The key to improving our dismal productivity? Reignite the UK’s competitive instincts January 11, 2019 The dismal productivity results out this week should cause alarm for anyone who cares about UK prosperity. And we need to talk about it. Productivity – the cumulative output of our workers per hour – is the critical indicator of how competitive we are as a nation, and the surest way of delivering sustained wage growth. [...]
Christmas shoppers shunned the high street, but attacking Amazon won’t help January 11, 2019 Between the fierce renewal of the Brexit saga, parliamentary shenanigans, and a particularly chilling cold front (interpret that literally or metaphorically, as you will), the merriness of Christmas feels like a thing of the past. But for the high street, it feels like Christmas never came at all. Reports of retail sales, released yesterday by [...]
Mark Kleinman’s big predictions for the Square Mile in 2019 January 11, 2019 Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP exit, Unilever’s HQ U-turn, Melrose’s swoop for GKN: 2018 was a year full of surprises in the City. And while forecasting might be a fool’s errand, here are 10 predictions for the year ahead. •Theresa May will decisively lose next week’s “meaningful vote” on Brexit: that’s not a punt that will [...]
Horse Racing Betting Tips: Crosspark and Dawn set for epic Duel in Classic Chase January 10, 2019 GOOD ground at Warwick in January is pretty much unheard of, yet that is what we’re faced with tomorrow for the course’s highlight of the season, the Classic Chase (3.00pm). In 2017, One For Arthur took this 3m5f prize at a widely disregarded 14/1 – just a few months later he won the Grand National [...]
Horse Racing Betting Tips: Kloud a shade too good for Lanzarote rivals January 10, 2019 NOT SINCE 2007 has a horse with double-figure odds won the Lanzarote Hurdle (2.40pm), tomorrow’s feature race at Kempton Park. It’s a race that gives the bookies nightmares and I suspect a few are already tossing and turning in their sleep at the thought of KLOUD GATE extending his unbeaten run to three. Having landed [...]
Horseracing: David Pipe’s City AM Column January 10, 2019 WITH no sign of rain, it looks like being a quiet weekend for us with only UN TEMPS POUR TOUT flying the flag for the stable in the Classic Chase at Warwick (3.00pm) tomorrow. The plan is to run him as long as the ground is safe, so we certainly don’t want it to dry [...]
Ollie Phillips: Scrapping relegation could help Premiership balance the books after CVC Capital Partners’ investment January 10, 2019 Debate about the possible scrapping of relegation from the Premiership is not new, but following the recent investment into the division it has been given new impetus. Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners’ deal last month to inject £200m for around 27 per cent of Premiership Rugby is significant because it changes the league’s objectives. [...]
Stop being defeatist, Britain is still a geopolitical powerhouse January 10, 2019 Over the past few years, the drumbeat of British declinism has grown steadily louder. Last year, former Prime Minister Sir John Major claimed that the UK was going to become a “middle-sized, middle-ranking nation”, while Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the diplomatic service, described the country as “medium-sized”. True, the declinist rumble has haunted the [...]
People’s Vote campaigners are playing dirty with the facts January 10, 2019 As Monday's Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War reminded us, the Remain campaign likes to take comfort in the fact that it tried to win us over with facts and figures, never stooping to the kind of outright lies about the economic benefits of leaving the EU or the threats of immigration indulged in by members [...]
Digital finance technology is wonderful, but we must design it with consumers’ best interests at heart January 10, 2019 Every morning, I browse my phone as I commute to work. I check my emails, the news, Twitter, and increasingly I open my various finance apps. I recently logged into my investment platform app and made a new investment – £1,000 in a startup Swedish retailer. Once the money was invested, I was applauded with [...]