Sunday trading laws are outdated: We must extend opening hours March 24, 2014 IT’S TIME to reform our outdated, restrictive Sunday trading laws. With online shopping gaining in popularity by the day, the health of the British high street relies on full flexibility to open on Sundays. Three quarters of the public already shop on a Sunday at least once a month. And a recent Comres poll for [...]
Letters to the Editor – 24/03 – Brexit fears, Data appreciation, Best of Twitter March 23, 2014 Brexit fears Hitachi’s decision to move its rail business to Britain, and Bentley’s decision to move more engineering here, confounds the claim by scaremongers that a Brexit from the EU would stop inward investment to the UK. It suggests that companies appreciate that our location, language, business culture and access to the City of London [...]
City & Gild: Brands have no boundaries, or at least they shouldn’t have March 21, 2014 Where does your brand start and stop? Does it have any boundaries? Are there any corners of your business where your brand can afford to put its feet up, take a break and let some other part of the business take up the slack? Your brand is the guiding light for all that you do [...]
Letters to the Editor – 21/03 – Beer and bingo, Best of Twitter March 20, 2014 Beer and bingo [Re: No turning back: Four reasons Osborne’s Budget will matter, yesterday] This isn’t going to be remembered as the “slow and steady” Budget. It will be remembered as the “beer and bingo” Budget. This is unfortunate, because it will really be about savings and investment. Grant Shapps did George Osborne no favour. It [...]
Forget sanctions: Lame duck Obama is burying Pax Americana March 20, 2014 AS AN old DC hand living in Berlin, I was kindly invited to hear Barack Obama speak there in 2008 by some of my old foreign policy frenemies in the Democratic Party. I was present when candidate Obama’s white-hot global fame reached its apogee. In front of an old Napoleonic war memorial stood the anointed [...]
How open innovation will transform the humble quid March 20, 2014 FAREWELL to the pound coin’s familiar golden nugget design. Here comes the dough-decagon in its stead. The new 12-sided quid, modelled after the old threepenny bit, got plenty of attention this week. But the most interesting part of the design is what was left out. The flipside of the coin will be opened to a [...]
Pension freedom: A chance to rebrand retirement altogether March 20, 2014 THE chancellor’s pension reform proposals could, if implemented, not only change pensions as we know them, but the way people plan their retirement savings altogether. We aren’t there yet. But we should finally reach pension freedom in April 2015, when people will be free to decide, without restrictions, what to do with their pension pots [...]
Letters to the Editor – 20/03 – Energy market, Best of Twitter March 19, 2014 Energy market [Re: Blame the regulator, yesterday] Stephen Littlechild’s article is full of inaccuracies and poorly substantiated claims. None of the discounts he claims we regard as “harmful complexities” are prevented under our reforms for a simpler, clearer fairer market. Nor would our rules prevent British Gas providing free electricity on Saturdays as he suggests. [...]
No turning back: Four reasons Osborne’s Budget matters March 19, 2014 FOUR key things strike me about the 2014 Budget. First, George Osborne stuck to his plan. Osborne’s Budgets will be remembered for two things: slow, steady, drawn-out spending cuts, bearing down gradually upon the government’s huge deficit; and a large rise in the income tax personal allowance. Both aspects were reflected in yesterday’s Budget speech. [...]
Why Osborne should now axe tax relief on pensions March 19, 2014 WHEN you have no money, and you need to conserve cash for a rabbit out of the hat in the run up to the election, what do you do? The chancellor’s answer: focus the Budget on pension reform and Isas saving incentives. That’s all fine and dandy, but it’s a missed opportunity. The chancellor reached [...]