The green myth: Why renewables destroy jobs March 25, 2014 POLITICIANS and activists are celebrating the news that Siemens is prepared to invest £160m in facilities in and around Hull to produce and install offshore wind turbines. It sounds like good news: 1,000 new jobs. But our embrace of renewable energy will cost jobs overall, not create them. The UK is putting eye-watering amounts of [...]
Letters to the Editor – 25/03 – Russia and the City, Savings culture, Best of Twitter March 24, 2014 Russia and the City [Re: The UK is not as dependent on Russian money as you think, yesterday] Some interesting data, but there are also some unanswered questions. What about law firms’ revenue? And even if the money is not held in the UK, how much of it is managed from a UK-based family office? [...]
Why Western weakness stems from a failure to grasp Putin’s motives March 24, 2014 VLADIMIR Putin is having an easy time of it, precisely because the West is so at sea as to who he is and what he is trying to accomplish. The Russian President has painfully exposed our foreign policy elite’s schizophrenic tendencies, veering wildly between hysterical alarmism and useless gestures, both of which make the West [...]
Academies are transforming education: Here’s how March 24, 2014 AS SOON as you walk into a great school, you can feel the buzz. Children are confident, staff are passionate, and high academic achievement and exciting extra-curricular activities sit side by side. As an academy sponsor, and chair of the Department for Education’s Academies Board, I’ve visited many schools like this. Schools like Great Yarmouth [...]
Why individual liberty could be the new election battleground March 24, 2014 If people are given responsibility, they behave responsibly. So if we give people more political power, I believe that will create a country with a greater sense of social responsibility.” So said David Cameron in 2010. I remembered this quotation last week as the fallout from the Budget saw a debate open up over the [...]
The pension revolution could restore Britain’s long-term savings culture March 24, 2014 THE PENSION reforms announced in last week’s Budget represent the biggest shake-up of pensions in living memory. UK pensions are currently the most inflexible in the world, with strict rules on how the pension money can be used in later life. That will no longer be the case. All of sudden, people will have the [...]
City Matters: The UK has fallen behind in the global export race: Here’s how we catch up March 24, 2014 AS A SMALL island nation, the United Kingdom has a long history of punching above its weight when it comes to trade and commerce across the world. Exports have been a major driver of our economy since before the time of the Romans – even though commodities such as pottery have been replaced by professional [...]
Sunday trading laws are outdated: We must extend opening hours March 24, 2014 IT’S TIME to reform our outdated, restrictive Sunday trading laws. With online shopping gaining in popularity by the day, the health of the British high street relies on full flexibility to open on Sundays. Three quarters of the public already shop on a Sunday at least once a month. And a recent Comres poll for [...]
Letters to the Editor – 24/03 – Brexit fears, Data appreciation, Best of Twitter March 23, 2014 Brexit fears Hitachi’s decision to move its rail business to Britain, and Bentley’s decision to move more engineering here, confounds the claim by scaremongers that a Brexit from the EU would stop inward investment to the UK. It suggests that companies appreciate that our location, language, business culture and access to the City of London [...]
City & Gild: Brands have no boundaries, or at least they shouldn’t have March 21, 2014 Where does your brand start and stop? Does it have any boundaries? Are there any corners of your business where your brand can afford to put its feet up, take a break and let some other part of the business take up the slack? Your brand is the guiding light for all that you do [...]