Public spending still over half of GDP July 21, 2011 ED Miliband should be happy: Britain officially remains a state-dominated economy. For all the talk of “swingeing” cuts, public spending is set to remain at 50.1 per cent of GDP in 2011, according to the latest OECD predictions. This is an astonishing figure: more than half the economy, which by one definition means that the [...]
Our free press must not be censored July 18, 2011 ALL too predictably, some politicians and powerful individuals with an interest in a servile media are using the hacking crisis to cripple freedom of speech, to advance their own ideological agendas and to damage commercial journalism. First, let me reiterate that this newspaper, which is independent and not part of any media group, would never [...]
Europe’s debt crisis is getting worse July 15, 2011 EMPIRES seem to be going out of fashion. It is not just News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s media colossus, which is in trouble; the Eurozone, a very different political conglomerate, is unravelling in front of our eyes. The next step in its demise will come when the results of the stress tests for Europe’s 91 largest [...]
Media is failing public in many ways July 13, 2011 WITH the phone hacking scandal continuing to grow, and the reputation of journalists at their lowest ebb since the death of Diana, now seems like a good time to add to the media’s woes. A poll out today reveals what can only be described as another mini-scandal, this time relating to the media’s ability to [...]
How to throw the world’s greatest party: opulence, charity and trust July 12, 2011 SOME people just don’t know how to retire. It’s three years since he stepped down as deputy chairman at Man Group, but Stanley Fink – Lord Fink since this January – shows no signs of slowing down. In 2008, the “godfather” of the hedge fund industry announced that he wanted to devote more time to [...]
Office Space July 10, 2011 Tall is beautiful: London’s towers Look west: three new Ealing developments as Crossrail improves its City connections
All the world buys into London July 10, 2011 Office Space CENTRAL London looks set to be the prime beneficiary of a renewed appetite for direct investment into UK commercial property. The capital already tops the league table of largest global property investment markets, netting close on £11bn in 2010, significantly more than closest rivals Tokyo, Paris and New York. And the prospects for [...]
Focus on Ealing: West is the best July 10, 2011 Office Space WITH the clamour and disruption of Crossrail making itself known across central London, investors can seek consolation in turning their thoughts to its profitable prospects in one of London’s most tranquil outposts. Ealing, dubbed “Queen of Suburbs” by no less an authority than Nikolaus Pevsner, will benefit from not one but two Crossrail [...]
The big picture: London property July 10, 2011 Office Space IT’S a game of two halves for central London’s commercial property market: an early trip to the showers for the office sector, while the retail sector is playing into extra time. Across London’s core office pitches, from the financial zones of Canary Wharf and the City, to the media and head office blocks [...]
The 9 projects that show the future of commercial space July 10, 2011 Office Space ACROSS the capital, thrilling new commercial buildings are springing up, from the City’s twenty-first century office towers to Europe’s largest urban shopping centre at Stratford. Andrew Deverell-Smith, managing director of property recruitment specialists Deverell Smith Recruitment, says “for those of us with so much at stake in the property industry, it is refreshing [...]