Will David Cameron’s refusal to take part in TV debates damage his electoral prospects? January 14, 2015 Mike Smithson, editor of PoliticalBetting.com, says Yes As an incumbent Prime Minister facing an opposition leader with as poor personal ratings as Ed Miliband’s, it has been apparent for a long time that the best outcome for David Cameron would be for no debates to take place. This is the case all the more so [...]
Cameron isn’t trying to ban Snapchat, WhatsApp, iMessage and encrypted messaging January 14, 2015 If the reports were right, David Cameron this week was trying to succeed where Kim Kardashian failed: to break the internet. The reaction against his comments implying the government might ban encryption was loud, angry and fast. This is entirely understandable – even setting aside the civil liberties arguments, any attempt to ban encryption would probably [...]
How are those New Year’s resolutions going? 5 ways to stay on track January 14, 2015 Ok. So this is 2015. Week three. Work is awfully real. The Christmas holidays are a distant memory, the aftermath of the Christmas office party survived… but what about those fervent, hangover-fuelled New Year resolutions? Like most people, you probably chose something from the standard three tabled buffet of New Year’s Resolution categories: 1. Losing [...]
Blame the Green Belt for Britain’s dire housing crisis: Reform is long overdue January 13, 2015 The UK, and particularly London, is in the midst of what should be seen as a housing crisis. According to LSE professor Paul Cheshire, new build houses are about 40 per cent bigger in the Netherlands and 38 per cent bigger in Germany than they are in England. And yet housing goes for 45 per [...]
How Adam Smith can help solve Europe’s youth unemployment problem January 13, 2015 Youth unemployment remains a serious problem in Europe. There is the tiniest glimmer of hope in that, in November, the number of young people under 25 unemployed in the Eurozone was 58,000 lower than it was a year before. But that still leaves 3.4m without a job. In Italy, the youth unemployment rate is 44 [...]
Forget howls of deflation anguish: UK inflation at 0.5 per cent is very welcome January 13, 2015 UK inflation is now more than one percentage point below the official target for the first time since the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was established in 1997. What does this tell us about the outlook for the British economy? If past precedent had been followed, we could have seen the views of the MPC on [...]
As the IFS warns on UK debt, is Labour right to allow for more wiggle room on spending cuts? January 13, 2015 Vicky Pryce is chief economic adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research and a former joint head of the Government Economic Service, says Yes The IFS has argued that Labour’s spending plans, if implemented, could lead to sharply higher levels of national debt. The alternative, of course, is tougher cuts. But because government [...]
Don’t believe Labour’s scare tactics: Free trade is good for British workers January 12, 2015 This week, our Prime Minister will meet with Barack Obama at the White House. Margaret Thatcher used to say fondly that she could “smell the freedom” in America. And doesn’t the country’s economy prove it? The US is still a jobs juggernaut: the largest standalone economy on Planet Earth. We owe it to our children [...]
Forget trickle-down: In a free market, the rich don’t gain at the poor’s expense January 12, 2015 A lie, repeated often, becomes the truth in the public mind. That’s why, when a Fox News commentator suggests that Birmingham is a “Muslim-only city”, we feel it important to set the record straight. Sadly, many lies and myths pervade public discussion of economics. No matter how often they are debunked, they return. Attempts to [...]
After new City salaries rose by 18 per cent in 2014, will 2015 be another good year for pay? January 12, 2015 Hakan Enver is operations director at Morgan McKinley, says Yes Salaries and bonuses have risen at a rate that we have not seen since before the start of the financial crisis, with average increases for middle and back office staff over the past year standing at 18 per cent. We predict that, over the next [...]