Erratic and arbitrary UK renewable subsidies are likely to end in failure December 4, 2013 WITH Centrica threatening to pull the plug on a £2bn offshore wind farm if the government did not increase already exorbitant subsidies, ministers agreed to do just that. Yesterday, they announced they would slow the planned reduction in the guaranteed strike price for offshore wind by adding £5 to the subsidy – to £140 per [...]
Letters to the editor – 05/12 – Intelligent future, Tax revenue, Best of Twitter December 4, 2013 Intelligent future [Re: As Amazon tests delivery drones, could the technology prove transformative? Tuesday] Even more exciting is the prospect of machines that think in ways no human could. They would have a deep “understanding” of the laws of inference, and would be incredibly good at solving problems. We could use them to design better [...]
Britain could become a social investment hub – if the chancellor provides the right incentives December 4, 2013 LONDON is fast emerging as a global centre for social investing. All of the ingredients are here: a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, a strong ethos of charitable giving and investing for good, a supportive government, and organisations whose aim is to grow the world of social impact investing. In the last few months, London has hosted [...]
It’s time to break the Whitehall silo and put startup discipline into government December 3, 2013 THE CURSE of Norman Lamont makes politicians wary of mentioning the “green shoots” of recovery. But when the data show growth of 0.4 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2013, it’s clear. The UK is off life support. Sure, the recovery is heavily consumption-led, with exports [...]
Against the Grain: Why the state’s technology bureaucrats must realise that most things fail December 3, 2013 THE PHRASE “industrial policy” seems to take us back decades. In 1964, the then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s powerful new catchphrase was the need for Britain to embrace the “white heat of the technological revolution”. Sadly, by the 1970s this vision had deteriorated into a list of institutions, stuffed with dull businessmen and trade [...]
Why we need a radical solution to the crisis in our education system December 3, 2013 THE NEWS that UK pupils have failed to make the global top 20 in the OECD’s Pisa tests in maths, reading and science has sparked suggestions that Britain should adopt East Asian teaching and assessment models. But we don’t need to look to the East for answers. East Asian pupils do indeed perform the best, [...]
Letters to the Editor – 04/12 – Tube fare freeze, Best of Twitter December 3, 2013 Tube fare freeze A real terms transport fares freeze in January is welcome news. But TfL could continue to freeze fares at inflation in future years. It has an annual turnover just shy of £10bn and a capital investment programme in the tens of billions. Freezing fares at inflation for a year costs just £34m [...]
It’s time to end the cruel delusion of cheap money and reckless spending December 2, 2013 GEORGE Osborne will present his Autumn Statement to a country in the grip of a cruel economic delusion, perpetrated against the poor and the aspirational. Welfare states everywhere are spending chronically beyond their means while papering over the cracks with easy money. Budget 2013 forecast spending in excess of receipts of about £9bn a month. [...]
Read my lips: Why the chancellor should commit to a lower tax burden December 2, 2013 TWO CAMPS exist in the Conservative Party on tax cuts. One thinks they should happen now to ease living costs, the other that it’s fiscally premature and imprudent to do them. There is logic in both. The purpose of taxation should be to finance state expenditures in the least distortionary way possible. Since spending is [...]
Fog is lifting over China but its reform efforts may not prove enough December 2, 2013 DAVID Cameron is right; there is no point in being subtle. He is in Beijing for a three day visit – accompanied by an army of 100 British business leaders – in an effort to strengthen trade links with the world’s fastest-growing Great Power. So important is the prize of enhancing economic ties with a [...]