Forget Foreign Office pessimism: Britain can leave the EU and find a role by embracing the Anglosphere February 18, 2016 Mention the costs and benefits of UK membership of the EU, and thoughts immediately turn to an economic calculation. But there is also another cost-benefit calculation, namely the geopolitical impact of any future Brexit on the UK’s power and influence in the world. For over 40 years, the grand strategy has been to exploit the leverage [...]
Is Apple right to refuse a request by the FBI to decrypt the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter? February 18, 2016 Ken Munro, partner at Pen Test Partners, says Yes. This is a one-shot solution for the FBI, limited to helping solve the San Bernardino case – but not in the way you might think. First, if Apple gives in and its iOS is opened to a government agency, terrorists and other threats will simply find other [...]
Brexit won’t kill EU-UK trade – unless Brussels really is malicious and inept February 17, 2016 The debate over whether or not the UK will be able to negotiate a free trade deal with the EU following a vote for Brexit tends to proceed on the grounds that all the parties are out and out mercantilists. On the one hand, the EU needs a deal with the UK because of its [...]
Why Liverpool FC scrapped its ticket price hike – and it’s nothing to do with “fairness” February 17, 2016 Who wants to watch the Scousers play football? Certainly no Mancunian, and probably no self-respecting Londoner either. Yet demand for tickets at Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC, is high. Indeed, there is excess demand: more people want to watch the games than there is room for in the stadium. In keeping with the precepts [...]
UK-India relations: Both countries can only gain from even stronger economic ties February 17, 2016 When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited London last year, 60,000 people came to Wembley Stadium to listen to him. That was the largest reception a foreign leader has ever received on a visit to Britain. And it speaks volumes about the deep ties that exist between Britain and India. These ties are emotional, historical [...]
Further delays to EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is a symptom of bad policy February 17, 2016 Well, it is getting on for the end of meteorological winter and we seem to have made it through, or near as damn it, without any major supply-related blackouts. That is despite warnings (again) last summer that the UK was heading for a winter in which we could be plunged into medieval-style darkness at any [...]
As consumer price index inflation reaches a 12-month high, should we expect price rises to accelerate? February 17, 2016 Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown, says Yes. Yes – but not by much, and not because of any inflationary pressures in the underlying economy. The headline rate of inflation continues to be largely driven by volatile fuel prices. Throughout 2015, fuel prices were registering double-digit falls compared with a year earlier. But given how [...]
AirBnB’s growth in London shows that slashing dated red tape can help the capital flourish February 16, 2016 Do you remember when, in May of last year, the Deregulation Act 2015 consigned to history a law contained in the 1973 Greater London (General Powers) Act? The moment may have passed you by, but that should not diminish its significance. The Deregulation Act simplified or scrapped hundreds of rules on everything from the sale [...]
David Cameron’s EU deal is – in legal terms – not worth the paper it’s printed on February 16, 2016 Much has been written about the substance of the Prime Minister’s renegotiation of the UK’s membership of the European Union. Will the “emergency brake” on welfare have any impact on migration? Does the promised new “red card” system restore any significant powers to the British Parliament? As we debate these matters, however, we should not [...]
George Osborne’s National Living Wage is a tax on employers hiring low-skilled workers February 16, 2016 A tip for the chancellor: if you want to save some easy money, slash your own propaganda budget. In London, we seem to be inundated with bus station ads championing what many consider to be misguided housing policies and by others highlighting the introduction of the new “National Living Wage” of £7.20 from April. It [...]