Will Jeremy Corbyn still be Labour leader by the end of 2016? January 4, 2016 Chris Rumfitt, founder and chief executive of Field Consulting, says No. Thursday 5 May is the day on which the scales will fall from the eyes of Labour members. It is then that Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity will be tested properly for the first time, with elections in Scotland, London and for local councils across England. [...]
Christmas quiz 2015: How much do you remember of the year in business, politics and economics? December 23, 2015 Deloitte chief economist Ian Stewart asks some of the trickiest business, politics and economics questions of the year. Answers can be found below. 1 According to the OECD, Mexicans work the longest hours. In 2014, the average Mexican worker put in 2,228 hours, equivalent to a 43-hour working week with no holidays. Which country’s workers [...]
There’s nothing new in the Uber vs Taxi debate December 23, 2015 As the year draws to an end, so too might a raging battle on the capital’s streets inch towards a conclusion with the culmination of a Transport for London consultation on the future of the city’s private hire industry. Elements of the traditional black cab industry have been at war with Uber since the American [...]
A Christmas competition with a difference – and the chance to win a bottle of champagne December 22, 2015 For the prolonged holiday break, a quiz is appropriate. But one with a difference: not just questions, but comments to go with them. A prize of a bottle of champagne to the best answers – just email them to me. The last couple of years have seen the rise of populist left-wing movements. Syriza [...]
End of the Delaware flip: Why US investors are targeting UK startups December 22, 2015 Pfizer's record-breaking $160bn deal to take over the Irish pharmaceutical company Allergan, which will result in the former becoming an Irish company, has been attacked in the US as “unpatriotic”. However, it also highlights the increasingly compelling advantages to basing high-growth technology and life sciences businesses in the UK and Ireland. US venture capitalists have [...]
Mayoral hopeful Zac Goldsmith can’t afford to ignore the City for ever December 22, 2015 The two leading candidates to replace Boris Johnson as mayor of London squared off earlier this month at a dinner hosted by the Federation of Small Businesses. Both Labour candidate Sadiq Khan and Conservative contender Zac Goldsmith took to the podium to appeal to an audience of the capital’s leading business figures, with Khan stressing [...]
Leaving the EU is the only way Britain can regain control of its economic destiny December 21, 2015 As the referendum gets closer, we will hear lots about whether Britain could flourish economically outside the EU. On the face of it, the answer is obviously yes. Countries inside and outside show membership of the European Union is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for economic prosperity. Far more important is what happens domestically. [...]
Why 2016 will be the year that peer-to-peer lending finally enters the financial mainstream December 21, 2015 UK peer-to-peer platforms will have lent over £2bn by the end of 2015. Our activities account for 92 per cent of the alternative finance industry, and peer-to-peer lending forms a significant part of the wider financial landscape in its own right. In just 10 years, we have developed into a grown-up and regulated industry. [...]
With anti-austerity party Podemos winning 69 seats in the Spanish election, should markets be scared? December 21, 2015 Chris Bailey is European strategist at Raymond James, says Yes The Eurozone is ending 2015 the way it began – with a political earthquake. Back in January, Greece’s radical anti-austerity party Syriza was making headlines. Today it is Spain’s Podemos. Formed just a few years ago, it is now the third largest political force in [...]
Saudi Arabia is acting like a drunken gambler in its oil war December 21, 2015 An absolutely elemental maxim of how you can go wrong in political risk analysis revolves around what is called “The Drunken Gambler in Vegas Syndrome”. Every casino owner alive has made millions off the fallacy, just as a great number of foreign policy disasters have been forged because of it. Simply put, it lays out [...]