The EU is dead: The Grexit crisis has laid bare Europe’s inability to rescue itself June 21, 2015 Jumping the shark” is one of my favourite American idioms. It was first used in the context of a particularly notorious episode of the 1970s classic US television show Happy Days, which centred on the unlikely but enduring friendship between a young, square, 1950s good guy, Richie Cunningham, and his cool, but from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks ally Fonzie. [...]
A booming West End will be fatally undermined unless we pedestrianise Oxford Street June 21, 2015 Oxford Street needs to be pedestrianised. There is a growing consensus about this among traders, transport operators, and local councils. The question is when and how. The “when” is easiest to answer. The new east-west Crossrail line starts operating through Central London in four years’ time. It will generate a new surge of people coming [...]
As they sign a gas pipeline deal, should Europe fear closer links between Greece and Russia? June 21, 2015 John Lough, associate fellow in Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia programme, says Yes. Russia wants to build the gas pipeline to reduce its dependency on gas transit through Ukraine – around 50 per cent of its gas exports to Europe pass through Ukraine. Greece is assisting Russia in its endeavour, and contributing to weakening Ukraine’s [...]
David Lammy: Sadiq Khan was wrong to rule out expansion at Heathrow – the decision must be based on what’s right for London June 19, 2015 Extending London’s airport capacity will be a key issue for the next mayor. It is not something that we can afford to keep pushing into the long grass. Already London business is missing out: last year, Germany overtook the UK for new investments – disappointing, but hardly surprising considering it has significantly more connections [...]
The whole country can celebrate the Aim market’s twentieth anniversary June 18, 2015 Twenty years ago today, on 19 June 1995, London Stock Exchange launched Aim, a new market for ambitious growing businesses. With only 10 companies admitted on the first day of trading, with an aggregate value of just £82m, few might have envisaged it would be celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year. Since its inception, [...]
Don’t bank on Greece giving in: The Eurozone has far more to lose than it thinks June 18, 2015 Every good story has its dark moment, a crisis that comes before a resolution. The Greek debt saga appears to be reaching such a crunch point. Both sides are refusing to compromise further and are insisting the other is to blame, while Greece’s impossible IMF repayment at the end of the month looms. But amid [...]
Will ending onshore wind farm subsidies make a real difference to customers’ bills? June 18, 2015 Amber Rudd, energy and climate change secretary, says Yes If we’d allowed the existing subsidy arrangement to continue, we could have ended up with more projects than we can afford – which would have led to either higher bills, or other renewable technologies losing out on support. Our cap on renewable energy spending gives as [...]
Should we train our kids to code? Here’s why you could be missing out on “unqualified” talent June 18, 2015 The drive to boost young peoples’ coding credentials has gathered steam alongside a marked increase in business demand for these skill sets. According to some estimates, UK employers will need 745,000 additional digitally-skilled workers by 2017, with a further 1 million by 2020. With an inevitable rush to educate young people accordingly, could we [...]
Women in tech: Female health apps are helping us get to the top June 18, 2015 Female health products are becoming recognised as a huge opportunity in the tech industry – you only have to look at the positive response to the release of Apple's reproductive apps to realise this. And among all the tech sectors, digital female health is one of the fastest growing, with period and fertility trackers [...]
Sixty years on: Why the battle for a free society is still yet to be won June 17, 2015 Sixty years ago, Sir Antony Fisher founded the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), realising an idea given to him by the economist Friedrich Hayek seven years earlier. The IEA is one of the oldest think tanks, and one of the most successful, something even its opponents freely concede. But what does success mean in this [...]