What do Emily Thornberry and the deficit have in common? It’s all about narrative November 26, 2014 EMILY Thornberry has had a wretched week. The high-flying MP for Islington South resigned from her position as shadow attorney general, and was widely pilloried in both social media and conventional newsprint, for tweeting a picture of a white van and England flags during the Rochester and Strood by-election. Yet the saga tells us more [...]
Is the proposed £25m pay package for new BG Group chief executive Helge Lund defensible? November 26, 2014 Alex Edmans, a finance professor at London Business School and Wharton, says Yes. Compared to the pay of ordinary workers, £25m is an astronomical figure. But the correct benchmark is the value Helge Lund may create. BG Group’s market cap is £35bn, and it’s fallen 18 per cent this year. If he restores just 1 [...]
The UK could be the world capital of the sharing economy if we take these steps November 25, 2014 EVERYONE seems to be talking about the “sharing economy”, and while this may not be a model that will work for every industry, it is a trend that requires attention. So much so that, in September 2014, the UK government raised the need for an independent report to examine the social and economic potential of [...]
Labour has identified the right problem – but independent schools can’t build a New Jerusalem alone November 25, 2014 TRISTRAM Hunt, the Labour shadow education secretary, argued yesterday that independent schools need to be doing much more to form meaningful partnerships with state schools. If they don’t do so, they will risk being stripped of up to £700m in tax breaks, should Labour be elected in the general election next Spring. He said that [...]
Iran nuclear crisis: The sharks are circling and war is not impossible November 25, 2014 IF THE conventional wisdom of the mainstream press could sum up the current state of the Iranian nuclear talks in one headline, it would absurdly read “Optimism as talks fail to end”. Even by their standards, this fails to pass the laugh test analytically. Instead, an alarmed pessimism must be the correct response. For after [...]
As Carney says the UK still needs stimulus, is he too gloomy about our economic prospects? November 25, 2014 James Sproule, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, says Yes. The UK is set to enjoy the best growth in the G7 – not the most competitive economic growth league in the world, but still a contest worth winning. Yet despite this, policymakers remain concerned about the UK’s economic prospects. It is certainly true [...]
Do patent privateers signal need for intellectual property reform? November 25, 2014 After Google sued BT over patent-infringement and details about BT’s patent strategy garnered public attention, an increasing number of commentators have started pointing to “patent privateers” as a major problem with the current system of intellectual property both in Europe and the US. As is common in high-stakes litigation involving multinational corporations, the debate has [...]
Sanctions have cost Russia billions – but Western firms are not getting off lightly November 24, 2014 WHEN the EU agreed to place new names on its Russian sanctions list last week, it added to an ever-expanding and ever vaguer body of international rules for compliance officials to navigate. While Russia’s finance minister has warned that sanctions are costing his country $40bn (£25.5bn) a year, they also pose significant challenges to businesses [...]
Ditch the structural deficit: Why Osborne has struggled to hit this moving target November 24, 2014 FALL-OUT from the Autumn Statement next week is likely to focus heavily on the slowdown in deficit reduction. Borrowing has been £3.7bn higher this year so far compared with last, and it looks unlikely that George Osborne will hit his fiscal target for 2014-15. But the key number the media will focus on is the [...]
Drop the guarantee on bank deposits to boost competition in finance November 24, 2014 AS NORTHERN Rock began to crumble in the autumn of 2007, then chancellor Alistair Darling stepped in to stave off a bank run by guaranteeing all existing deposits. To some extent, it worked: queues outside Northern Rock branches soon dissipated. But deposit insurance has since been raised dramatically for authorised banks and building societies, and [...]