How the UK could cut public spending Singapore-style March 17, 2014 TOMORROW’S Budget will make it all too clear that, to get Britain’s public finances into a healthier state, further tight control of spending will be necessary. But as I’ve shown in my Gresham professorial lectures on how the West must adapt to cope with globalisation, recent spending restraint has been nowhere near enough to keep [...]
Putin’s calculations make Ukraine escalation all too likely March 17, 2014 GETTING inside the thinking of Vladimir Putin is a daunting prospect at the best of times; and these aren’t the best of times. Yet doing so shows why a worst-case outcome just a few days ago suddenly seems entirely plausible. After the Crimean referendum, the thoughts ringing around Putin’s head go something like this: “I [...]
Britain’s real debt iceberg is getting scarily little attention March 17, 2014 WITH Budget day upon us tomorrow, we can expect to be told that we are almost half-way through the government’s planned fiscal consolidation. Politicians will talk about how they are eliminating the deficit and getting our debts under control. Yet the whole debate seems to assume that, when the deficit is finally gone, perhaps later [...]
City & Gild: Modernisation is the only way back to the future for the Co-op March 17, 2014 So what do we make of the recent goings-on at the Co-op Group, the once proud pioneer of social corporate responsibility? Taking their business issues to one side, it’s hard to knock their vision and values – to want to build a better society through ethical leadership (among other, altruistic aims) is not only a [...]
Tory MoneySupermarket Budget is the best foil to Labour’s Wonga economics March 17, 2014 AHEAD of the last Budget before the 2015 election, Britain’s political battle lines are being carved out. Voters will be tempted by alternative menus combining less debt, higher spending and lower taxes. Since no party can credibly offer more than two of the three, the Conservatives’ best chance of winning is to demonstrate that trimming [...]
City Matters: How evolving City offices are positioning for the next big tech breakthrough March 17, 2014 WE ALL want the next Google, Facebook or Twitter to come from London. The same is true for major success stories from other industries. This can only happen, however, if we ensure the capital has the right mix of space to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow and realise their full potential. The [...]
Corporation tax: Why it’s workers who really pay when we squeeze firms March 17, 2014 WHEN One Direction (1D) weighed in on the corporation tax debate, calling on their fans to pressure George Osborne into “cracking down on company tax avoidance”, it was the clearest indication yet that business tax has become a popular issue. But what has not filtered through to the public debate is the question of who [...]
Letters to the Editor – 17/03 – Science startups, Best of Twitter March 16, 2014 Science startups [Re: Why Britain’s scientists are failing at business, Friday] Tim Farron is right to highlight some of the challenges facing all entrepreneurs in this country, but the idea that Britain’s scientific community is failing at business is simply not accurate. Reports estimate that UK universities produced more than 3,000 companies in 2011. And [...]
Letters to the Editor – 14/03 – Splitting debts, Best of Twitter March 13, 2014 Splitting debts [Re: The big independence lie: Scotland could keep the pound, Wednesday] Is Scotland walking away from its “share” of UK debt really that absurd? Did the Baltic states take any Russian debt after the breakup of the Soviet Union? No. Of course, independence supporters have proposed that Scotland would indeed take on its [...]
Osborne’s wrong: Government investment doesn’t equal growth March 13, 2014 IF I wanted to come home with a 60 inch plasma TV tomorrow, I might try to persuade Mrs Knox that it was an “investment”. She would rightly say, maybe rather forcefully, that this was not an investment since, as there could be no possible financial return, this was just spending. So a few weeks [...]