Letters to the Editor – 23/06 – Alternative finance, Parties of liberty, Best of Twitter June 23, 2014 Alternative finance [Re: Santander refers rejected small business loans to Funding Circle, Thursday] It is welcome to see Santander taking a progressive attitude to lending by promoting alternative financial solutions. The greatest barrier to SME growth is a lack of education of the types of funding available. For many, alternative forms of finance offer the [...]
Letters to the Editor – 20/06 – The estuary option, Flatter the better, Best of Twitter June 19, 2014 The estuary option This week, Sir Howard Davies, chairman of the Airports Commission, was questioned by the London Assembly. Some of his answers were worrying. He seemed to refuse to acknowledge the benefits a new four-runway hub airport would bring to Britain. When hubs are being built all over the world, with upwards of four [...]
Forget the neocons: How Lawrence of Arabia can help save Iraq from chaos June 19, 2014 AS THE West casts about for an appropriate response to the perilous situation in Iraq, and with President Obama now saying that the US is potentially ready for “targeted military action” in the country, we would do well to ignore the tarnished faces of neoconservatism, calling for full intervention again at any cost. It’s time [...]
It’s not enough for Tories to love liberty – Britain needs two parties of freedom June 19, 2014 FREEDOM doesn’t get many shout-outs from politicians in today’s Britain. The hustings of the nation whose proudest boast used to be “it’s a free country” now echo with little but shades of paternalist reassurance. Have a problem? There ought to be a law to sort it out – and if you vote for us, by [...]
London needs a radical digital vision extending far beyond Tech City June 19, 2014 LONDON is now hosting its first ever Technology Week – an opportunity to “showcase London’s role as the digital capital of Europe”. It is right to celebrate the success of London’s tech industry. Nearly 16,000 firms started up in the East London tech hub in the past year, with more businesses registered in the EC1V [...]
Letters to the Editor – 19/06 – Falling short, Best of Twitter June 18, 2014 Falling short [Re: We are jeopardising UK tech by failing to tackle UK skills shortages, yesterday] David Richards raises an important point. On the one hand, we hear about the thousands of jobs and millions of pounds in revenue being created by the UK’s tech scene. But on the other, we are not giving future [...]
Free economies will crumble if we fail to make the moral case for capitalism June 18, 2014 SITTING in the Guildhall yesterday, attending the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Liberty, I was struck by two thoughts. First, Thatcher was probably the only British Prime Minister who truly understood capitalism, not just as an engine of wealth creation and efficiency, but also as a moral force for good. But secondly, while the economic battle [...]
Elon Musk is right to share Tesla’s patents: Now he should ditch them altogether June 18, 2014 A WAR is being waged by the litigators of Silicon Valley. Their chosen weaponry: patent law. The battle is most obvious among the tech giants. In 2011, Apple and Google spent more on patent lawsuits and purchases than they put towards research and development. And it is consumers who get stung. A report released by [...]
Breaking point: Iraq is now in the grip of civil war June 18, 2014 ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan – No matter which way you look at the problem, Iraq is now in the grip of a civil war, and the forces of ISIS, backed by a number of tribes and ex-Saddam loyalists, are in all out conflict with the Iraqi state, backed by the Shia militias that have mobilised in [...]
The world never was peaceful – but combat deaths have plummeted June 18, 2014 Is the world becoming a more violent place? The world never was a peaceful place to begin with, but annual battle death has actually dropped tenfold since the 1950s. What is new is the conjunction of three parallel evolutions. First, improved media coverage, informing populations. Second, stronger transnational criminal groups with access to advanced military [...]