Is the business secretary right to criticise the CBI for backing EU membership even without reform? June 30, 2015 Mark Wallace is executive editor of ConservativeHome, says Yes I doubt that any of the CBI’s members would ever go into a contract negotiation in the way that the organisation has approached the EU renegotiation. If your opening message is that you will sign on the dotted line regardless of the quality of the offer, [...]
Tsipras’s costly referendum gamble may harm more than just the Greeks June 29, 2015 Given the stunning events of the weekend, it’s easy to forget that, just ten days ago, the creditors and Greece were both making positive statements about progress towards a solution to the Greek bailout crisis. Who could have forecast that we would suddenly find ourselves with a breakdown in the talks and a referendum called [...]
Think 45p taxpayers have it hard? The tax system crushes incentives at all levels June 29, 2015 Ahead of next week’s Budget, two former chancellors and 160 Tory MPs are calling for the 45 per cent income tax rate to be reduced to 40 per cent. But for all the political capital devoted to explaining the disincentive effects of a 45 per cent rate, the reality is that many people across the [...]
Forget chauvinism: It’s good to be a woman in business June 29, 2015 Almost every week, another story portrays the City as a bastion of chauvinism, where women are underpaid and undervalued, dominated by macho males and discriminated against. In almost 20 years, I have never seen this happen. I have never been overlooked for a job, promotion or pay rise because I was a woman. My salary [...]
As it teeters on the brink of financial collapse, would Greek default spell disaster for markets? June 29, 2015 Kathleen Brooks, research director at Gain Capital, says Yes Greece might not be the be-all and end-all for markets in the short term, but in the long term, the events of the last few days could sow the seeds for the next major financial crisis. Our concern is that if another, larger Eurozone member gets [...]
Streaming is believing: The race for streaming supremacy is on June 29, 2015 Don’t we just love a media-fuelled battle for supremacy, the winner in the ‘big race’, Goliaths all lining up for the 100 metre Dad’s dash? The truth is, in the mega-subscriber streaming market the gun went off years ago. The battle for streaming kingship is, as they say, a marathon not a sprint and [...]
Grexit: The bell is tolling for Greece – but it’s tolling for Europe now too June 28, 2015 “I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”– John Donne Monaco – It is surely beyond odd that Alexis Tsipras – Marxist firebrand Premier of Greece – and I share a guilty pleasure: the works of Ernest Hemingway. When pressed to the [...]
Stop tinkering: How the City is leading the charge to get London building June 28, 2015 Housing has been the public policy “elephant in the room” for too long. City businesses warn me that high housing costs are reducing London’s competitiveness as a location, colleagues across London councils say that housing features more and more at the top of their agendas, and all the declared candidates in the mayoral election cite [...]
With the Fed expected to raise rates later this year, should investors be concerned? June 28, 2015 Anton Eser is co-head of global fixed income at Legal & General Investment Management, says Yes. The impact of tighter US policy seems to be underestimated. When markets were unsettled by the potential for QE tapering in 2013, bond yields rose, equity markets corrected, and high yield and emerging markets saw heavy fund outflows and [...]
The NHS isn’t unique – and we’ll never fix its many flaws until we realise this June 25, 2015 As an undergraduate student, I spent an Erasmus semester in a small town in Spain. During a flat viewing, the landlady who showed me around pointed at the microwave in the kitchen, and said: “This is a microwave. Do you know what a microwave is?” I got a bit confused by the question, which sounded [...]