Sharing cities have come to the UK – and London will be next June 11, 2015 If you're a Londoner, it’s pretty likely that you will have used a sharing economy business. From driving a Zipcar or hiring a local Hassle.com cleaner, to staying in Love Home Swap apartments around the world, we are increasingly confident using sharing economy services. But there are cities around the world – Amsterdam, Seoul and [...]
Is George Osborne right to prioritise a quick sale of the government’s stake in RBS? June 11, 2015 Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, says Yes With the current stock market offering reasonable value and conditions, and because the market price was not expected to rise significantly before any action was taken, George Osborne is right to take the decision to prioritise the sell-off the state’s stake in RBS. The [...]
Edwina Dunn: We must challenge archaic misconceptions around women in science – Tim Hunt hasn’t helped June 11, 2015 As a Nobel Prize Winner, Tim Hunt is among a select group of respected scientists that use their voice to actively change science for the better. Yet, this week he chose to reinforce a truly damaging stereotype about women working in the sciences. Read more: "Let me tell you about my trouble with girls" [...]
We can have sustainable debt without Osborne’s inflexible new surplus rule June 10, 2015 Last night, in a speech at Mansion House, George Osborne set out his vision for UK fiscal policy. “In normal times,” he said, “governments of the left as well as the right should run a budget surplus to bear down on debt and prepare for an uncertain future.” This will be cemented with a new [...]
What David Cameron’s guru Steve Hilton doesn’t get: You need to shrink the state to make it human June 10, 2015 Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s former chief strategist, recently published a new book, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First. From a powerful mayor in every town to self-build housing, from radically new models of education delivery to “Patients Like Me” social networks in health, Hilton has whizz bang ideas across most public policy [...]
Tower Hamlets is broken: How City philanthropists can put it back together June 10, 2015 Tower Hamlets goes to the polls today to elect a new mayor. Whoever takes charge from Friday will inherit a rotten borough, hollowed out by the behaviour of the previous administration. Former mayor Lutfur Rahman was kicked out of office in April after an electoral court found him guilty of electoral fraud. The bitter irony [...]
As Jack Ma goes on a US charm offensive, does Alibaba pose a real threat to Amazon and Ebay? June 10, 2015 Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, says Yes In terms of sheer size, accounting for 80 per cent of all Chinese online shopping, with volume growth easily outstripping rival internet retailers thanks to 1bn items on offer to 350m buyers, and with 30m shipments made per day, fast-growing behemoth Alibaba represents a [...]
George Osborne should prioritise taxpayer value over a rapid RBS privatisation June 9, 2015 Almost seven years on from the £46bn taxpayer bailout of RBS, it may seem perverse to ask “why the rush?” when it comes to selling our 79 per cent stake in the still-ailing bank. But this is precisely the question that must be posed if, as anticipated, George Osborne sets out at the Mansion House [...]
Robust yet fragile: Why the financial system has the same qualities as cancer June 9, 2015 Massive fines for banks, gross misbehaviour, huge bonuses for failure, bailouts at vast expense to the taxpayer: it’s little wonder that politicians and pundits can almost invariably win cheap applause by describing the financial system as being a cancer on society. But in a deep way, cancer and the financial system do have much in [...]
Electoral loss for Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is good news for markets June 9, 2015 The one thing Sunday’s game-changing election result in Turkey has definitely given us is uncertainty. But while markets initially reacted with dismay after the incumbent Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) 13 years of solid majorities came to an end, in the longer term, they may wonder if uncertainty is that much worse than the alternative [...]