Britain has never understood the fervour for the EU project January 31, 2019 What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? It would appear that we are about to find out in the latest instalment of the Brexit soap opera that has been running since we announced our intention to leave in 2016. For no sooner had MPs voted on Tuesday night to back Sir Graham [...]
The UK is trying to leave the European club – in Italy, the club is on fire January 31, 2019 After Tuesday’s parliamentary showdown, all eyes are on Westminster. Don’t be misled, though – the real existential threat to the EU lies in Rome. In the UK, we are debating how to leave the golf club. In Italy, the golf club is likely to be swamped by an approaching tsunami. There may not be a [...]
DEBATE: After Tuesday’s amendments, is a no-deal Brexit actually more likely now? January 31, 2019 After Tuesday’s amendments, is a no-deal Brexit actually more likely now? John Oxley, a Conservative commentator, says YES. The UK leaves the EU by operation of law at 11pm on 29 March. No deal is the default. The insipid amendment “rejecting” that outcome has no force. Only an agreement with the EU or the revocation or extension [...]
Chris Tremlett: Joe Denly has a fantastic opportunity – he must grasp it to stake a claim in England’s batting line-up January 30, 2019 After the horrendous defeat in Barbados there were bound to be changes for England’s second Test against West Indies in Antigua, but I was still a bit surprised to see Keaton Jennings dropped. I thought his unbeaten 146 against Sri Lanka in November might have bought Jennings a bit more time at the top of [...]
London prepares for significant snowfall as UK airports close in cold snap January 30, 2019 Significant snowfall is set to hit London and the south-east this week, with minimum temperatures of -5°C and up to 5cm of snowfall expected over the next few days.. Widespread hard frost and “very significant snow” will likely cause disruption to motorists across the country over Thursday and Friday, with temperatures in parts of Scotland expected to [...]
You can’t manage your reputation by gagging the press, Cheryl January 30, 2019 When it comes to reputation, celebrities can usually do one of two things: they can enlist the services of a professional PR person like me, or they can call in the lawyers. Sometimes they do both. This week, I was dragged into the Daily Mail sidebar of shame and saw that Cheryl Tweedy-Cole-Versini has chosen [...]
Antisocial media: How to reform our narcissistic internet culture January 30, 2019 The social media and technology backlash – or “techlash” – has begun, and the tech companies are scrambling to catch up. Earlier this month, Sheryl Sandberg talked compellingly at the Munich DLD conference about Facebook’s challenges and the company’s acceptance of greater responsibility around the big issues of data safety, misinformation, and transparency. Good stuff, [...]
DEBATE: Now that Facebook is integrating WhatsApp and Instagram, should we be worried about privacy? January 30, 2019 Now that Facebook is integrating WhatsApp and Instagram, should we be worried about privacy? Ruth Manielevitch, vice president of global business development at Taptica, says YES. Facebook has said that there will be end-to-end encryption across the board as part of this integration, but this will be difficult to implement. The level of personal information [...]
On climate change, good economics sadly does not make good politics January 30, 2019 Economists, of all people, should understand the power of specialisation. They are taught early that prosperity is founded on the division of labour: individuals becoming more productive in specific tasks. Yet when dispensing policy advice, they seem to ignore that lesson, presuming that they know better than politicians about good politics. Economists frequently claim that [...]
AI has not yet spurred a productivity boom, but just you wait January 30, 2019 Nobel laureate Bob Solow pronounced 30 years ago that “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. At the start of the 1980s, the world entered the digital age. Fax machines transformed communications. The introduction of personal computers made high-powered computing available to all. But it took time to work out [...]