As MPs say UK surveillance lacks transparency, should we be worried about being snooped on? March 12, 2015 Jim Killock is executive director of Open Rights Group, says Yes Yes, we should be worried. If you run a business, have commercial secrets, or rely on secure communications like VPNs, there is a lot to be concerned about. UK data is shared with the US so there is little protection for your political or [...]
Mipim 2015: Tech takes its toll on the property sector March 12, 2015 I was up early on the third day of Mipim to chair a panel of Sir Eddie Lister, chief of staff at the Greater London Authority; Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council; and Bernstein's counterpart in Birmingham, Mark Rogers, all of whom made a powerful case for further devolution of power to [...]
Mega-city London will fall behind New York without a radical plan for growth March 11, 2015 At last, a real sense of urgency is starting to define the debate surrounding the future of London. As chancellor George Osborne and mayor Boris Johnson warned in their recent Long Term Economic Plan for London, the capital risks losing its leading status as a pre-eminent global city unless action is taken to plan for [...]
2015 General Election TV debates: Broadcasters won’t empty chair David Cameron – they’ve good commercial reasons not to March 11, 2015 The extended row over the proposed TV election debates has reached a deadlock. David Cameron has said he will take part in just one, but the broadcasters (supported by Tory opponents) are committed to running three. What will break this impasse? In my view, commercial factors will force the UK’s broadcasters to give up their [...]
Why transparency over pay is vital if we’re to reach gender equality March 11, 2015 Good news can sometimes feel like a rarity, but recent PwC data shows that the UK has improved its position in an international league table of female participation in the workplace, moving up four places to fourteenth in a ranking of the 27 OECD economies. It’s a welcome improvement, but there is still some way [...]
As the euro hits a 12-year low against the dollar, is a weak currency positive for the Eurozone? March 11, 2015 Danae Kyriakopoulou is an economist at the CEBR, says Yes As far as economic silver bullets go, a sharp depreciation in currency, when economies are suffering from both slow growth and dangerously low inflation, is a pretty good candidate. A weaker euro makes Eurozone products cheaper, both abroad and at home (where they compete with [...]
Isolated like North Korea? No. The UK has plenty of allies and will achieve success after Brexit March 11, 2015 The claim made by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown that outside the EU the UK would be “the North Korea of Europe” is ignoring the facts – and Britain’s potential. Unlike North Korea, the UK has a large number of global alliances and partners. It had these before the creation of the EU and it [...]
How to save £50bn: Bold cuts to state spending will deliver prosperity for all March 10, 2015 Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has accused the Conservatives of planning “extreme” spending cuts if they get into Downing Street after the election. But there’s no way we can know whether the Tories’ plans are extreme or not, because they haven’t given any real details on what they will cut or by how much. And Balls’s [...]
Plain packaging could put Britain’s reputation for intellectual property at risk March 10, 2015 It’s an acronym that might be thought to only excite lawyers, but the importance of IP (intellectual property) to the economy cannot be overstated. If we want a business environment that promotes trade and investment, it’s crucial that we’re seen as a global leader in this area. Thankfully, the UK has many strengths. We have [...]
Ed Miliband doesn’t get incentives – and it could cost his party Scotland March 10, 2015 Ed Miliband has long had a problem with voters not perceiving him as “normal”. His famous struggle with a bacon sandwich in some ways says it all. But at a much more important level, he seems to have little or no empathy with one of the most fundamental of human motivations. The most profound insight [...]