Pitching it right – the fine line between bragging and selling yourself September 3, 2014 Most people are bad at this but Brits are the worst. British people love the self-effacing, self-deprecating understatement typified by Hugh Grant in Four Weddings or Notting Hill. Anything braggy and people could think you are brash and pushy and probably foreign – like the Americans. Or the South Africans. Or even worse, arrogant. Not [...]
Why an NHS tax is the wrong solution to the UK’s health challenges September 2, 2014 A NEW tax to funnel extra resources to the NHS is rising up the political agenda. Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow, a health minister earlier in this Parliament, proposed the idea before the summer. Sarah Wollaston MP, the Conservative chair of the key Parliamentary Health Committee, subsequently demanded higher budgets for the health service. This [...]
Salmond’s independence folly: A Yes vote will damage more than just Scotland September 2, 2014 In less than three weeks’ time, we will know the outcome. Will the United Kingdom still be united, or will the 307-year old Union break? In global London, the question of Scottish independence may seem somewhat archaic. But should Scotland go its own way, the implications will be felt well south of Hadrian’s Wall. To [...]
Housing bubble psychology: Why Wall Street isn’t smarter than Mr Average September 2, 2014 LURID stories about the excesses in the UK housing market continue to proliferate. True, there is some evidence of a cooling, as price rises tempt more sellers into the market and temporarily increase supply relative to demand. But at the same time, we learn in the Sunday Times that the good burghers of Cobham in [...]
Was the Davies Commission right to rule out Boris Island as an option for airport expansion? September 2, 2014 Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick Airport, says Yes. We share the mayor’s passion for London, as well as his desire to maintain its status as the best-connected city in the world. But what is needed above all is certainty that additional airport capacity will be delivered. And while ambitious, the Thames Estuary airport option [...]
The value chain of an international drug trade September 2, 2014 There are many reasons to end the war on drugs. One can point to the huge incarceration rates, how criminalisation hurts the people already at the bottom of our society or one can focus on the moral aspect of the right to self-ownership. But perhaps the most indicative of the negative consequences of the war [...]
Len Blavatnik’s Perform offer revives troubled IPO debacle – Inside Track September 1, 2014 The non-executive directors of the media group Perform, who include the sports broadcaster Gaby Logan and the former DMGT finance director Peter Williams, have a tough job on their hands in deciding whether to recommend the 260p per share offer for the group from its major shareholder, Len Blavatnik. Blavatnik, whose business interests also include [...]
Putin has won in Ukraine – but the West can still salvage the long game September 1, 2014 There’s only one way to make a fortune, and that’s to down the fellow who’s up against you." W Somerset Maugham, on poker ONE OF the many wonderful traditions at St Andrews University is that, if a student did well, they did not have to sit final exams until their last year. As a result, [...]
Why interest rate rises won’t push voters into Ed Miliband’s arms September 1, 2014 We all know they are coming, even if not quite yet. The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is not expected to change interest rates this week, but its inaction is unlikely to last for long. In August, dissenters appeared on the MPC for the first time since 2011, with two members voting for an [...]
Airport expansion is vital for London’s prosperity – but politicians still do nothing September 1, 2014 WITH the Airports Commission widely tipped to make an announcement about Boris Johnson’s Estuary airport proposal today, it is important we take stock of what is at stake. The airports debate is about more than where to put extra planes and runways: it’s about jobs, growth and our country’s future prosperity. International connectivity is fundamental [...]