Honour the unknown voters who just saved Britain’s bacon – Editor’s Letter May 11, 2015 The General Election did prove one piece of conventional wisdom right. There is a bubble in London, out-of-touch with the rest of the country. As it turns out, the ones living in it work for the Labour party. An almost audible sigh of relief from the City on Friday ended the last delusions of [...]
General Election 2015 results: Only David Cameron can lead Britain now – Editor’s Letter May 7, 2015 Back in 1992, when the Conservatives denied the polls to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, the May number one hit was Please Don’t Go. If the astonishing exit poll is right, Britain has echoed its sentiment again, calling on Cameron to stay in Number 10. But in truth, David Cameron was always the [...]
The harsh reality of flash crash trader Navinder Sarao’s waiting game- Editor’s Letter May 6, 2015 Is it just me, or is Navinder Sarao, the flash trader accused by US authorities of making £26m through illegal share deals, being harshly treated? Yesterday the young man, also known rather judgingly by the media as the Hound of Hounslow, was sent back to Wandsworth prison for a third time after failing to put [...]
General Election 2015: Time to wake up – this vote matters – Editor’s Letter April 30, 2015 I don’t understand people who believe this campaign has been interesting. Day after day we have pored over motionless polls. Any hope of intelligent debate has long been drowned out by the relentless hammering of talking points. Interesting? Outside the bubble of Newsnight-devotees, too much politics still sends most people to sleep. In 2010, the [...]
The Garden Bridge needs our support – Editor’s Letter April 16, 2015 An eyesore and a vanity project, un-English and out of keeping with the times… that was, once, the contrarian view of St Paul’s. Thankfully, Sir Christopher Wren ignored the critique of its “heavy arches” and accusations of Popish design, going so far as to hide the works behind screens so his controversial vision could succeed. [...]
A recipe to cook your own golden goose – Editor’s Letter April 9, 2015 Churchill, as ever, said it best: “For a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” Still we all find ourselves sometimes persisting too long in fruitless tasks. Self-sabotaging appeals to soak the rich – seen again in this week’s [...]
Before the battle, a moment of unity – Editor’s Letter March 26, 2015 MY RICHARD III has a narrow posterity, fondly remembered only by my mother and, perhaps, my old drama teacher. Yet even brilliant exponents of Shakespeare’s great, twisted villain, from Laurence Olivier to Al Pacino, were crowded offstage as the real man’s remains were laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral this week. With his re-interment, there [...]
Pay deals high on agenda ahead of AGM season – Editor’s Letter March 16, 2015 When it comes to the furore over directors’ pay deals, it is often hard to determine whether a board has acted correctly or not in agreeing a remuneration package. There are many factors involved in recruiting and then retaining key personnel and sometimes what looks like a sensible idea, such as paying for an executives’ [...]
The echo-gnomics of Terry Pratchett – Editor’s Letter March 12, 2015 A flat earth. Beneath: a turtle ten thousand miles long. Above, wandering the surface of this world and mirror of worlds: zombie lawyers; a sinister clown running a bank where the chairman is a small dog; a tourist openly carrying a bag of gold, blissfully unaware of the prevailing exchange rate. The loss of Sir [...]
Do not fear our new robot overlords – Editor’s Letter March 5, 2015 ARE robots coming for your job? That isn’t a premise for an episode of Doctor Who; for some City-watchers, it has become a genuine fear. On Monday, at a debate hosted by Intelligence Squared, George Magnus, formerly of UBS, was one of those arguing that professionals like lawyers and bankers should be afraid, very afraid [...]