Decline in homeownership is the result of bonkers red tape December 12, 2012 AS ever, the census is chock-a-block with fascinating statistics, including about the major demographic shifts that this country is undergoing. London has become a European version of New York, a cosmopolitan, global melting pot. It also reveals a number of worrying trends. Just 64 per cent (14.9m) of households owned their own home in 2011, [...]
A case of lies, damn lies and our rocketing national debt December 5, 2012 GO on, take the quiz. You know you can’t wait, so here goes. Which of these statements do you believe to be most accurate: a) the coalition is planning to cut the national debt by £600bn between 2010 and 2015; b) it is planning neither to reduce or decrease it; or c) the coalition is [...]
There are rays of hope in a sluggish City jobs market November 28, 2012 CONSIDERING the current employment climate in the City, and the ruthless job cuts hitting the headlines, you would be forgiven for considering packing your bags and taking an early retirement in the country. A report released by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants last week showed that investment banks are set to lose another 40,000 jobs in [...]
French downgrade wasn’t unexpected November 21, 2012 MOODY’S downgrade of France this week was hardly a surprise. Although blamed on the risk of Greece leaving the Eurozone, France’s structural challenges – its declining competitiveness, high unemployment, public debt and market rigidity – have long been worsening. The Eurozone crisis has only highlighted a more gradual decline in the country’s ability to compete [...]
It is shocking just how much tax most workers have to pay November 20, 2012 ONCE again, Boris Johnson is making sense on tax. He is right to be calling for a lower tax economy and to oppose increasing the tax on homeowners – while simultaneously demanding the elimination of the loopholes that mean that the current system is riddled with problems, especially when it comes to corporation tax. The [...]
We must ditch unfair loopholes – and then cut tax overall November 19, 2012 BRITAIN’S corporation tax system is broken. It is arbitrary, opaque, incomprehensible and unfair. At best, it is uncompetitive compared with other countries, such as Ireland; at worst it is a complete nightmare of complications and distorted incentives. Britain’s tax system is one of the worst things about the UK: It needs to be smashed up [...]
It is time for the BBC to allow its viewers freedom to choose November 12, 2012 WHAT a mess. The BBC, Britain’s most powerful and influential media company, is in crisis; the resignation of its director general hasn’t been enough to halt the chaos. Radical changes are needed to reform, strengthen and preserve the BBC; if Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, doesn’t want to introduce them then he [...]
End of quantitative easing will stop mad monetary recycling November 9, 2012 IT is time for George Osborne to start worrying. The Chancellor will be the biggest loser from the Bank of England’s right and proper decision to halt quantitative easing, at least for the time being. The biggest problem with QE – apart from its increasing lack of impact and the pain inflicted upon savers and [...]
The man who fell to earth November 1, 2012 FELIX Baumgartner is sitting in a Parisian hotel room having a wry chuckle about the likelihood, when plummeting out of space, of your skin boiling – a certainty in the case of pressurised spacesuit failure – or blood pushing your eyes out of their sockets – a distinct possibility if you get into a flat [...]
A fine watch is a connection to a sublime tradition November 1, 2012 Last week, while London was shrouded in fog, I found myself up in the clean air and bright sunshine of the Swiss Jura – the mountainous home of Swiss watchmaking. Trace an arc upwards from Geneva, as the Jura mountains curve their way along the French border towards Biel Bienne 100 miles north east, and [...]