Why we need to re-think welfare – and it’s about more than saving money December 16, 2013 “IT IS getting to the stage where our government is doing welfare and little else”. That was the verdict of the Institute for Fiscal Studies’s Paul Johnson at a post-Autumn Statement briefing. You wouldn’t think it from media reports, but the welfare state is becoming more significant in scope, if not in absolute size. Although [...]
Ed Miliband’s attack on developers ignores why housebuilding is in crisis December 16, 2013 ED MILIBAND was right to identify the housing affordability crisis as one of Britain’s most important policy challenges in his speech yesterday. Sadly, his mixed bag of proposals (expanding urban council boundaries, a 200,000 annual home-building target and fines for “land hoarders”) does not address the fundamental reasons why developers are not supplying the market [...]
Letters to the Editor – 17/12 – Scrap Davies, Alternative finance, Best of Twitter December 16, 2013 Scrap Davies If you believe that the importance of hub capacity is overstated there is clearly no need to expand Heathrow. If you believe, as I do, that London and the UK needs an internationally-competitive hub airport, we should be clear what that means. It means an airport with four runways and the capacity to [...]
Rise of alternative finance could put business bankers’ incumbency at risk December 15, 2013 DISRUPTION is capitalism’s great party trick. The history of business is full of seemingly insignificant upstarts who cottoned on to a new technology or idea, and used it to embarrass, and then destroy, proud incumbents. It’s a lesson that makers of mainframe computers, record labels, and bookshops have all learnt to their cost. But consumers [...]
City Matters: Delaying a decision on airports threatens London’s role on the global stage December 15, 2013 IT HAS not been a good week for airports, airlines or passengers. Not only did an air traffic control glitch lead to hundreds of flights across the country being cancelled, but thick fog also later caused significant delays and disruption in the South East. As the industry deals with the backlog, it seems somehow fitting [...]
Why higher education is this country’s secret industrial powerhouse December 15, 2013 WHEN considering the powerhouses of the British economy, most people’s minds flick to the City, or perhaps pharmaceuticals or retail. Yet it’s British universities – the envy of the world – which have the potential to save the British economy. Higher education is the UK’s secret industrial powerhouse. UniversitiesUK suggests that our universities are responsible [...]
Letters to the Editor – 16/12 – UK drugs policy, Passenger duty, Best of Twitter December 15, 2013 UK drugs policy [Re: Failing UK drugs policy should take a leaf from Uruguay and Portugal, Thursday] We need to stop this foolish and unwinnable war against cannabis. Independent research has shown that a tax and regulate policy would produce a large net gain for the UK economy, while saving millions of pounds from the [...]
Few predicted London’s reinvention but we can build for its future growth December 12, 2013 LONDON is changing. But then again, it always is. The theme of my new book Reinventing London is that change is the lifeblood of a great city. Over the past 30 years, the capital has replaced around 1m jobs in manufacturing, largely around the edge of the city and along radial routes, with over 1m [...]
The Long View: Three reads for Christmas: Glamour, Cicero’s web and high-tech fiction December 12, 2013 I WROTE at the end of November that the rise of the selfie marked the death of the audience and the rise of an age committed to universal self-expression and performance. This week, even world leaders have been joining in. When David Cameron and Barack Obama were caught taking silly pictures of themselves at Nelson [...]
EU wargame: Reform can happen but Brexit could still be amicable December 12, 2013 IN BUSINESS, as in diplomacy, “war games” or simulations are a useful tool for mapping out tricky negotiations or complex geopolitical issues. The technique is often used by the CIA to play out security scenarios. But it was also reportedly used by Germany to work out what a Grexit might mean for the Eurozone economy [...]