City Matters: We should rediscover the spirit of Victorian entrepreneurship in Latin America July 21, 2013 SOME 160 years ago, a wave of UK companies and engineers – among them my own great, great grandfather – crossed the Atlantic to help develop Latin America’s railways in a remarkable feat of Victorian entrepreneurship. The success of this partnership helped drive economic prosperity in both Latin America and the UK for decades. Major [...]
Lessons for regulators from Chris Froome’s Tour de France victory July 21, 2013 MANY of us have been enthralled by Chris Froome’s Tour de France win, helping restore our faith in this global event. Cycling’s regulator’s overwhelming problem is to maintain the credibility of the competition by deterring, detecting and punishing cheating. We can use the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) as an analogy for the British financial regulatory [...]
Letters to the Editor – 22/07 – Keep Heathrow, Broken housing, Best of Twitter July 21, 2013 Keep Heathrow [Re: Heathrow expansion is our best option and it doesn’t have to be loud, Thursday] One justification for an Isle of Grain airport is that London is moving east. That may be true for several thousands of people, but many hundreds of thousands in the west and south west of London depend on [...]
It’s official: US-style shale revolution could soon slash gas prices in Britain July 18, 2013 IT’S now official – shale production can cut gas prices. After months of the government tiptoeing around the issue, a report commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) provides evidence for the first time that a British version of the North American shale revolution could be around the corner. The numbers are [...]
The Long View: JK Rowling’s pseudonymous success is a triumph for democratic publishing July 18, 2013 I DON’T know why I’m bothering to write this. It’s not like Marc Sidwell is a pseudonym for JK Rowling. Few will have missed the recent overnight journey of Rowling’s pseudonymous crime book The Cuckoo’s Calling from bargain bin to the top of the bestseller lists once she was revealed as the author. Apparently not [...]
Blanket migration laws threaten the thriving Tech City startup scene July 18, 2013 LONDON has the potential to be one of the world’s leading technology hubs, and the startup scene is growing fast. Research from UHY Hacker Young, released this week, showed that Tech City was the UK’s biggest growth area for new businesses in the year to March 2013, with 15,720 new companies formed. In 2008, it [...]
Letters to the editor – 19/07 – UK universities, Public sector, Best of Twitter July 18, 2013 UK universities [Re: Our uniform universities restrict true competition in UK higher education, Monday] Martin Rees fails to mention private institutions. They do not draw on the public purse and often succeed in widening access where traditional universities fall short. Many who would otherwise fall through the system choose private institutions, but new restrictions mean [...]
Designing forward guidance could be tricky despite current MPC unanimity July 17, 2013 MARK Carney has had a lucky start as governor of the Bank of England. Business surveys and labour market data suggest that the UK economy continues to grow and has probably picked up momentum. He has narrowly avoided having to write his first explanatory letter to the chancellor, with inflation coming in at below 3 [...]
A transparent system of company ownership would attract business to the UK July 17, 2013 DIGGING down to find out who is really in control of a company – and to whom the profits are going – is not easy. A raft of clever tricks is available to those who, for one reason or another, might want to hide their ownership or association. Why is this a problem? The World [...]
Heathrow expansion is our best option and it doesn’t have to be loud July 17, 2013 AS THE deadline for submissions to the Airports Commission looms, we’ve seen a flurry of proposals from all who stand to benefit from one scheme or another to increase capacity. For businesses who simply want easier connections to high growth markets, fewer delays, and less burdensome flight taxes, it is tempting to settle for any [...]