Airport expansion is now too urgent for the government to delay further June 22, 2015 According to recent media reports, the decision to build a new runway could face further delay. It seems the government may not respond to the Airports Commission’s imminent report until the end of this year, or possibly early next year. This is slow: the Airports Commission it helped establish has already spent the best part [...]
The left is wrong: The welfare state didn’t make Scandinavia successful June 22, 2015 Bruce Springsteen may have been “Born in the USA”, but he says he’d prefer the US to be more like Sweden. With its generous welfare state, many hold up the Swedes, and other Scandinavian countries, as role models for what can be achieved by a large redistributive state. With high life expectancy and relative income [...]
Greece will only have a fighting chance of revival if it leaves the Eurozone June 22, 2015 There are, apparently, still hopes that some deal can be done with Greece this week so that the final €7.2bn tranche of the current €240bn bailout can be released. If this is the case then, presumably, talks will go ahead for a third bailout and thus the Greek saga struggles on. Sadly, however, all this [...]
Has the Greek government been its own worst enemy during debt negotiations? June 22, 2015 Dr Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, says Yes Rarely has a new government done so much damage so fast. Without actually passing many laws, the left-right radicals in Athens have scared Greek savers and entrepreneurs so badly that about €60bn in capital has fled the country within six months, equal to one third of [...]
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 [...]