M&S dresses for success by choosing food over fashion November 9, 2016 As Marks & Spencer announces its turnaround plan, now is a great time to analyse how the retailer has reached this point, and whether a revival is possible. M&S reported falling sales and profits in the six months to the end of September and said it will close more clothing and home stores, and convert many [...]
Unpredictable and punitive taxation is threatening the competitiveness of UK banking November 9, 2016 Winston Churchill famously claimed that “for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle”. But for banking – Britain’s biggest export sector – the handle is still being pulled. New figures published today by the BBA show [...]
Theresa May is treading softly on immigration when Brexit Britain needs boldness November 8, 2016 Prime Minister Theresa May has said that she will allow the Indian government to nominate business executives to become members of the “Great Club”, a programme launched in 2013 for 100 of the world’s most senior business leaders to more easily get visas into Britain. The “Great Club” may have resonance in history, reaching back [...]
From the NHS to Brexit, give people a choice and they’ll make a good one November 8, 2016 A current headache for the government is the performance of the NHS, and whether it is running out of money. This was making the front pages until the judges’ decision on Brexit pushed it off. Successive governments have discovered that the finances of the health service are a potentially bottomless pit. A key policy issue [...]
Has Barack Obama been a good President? November 8, 2016 Ed Bowsher, senior analyst and joint output editor at Share Radio, says Yes. Barack Obama has definitely been a good President. He took over when the US was in the middle of an economic crisis – banking reform and a sizeable fiscal stimulus helped create a decent recovery. If you doubt whether the stimulus made [...]
Autumn Statement: Government has little room for giveaways November 8, 2016 In the early months of 1975, with Britain creaking out of recession, the government’s debt was equivalent to around 56 per cent of GDP. A year later, Harold Wilson was replaced as Prime Minister by James Callaghan who promptly went cap in hand to the IMF. Such was the parlous state of the UK’s economy, [...]
Britain is embracing free trade just as the world turns to protectionism November 7, 2016 In pointed contrast to President Obama, Donald Trump has promised Britain that it will be at the front of the queue for a free trade deal should he triumph in today’s presidential election. Yet whether a President Trump, or indeed a President Clinton, would be minded to expend political capital on any trade deal has been thrown [...]
The government’s Brexit complacency threatens all financial clearing in the UK November 7, 2016 Let's be very blunt. The UK government’s failure to have any kind of Brexit plan is potentially catastrophic for business throughout the UK and for the financial services sector in particular. The UK government’s insistence that it will not offer “a running commentary” on negotiation preparations also means there will be little or no public [...]
On economic policy, Trump is the bigger danger to both the US and the world November 7, 2016 The Western world is retreating from economic liberalism. Don’t take my word for it – look at the platforms of both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump ahead of today’s election. While a commitment to individual rights and a clear separation of powers has facilitated the conditions to maintain the US at the world’s [...]
As a new report finds household debt reaching £1.5 trillion, is this a disaster waiting to happen? November 7, 2016 Baroness Altmann, former minister of state for pensions, says Yes. This news makes for disturbing reading. Casting our minds back a few years to the events leading up to the 2008 crash invokes an apprehensive sense of deja vu. Was it not excessive borrowing that led to the crisis we are still struggling to overcome? [...]