We’re entering an era of real-time business with startups setting the pace October 23, 2013 REAL-TIME reaction is the new currency in business and – for the most part – entrepreneurs and lean start-ups are making mincemeat out of big corporates. “Business has sped up in the past ten years,” says Rupert Lee-Browne, founder of broker Caxton FX, which has evolved from order-taking by fax to instant responsiveness in its [...]
Letters to the Editor – 24/10 – Energy prices, Best of Twitter October 23, 2013 Energy prices [Re: EDF nuclear subsidy is a naive gamble on the future price of carbon and gas, yesterday] Government support for nuclear is not a gamble on gas prices rising, it is a hedge against them doing so. Even at today’s power price, the impact on bills of new nuclear (indeed renewables) is a few [...]
EDF nuclear subsidy is a naive gamble on the future price of carbon and gas October 22, 2013 RARELY have we seen a policy shrouded in so many what-ifs. The much-anticipated announcement that new French-designed atomic reactors are to finally go ahead at Hinkley Point in Somerset has been greeted with a mixture of elation and caution. The caution is well-founded, and Parliament’s scrutineers need to get ready. We still know very little [...]
Against the Grain: Why expensive renewable energy policies are failing to save the planet October 22, 2013 ENERGY price rises are again causing public anguish. The recent actions of some energy companies can be plausibly described as provocative, no matter how well-founded their decisions might be. They risk provoking the ire of the opposition, the government, and even former Prime Ministers like Sir John Major (who has just called for a windfall [...]
The Immigration Bill risks harming liberty and Britain’s economy October 22, 2013 THE PHRASE “papers, please” once conjured up the image of a totalitarian dystopia, where anyone might rat out their neighbour to the government. Britons have always been allergic to this informant culture – a hallmark of the unlimited state. But “papers, please” could soon become government policy. Whatever your perspective on migration, the Immigration Bill [...]
Letters to the Editor – 23/10 – Nuclear costs, Best of Twitter October 22, 2013 Nuclear costs [Re: Nuclear deal to cost £1bn, yesterday] The proposed cost of Hinkley nuclear plant, and the fact it will not be in working order until 2023, shows that Ed Davey’s plans have failed to address our short-term energy crisis and the issue of power running out by 2015. There should be a focus on [...]
Alternative finance could liberate UK SMEs if regulators lift the speed limit October 21, 2013 THE ARGUMENT about banks and the adequacy (or not) of their lending to small businesses has raged on for about four years. It is a length of time comparable with the duration of the First World War, and this is a depressingly appropriate comparison. For all the thousands of rhetorical shells fired by both sides [...]
China’s astonishing growth trajectory holds few lessons for democratic Britain October 21, 2013 I’VE SEEN the future and it works.” That was US journalist Lincoln Steffers’s message after visiting the Soviet Union in the 1920s. It’s worth remembering how wrong he turned out to be. Why? George Osborne and Boris Johnson have just come back from China, and they’ll be tempted to use the impressive things they’ve seen [...]
Nick Clegg’s guarantee for schools will damage standards in education October 21, 2013 SOMETIMES a minister will say something so straightforwardly ignorant, so uninformed of the history and facts of the issue, that I feel a kind of despair. A good example is Nick Clegg’s comments on schools this week. Clegg claims to have discovered the Holy Grail in state education: to provide a “guarantee” to “every parent” [...]
Letters to the Editor – 22/10 – UK tech failures, Cost of nuclear, Best of Twitter October 21, 2013 UK tech failures [Re: UK efforts to nurture a tech startup revolution are worryingly trivial, yesterday] The world laughs at our abject failure to build global tech companies. Sadly Tech City will go the way of other innovation initiatives like the Cabinet Office’s Skunkworks, the Innovation Launch Pad, the Solutions Exchange and ICT Futures, which have [...]