportunity April 18, 2017 “Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.” You may have to read the quote more than once, but Bob Marley knew what he was talking about. At the moment, investors seemingly disagree a bit with him, and they have pushed spot gold up around 8 per cent [...]