The real reason you should be depressed by political soundbites April 7, 2014 POLITICAL sound-bites can be excruciating. They hang around for a year or two before disappearing when they become untenable. Who can forget Labour’s “too far, too fast”, or the Conservatives’ “global race”? With just over a year to go before the general election, you’ll be depressed to hear the current offerings look entrenched. The Conservatives [...]
It’s a national scandal that Britain is driving away foreign talent April 7, 2014 THE NEWS that the number of overseas students at UK universities has fallen for the first time in almost 30 years is little less than a national scandal. When migrants are responsible for founding as many as one in seven UK businesses – according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs – and our companies struggle to [...]
India votes: Just three hurdles stand in the way of economic renaissance April 6, 2014 IT’S A heretical truth, but most elections don’t matter very much. This year, for example, for all the bells and whistles, the Turkish presidential contest, the European parliamentary elections, and even the US mid-terms will change little, leaving unaltered their governments’ economic and political trajectories in the world. In the case of Turkey, the recent [...]
City Matters: Why we need to reward the City of London’s hidden talent – for doing good April 6, 2014 FOR THE last three decades, the Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards have recognised outstanding corporate community partnerships by businesses across the capital. London is one of the world’s leading financial centres and is home to some of the most innovative and dynamic businesses in the world. Many of these companies utilise the skills and enthusiasm of [...]
Letters to the Editor – 07/04 – The establishment, Best of Twitter April 6, 2014 The establishment [Re: It’s not just Clegg who’s lost contact with reality – it’s the whole establishment, Friday] Great article. This is the reason why the other leaders don’t want Nigel Farage in a pre-general election TV debate. They would all lose. They are completely disconnected from the real world, and think they know better [...]
City & Gild: Brands can reflect economic green shoots as well as they do the spring weather April 4, 2014 It’s official, I’m getting excited – and as someone who models himself on Geoffrey Palmer in Butterflies, this is Big News. What’s the occasion, I hear you cry? Just look around – as the gloom of winter recedes the green shoots of brighter days can be seen everywhere. The sack-cloth and ashes of baggy jumpers [...]
Letters to the Editor – 04/04 – Royal Mail IPO, Soccer geography, Best of Twitter April 3, 2014 Royal Mail IPO [Re: Pricing Royal Mail: Welcome to the free market, Wednesday] Simon Walker is entitled to his view that the Royal Mail pricing needed to be cautious, although there could have been few who looked at the valuation at the time and did not spot that money was being given away. In such [...]
Sorry Ofgem: Why simpler energy tariffs are not in consumers’ interests April 3, 2014 OFGEM says that energy customers want simpler tariffs. To that end, it has limited energy suppliers to at most four tariffs. It has also prohibited various discounts, charges and special offers. But is this what customers expected from “simpler tariffs”? Would they still support that policy if they knew what it would mean? Findings from [...]
It’s not just Clegg who’s lost contact with reality – it’s the whole establishment April 3, 2014 I HAVE never seen anything like it. Nick Clegg’s trouncing in a televised debate with Ukip leader Nigel Farage this week was spectacular. Not so much for the drubbing of the deputy Prime Minister – even among the Lib Dem faithful, his popularity has been in the doldrums for years. Nor for the strengths of [...]
Letters to the Editor – 03/04 – Royal Mail, City villages, Best of Twitter April 2, 2014 Royal Mail It’s impossible to accurately price something in the absence of a market, but that does not excuse the government for wasting taxpayer money on the Royal Mail float. Business secretary Vince Cable’s search for long-term investors inevitably reduced demand. And it should come as no surprise that many investors identified as long-termists didn’t [...]