While Jeremy Corbyn may have failed to land any punches yesterday, George Osborne can’t bank on get out of jail free cards March 22, 2016 You know the feeling – the visceral unease as you drag yourself into work, gazing at a sea of fellow commuters, dreading some impending confrontation in the office. A showdown with your boss, colleagues, maybe a client. You gulp, take a deep breath, and front up. And then when the fireworks are set to explode… [...]
Osborne isn’t pillaging the poor to help the rich – but IDS is right to attack protection of pensioner benefits March 22, 2016 It's all about fairness, that slippery, subjective term which dominates so much of our political discourse. Following his resignation from the Cabinet on Friday, Iain Duncan Smith spent much of the weekend claiming it was unfair that the government had intended to cut disability benefits in a Budget in which taxes on higher-earning households were being [...]
The CBI has admitted defeat – and the economic case against Brexit is collapsing March 22, 2016 Monday 21 March will go down as a seminal moment in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union. It was the day the CBI conceded defeat in the economic argument. From this point forward, following the publication of a study it commissioned from PwC, the business group will have to explain why [...]
Smart City: How London’s next mayor can harness the capital’s entrepreneurial energy to revolutionise local services and save millions March 22, 2016 Londoners are smart – you only have to look at the thousands of exciting, innovative new businesses sprouting up across the capital to see the benefits of such a tremendous concentration of human and intellectual capital. But is the capital itself as smart as the people who call it home? The new mayor, whoever it [...]
As fellow Tories say he’s finished as chancellor, should George Osborne rip up last week’s Budget and start again? March 22, 2016 Ben Southwood, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, says Yes. Though the country could do without yet more marquee financial policy events, economic gimmicks and ill-considered policy changes, George Osborne’s latest Budget was bad enough that he should consider ripping it up and starting again. Glossing over the practical political costs – centred [...]
Apple’s iPhone SE launch was “meh”, but maybe that’s the point March 21, 2016 People still want a small phone that fits in their pocket. Yes yes, Apple has been trumpeting about bigger screens for the last year, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that was the future. But the average joe? Probably doesn't care as much about that as the most avid Apple fan, journalist or tech analyst [...]
Iain Duncan Smith’s dramatic resignation adds insult to injury for chancellor George Osborne March 21, 2016 A senior politician toured the broadcast studios on Sunday morning, accusing the government of presiding over “deeply unfair” policies and “drifting in a direction that divides society rather than unites it". This blistering attack wasn't launched by a fired-up Jeremy Corbyn but by a man who, just 48 hours previously, had been a senior member [...]
Turkey’s Putin mini-me has revealed the truth about the EU: It’s dead March 21, 2016 The geopolitical sharks are moving in for the kill. It is now apparent to all but the most gormless that the European Union – never having economically bounced back from the euro crisis, or mastered its refugee crisis – is dead in the water. The logical follow-on from such a realisation is for the world’s [...]
Five steps City firms should take to tackle London’s youth unemployment problem March 21, 2016 Just as companies have been breaking down the detail of last week’s Budget, the City Corporation has launched a new report on youth unemployment – a subject which remains a real challenge in London. The capital has the third highest rate of 16-24 year olds out of work in England, with nearly one in five [...]
Petrobras corruption is a sideshow: Protectionism and profligacy are destroying Brazil’s economy March 21, 2016 "Brazil,” Charles de Gaulle quipped in the late 1950s, “is the country of the future – and always will be”. Many a true word is said in jest. For the past month, the country has been gripped by protests, spurred on by outrage at virulent corruption inside the state-owned oil firm Petrobras. The corruption scandal [...]