Jeremy Corbyn’s traingate tiff with Virgin East Coast over lack of seats put transport issues on the map September 1, 2016 The bizarre story of Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to find a seat on a Virgin East Coast service to Newcastle has dominated the news agenda over the past week. Corbyn initially released a video in which he claimed he was forced to sit in the corridor due to overcrowding, while Virgin released CCTV images which it said [...]
Sadiq Khan made big promises on becoming London mayor, he now needs to deliver tangible results for Londoners September 1, 2016 London mayor Sadiq Khan is undoubtedly a strong campaigning politician. It scooped him the top slot in City Hall after all. However, Khan runs the risk of seeming detached from the needs of Londoners. Some companies that deal with him say he appears disengaged and point to his love of photo opportunities and a schedule [...]
Don’t overreact to vast pension scheme deficits: We need a new normal for how they’re measured September 1, 2016 Pension schemes are faced with serious challenges following the EU referendum result and the Bank of England’s recent stimulus package. Both events have driven down long-term gilt yields. As a result, for defined benefit pension schemes valuing their liabilities using gilt discount rates, deficits continue to grow. Our Skyval Index shows that deficits have increased [...]
Hinkley Point: Britain should not chase Chinese investment at the expense of its national security August 31, 2016 Unlike in the UK, students in China are taught about the Opium Wars, the burning down of the Qing Dynasty’s Old Summer Palace, and successive decades of western interference in Chinese affairs. The official People’s Republic of China history of the nineteenth century is called The Century of National Humiliation, accompanied by a handy Dictionary [...]
Crisis, what crisis? You can see Brexit everywhere but in the economic statistics August 31, 2016 The American Nobel Laureate economist, Robert Solow, famously said that “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. We might want to update that quote to, “you can see Brexit everywhere but in the statistics.” UK broad money supply M4ex rose by 6.9 per cent (year-on-year) in July, up from 6.0 [...]
Is Lord Lawson right that Britain should not try to negotiate a special trade deal with the European Union? August 31, 2016 Grace Lievesley, research manager at Global Britain, says Yes. The UK is the fifth largest economy in the world and now, following our decision to leave the declining European Union, we should aspire to become the fourth or third largest economy. To do this, we need to expand our business in fast-growing markets while holding on [...]
Brussels and Washington DC must end this silly standoff over taxes and fines August 31, 2016 Transatlantic relations were hardly flourishing even before Apple was slammed with a €13,000,000,000 tax bill by the European Commission yesterday. Such is the awkward standoff between Washington DC and Brussels that the move was pre-empted in America last week, with the US Treasury accusing the EC of becoming a “supranational tax authority”. The tax tiff [...]
The EU’s dangerous quest for tax harmonisation ignores that corporation tax itself is obsolete August 30, 2016 Most governments would love to get their hands on an extra €13bn (£11.1bn) from a multinational company. But the Irish government will likely be wrangling in court for many years at what will surely be considerable expense in a somewhat unusual bid to avoid collecting tax. The European Commission has ordered what is by far [...]
Post Brexit Britain can get a much better US trade deal than the EU’s failing TTIP August 30, 2016 Many people are now questioning the viability of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the free trade deal under discussion between the US and the European Union. Over the weekend, German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel stated that the TTIP talks had collapsed, despite the protestations of his Chancellor and the United States Trade Representative Michael [...]
Jeremy Corbyn is completely out of touch with the real debate about UK austerity August 30, 2016 Following the Brexit vote, normal service seems to have resumed. A key question in economic policy since the General Election of 2010 has moved centre stage once again: should the government abandon austerity? At one level, the question has an easy answer. Interest rates are now so low that the UK government can borrow for [...]