Has David Cameron been damaged politically by the conviction of Andy Coulson? June 25, 2014 Ben Harris-Quinney, director of Conservative Grassroots, says Yes. The phone hacking saga is still unfolding, but it is unlikely that the verdict on David Cameron’s hiring of former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as director of communications at Number 10 will change. The whole episode puts a question mark over the Prime [...]
Letters to the Editor – 25/06 – Mansion taxes, Best of Twitter June 24, 2014 Mansion taxes [Re: Balls unveils mansion tax and promises to hit the rich hardest, yesterday] While I agree that the purchaser of the £140m flat in Westminster ought to pay more tax than the inhabitants of an average-value property in the area, I disagree with the arguments put forth by Ed Balls regarding his mansion [...]
Bretton Woods: How stable monetary order was created and then destroyed June 24, 2014 NEXT month, financial history enthusiasts will commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods Agreement. In the 1940s, Bretton Woods was a somewhat faded New Hampshire resort town, but it is now forever associated with the three-week conference held there between 1 and 22 July 1944. The conference’s purpose was to set out a new [...]
Why significantly extending the Living Wage is not the best way to help the poorest June 24, 2014 JOHN Sentamu, the charismatic archbishop of York, has again thrown his weight behind the recommendations of the Living Wage Commission he chairs. Not to be confused with the government’s Low Pay Commission, which recommends the statutory minimum wage, the Living Wage Commission is a private pressure group funded by trade unions and faith organisations. Its [...]
Don’t single out private equity IPOs: They don’t escape investor scrutiny June 24, 2014 AFTER all too many lean years, it is with much relief that investor appetite has finally returned to the IPO market, particularly here in London. We can speculate as to the reasons why – whether its cause is a spate of viable companies coming to market or the ephemeral notion of market confidence returning. It [...]
Would a new Thames Estuary airport be the best option for the whole UK? June 24, 2014 Daniel Moylan, the mayor of London’s chief aviation adviser, says Yes. For most UK regions, Heathrow is already supplanted by Amsterdam Schiphol as the principal hub airport. In 1990, 18 UK cities had daily flight connections to Heathrow. That has fallen to seven today. Some say another Heathrow runway would bring better connectivity between London [...]
Accelerating competition: How to level the playing field for challenger banks June 24, 2014 THERE is something that politicians and bankers both agree upon – we believe that greater competition improves the service and the products that customers get. We’ve heard ideas about increasing competition in banking from across the political spectrum. Today, the BBA is adding to that debate with some new ideas on promoting competition by levelling [...]
Letters to the Editor – 24/06 – Moral capitalism, Shifting borders, Best of Twitter June 23, 2014 Moral capitalism [Re: Free economies will crumble if we fail to make the moral case for capitalism, Thursday] It is vital that we argue for capitalism from both a moral perspective (respect for individual freedom and private property) and from an efficiency perspective (namely that free trade and the division of labour is the route [...]
My debate with Piketty: Beware radical policies claiming to be above ideology June 23, 2014 A LACK of authenticity among politicians is a common lament. Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston expressed this conventional wisdom recently when she said: “I think the public dislike the cardboard cut-out, the lobby fodder, the sycophantic [planted] questions [in the Commons].” There’s some truth in this. Nobody likes a lackey. And the turgid “Does my Right [...]
The devil will be in the detail of Osborne’s northern powerhouse plans June 23, 2014 IN THE months before a general election campaign gets going, politicians often look like they’re merely going through the motions. Perhaps that was why George Osborne’s surprisingly radical speech in Manchester yesterday, focused on making the “cities of the north a powerhouse for our economy”, caught many by surprise. But while the speech contained the [...]