What Theresa May as Prime Minister means for the future of the fraud squad July 13, 2016 Monday saw the pound spike and the FTSE 100 creep back into bull territory following Andrea Leadsom’s exit from the Conservative party leadership race. It was clear that bookies’ favourite Theresa May’s campaign to frame herself as the candidate for stability in the post-referendum chaos had resonated deeply with markets. Yet while those in the [...]
Let’s not be misled by the Celtic Tiger’s roar July 13, 2016 Behold the Celtic Tiger! Ireland’s economy grew by a whopping 26.3 per cent last year according to the country’s official stats office, which put out revised numbers yesterday – that’s over 11 times as much as the UK, and more than three times faster than India’s widely-celebrated economic expansion. Incredible, eh? There’s a reason why [...]
Indian nationals need a new visa: Britain is shooting itself in the foot with its backward system July 13, 2016 The UK-India relationship is one of both traditional and contemporary strength. Current business secretary Sajid Javid has described the partnership as being at a “key juncture” and as providing “opportunities we would be foolish to ignore”. And with a UK-India trade agreement hailed a “deal made in heaven” by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), now [...]
With the Labour Party in complete turmoil, does it have any chance of regaining power by 2025? July 13, 2016 Alex Thomson, director at Hanover Communications, says Yes. Politics is a bit like geology. For years it can appear that nothing is happening. But the tectonic plates are ever shifting under the surface, and finally things erupt. So while Labour may be facing a number of problems at the moment, including a fall in Jeremy Corbyn’s [...]
History shows us why the next chancellor must tighten the belt July 13, 2016 On the face of it, the Brexiteers have a bit of explaining to do. A week before the vote, Boris Johnson dismissed fears about the value of sterling, and accused the governor of the Bank of England of “talking the economy down”. Yet the economy does seem to have stalled, property funds have had to suspend [...]
This isn’t a break with the past – it’s a revival of past ideas that don’t work July 12, 2016 We've just spent the last 43 years resisting the imposition of continental style corporate governance upon British companies. Now that we’re leaving the EU’s embrace, new Prime Minister Theresa May is advocating that we adopt them anyway. This is not, to be polite about it, a sensible move. Earlier this week, May vowed to put workers [...]
It’s high time Southern Rail got its act together July 12, 2016 Commuters on the troubled Southern rail franchise have had enough, and rightly so. The London and south-east England service has been beset by delays and cancellations caused by engineering works and industrial action. Yesterday, long-suffering commuters demonstrated in Victoria station during the evening rush-hour in protest at the lamentable service they’re forced to endure. The protest [...]
The first item in Theresa May’s in-tray: A Brexit-induced recession July 11, 2016 Theresa May will be the next UK Prime Minister, and sterling and the FTSE 250 rose almost immediately. Markets think that May will be more pro-EU than Andrea Leadsom, the tribune of the europhobic Tory grass roots. But don’t imagine that domestic political uncertainty was the only reason for the recent falls in the currency [...]
Westminster has been turned upside down by the people’s anger: The City could be next July 11, 2016 Most years I remember for a particular theme. The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 made the UK the happiest place in the world to be. After the crash in 2008, life was scary and solidarity was the theme; no one knew what was coming next but we stood side by side. This year [...]
Forget populist executive pay curbs: Prime Minister May should embrace these six policies to revitalise growth July 11, 2016 Predictably, those who demand more government spending both when the economy is doing well and badly are calling for increases to see off any potential post-Brexit slowdown. “Infrastructure spending” is the call of the day, with masses of supposed “shovel-ready projects” with high returns apparently lying around for the government to undertake. Unfortunately, in the [...]