From Danny Willett to the financial crisis, why unlikely events confound forecasters so often April 13, 2016 Life imitates art, as the sporting world has shown this week. The Grand National was won by a horse which had never previously won a steeplechase. The US golf Masters was won by Danny Willett, who nearly did not take part at all because of the birth of his son. With only nine of the [...]
Memento: The movie that explains why inheritance tax is rightly despised April 13, 2016 In an early classic, before he became known for mind-bending blockbusters like Inception and Interstellar, Christopher Nolan made Memento. In that film is the key to the debate over inheritance tax, which is again in the news with the disclosure that David Cameron received a gift from his mother (reducing the potential inheritance tax liability). It [...]
With March’s inflation figures the strongest since 2014, should we be prepared for a rapid rise in coming months? April 13, 2016 Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser to PwC and a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, says Yes. Once again, deflation has been the dog which hasn’t barked in the UK. Inflation is gradually coming back. The headline rate is 0.5 per cent, but the underlying rate – excluding volatile food and energy [...]
More regulation is not the answer to crowdfunding failures April 12, 2016 Rebus Group collapse is bad news – but over regulation of alternative finance is not the answer. The saga of Rebus Group – the company which failed after attracting more than £800,000 from a well-known funding platform – has attracted predictable calls for the alternative finance sector to be laden with further regulations. The reasons [...]
Greybull or grey clouds? Why these are temporary solutions to structural problems in UK steel April 12, 2016 Tata Steel's decision to sell the firm's UK steel assets follows the wider divestment and mothballing trend playing out in the country's steel sector. Most recently, Tata Steel put the firm's Port Talbot and Scunthorpe mills up for sale, following a suit of competitors in the UK market, such as Sahaviriya Steel Industries and Caparo. [...]
Westminster stage descends into farce April 12, 2016 They say politics is show business for ugly people, in which case the current production in Westminster is most certainly a farce. Indeed, it could even be a pantomime. The central villain is the Prime Minister – dubbed “Dodgy Dave” by left-wing bore, Dennis Skinner MP. (The old socialist was kicked out of the Commons by Speaker [...]
Almost everything the Left tells you about inequality is wrong April 12, 2016 "A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.” This quotation has been attributed to a whole range of undesirable people, from Goebbels to Lenin. But in the case of the discussion of income inequality, it is a pretty good summation of the state of public debate. At the weekend, the left-wing firebrand Polly Toynbee lamented the [...]
Sadiq Khan’s unfunded fares freeze would starve London transport of investment: Only Zac Goldsmith can be trusted with the Tube April 12, 2016 When Londoners go to the polls on 5 May, they’ll be deciding who should run one of the biggest and most complex transport systems in the world. Over half of all bus journeys in England happen in the capital. The Tube handles 1.3bn journeys a year, which is like everyone in China taking one journey [...]
David Cameron has set a dangerous precedent by opening up his tax returns to public scrutiny: Business, liberty and civility will all suffer April 12, 2016 The Prime Minister’s decision to open his tax returns to public scrutiny, while understandable, sets a precedent we may come to regret. However entertaining it is to see our leaders squirm under the searchlight, it’s a shallow pleasure. Longer-term consequences could include a further increase in the power of the state, reduced individual liberties, poorer [...]
As the row continues over David Cameron’s inheritance, should we abolish inheritance tax in its entirety? April 12, 2016 Dia Chakravarty, political director at TaxPayers’ Alliance, says Yes. Inheritance tax (IHT) is the most hated tax in the UK, even among socio-economic groups unlikely to ever be liable to pay it. It goes against the most basic human instinct – to want to pass something on to one’s children – and has been abolished in [...]