Letters to the Editor – 27/08 – HS2 alternatives, Foreign buyers, Best of Twitter August 26, 2013 HS2 alternatives Environmental opponents of the High Speed Two plans should consider the alternatives more carefully. The fact is we need more capacity, and no way of achieving this will leave the countryside entirely untouched. Some call for the widening of existing West Coast Mainline tracks, and the introduction of double-decker trains. But these options [...]
Why far too many young people still struggle to find work after education August 22, 2013 AFTER a summer-size portion of angst and anticipation, judgement day has finally been and gone. More than 600,000 households across the country will be waking up today with the hangover of GCSE results. While some will be bounding out of bed, excited about sixth form in September, a drop in top grades and a falling [...]
There’s no point in a financial services Trip Advisor unless reputation matters August 22, 2013 ONCE again, a major mis-selling scandal has broken out, with 13 high street banks and credit card issuers facing a £1.3bn redress bill for mis-sold card protection policies. No amount of financial regulation seems to stop the flow. Until 1986, there were no mis-selling scandals. The sales of financial products were regulated by contract law [...]
Rising UK house prices intensify the need to cut illogical stamp duty August 22, 2013 STAMP duty has to be a good candidate for the most stupid, destructive and illogical of the UK’s many taxes. Residential stamp duty raised £4.2bn in 2011-12, just 0.8 per cent of the government’s total tax revenues. But its reform is long overdue. It’s stupid because its “slab” rate structure means that, if someone buys [...]
Letters to the editor – 23/08 – BBC Licence Fee, Foreign companies, Best of Twitter August 22, 2013 BBC Licence Fee [Re: TV licence offences responsible for a tenth of all UK court cases, Wednesday] Currently, if you have a TV but don’t watch live TV over it, you’re still subject to “reminders” to pay – even though you’re not liable. A better system would be to make us pay for what we [...]
Liberty in transit: What the detention of David Miranda signifies for Britain August 21, 2013 THE DETENTION and interrogation of David Miranda, partner of campaigning journalist Glenn Greenwald, on his way from Germany to Brazil has brought up some interesting facts – and attitudes. Views on such a cloudy subject vary, but two strong camps have emerged. To hear one set of commentators, the Intelligence Services have magical powers of [...]
Why we shouldn’t be surprised by the rapidly rising cost of High Speed 2 August 21, 2013 IT’S A familiar but depressing story. When a big government project is first advocated, the backers downplay the costs in order to gain political support. As the scheme progresses, the budget increases dramatically, but the momentum behind it makes it difficult to stop. The same pattern is repeated again and again. The Channel Tunnel Rail [...]
M&S’s new ad campaign will struggle to reverse slumping fashion sales August 21, 2013 YOU CAN visualise the meeting at Marks & Spencer’s headquarters when its new campaign, advertising its make-or-break Autumn collection, was finalised. An ad agency suggests the idea of female empowerment and the boardroom battleground. Any actual brand idea is forgotten, as the rolodex spins and agents are called. Actress Helen Mirren, artist Tracey Emin, author [...]
Letters to the editor – 22/08 – Global competition, HS2 debate, Best of Twitter August 21, 2013 Global competition [Re: We should be glad that foreign firms want to buy British companies, yesterday] I agree with Tim Worstall. It is essential that financiers and investors have a viable route to a profitable exit. And a foreign sale is often an important avenue. UK venture capital typically wishes to sell on in four to [...]
How Britain can take advantage of a global growth in digital industries August 20, 2013 MOST new jobs are not created by established big businesses adding a few people here and there, or by the many smaller firms that are happy to stay small rather than take a risk and expand. Our future prosperity depends on a relatively small number of rapidly growing firms: high growth “gazelles”. So if we [...]