Companies must work with the UK’s tech-savvy NEETs August 22, 2012 YET again, figures from the Department for Education show a rise in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs). But conversely, new research this week reveals that the unused digital skills sitting within the community of over 1m unemployed young people are valued at £6.7bn by UK businesses. The same [...]
After the UK government deficit rose in July, do we need to make further spending cuts? August 22, 2012 YES Richard Wellings The government has behaved recklessly. Assuming a strong recovery, with high growth and rising tax revenues, it gambled that relatively modest spending cuts would be enough to fulfil the deficit reduction plan. The latest borrowing figures betray the magnitude of this miscalculation. It seems likely that the deficit will remain dangerously high, [...]
Rapid Responses August 22, 2012 Football antics [Re: An Olympian defends football stars – at least off the pitch, yesterday] My interest in football has declined over the years, as I’ve been forced to watch almost daily nonsense from overpaid footballers and their yobbish behaviour. Please don’t make excuses for these bad examples. It’s disgraceful. Team GB demonstrated a commendable [...]
Forget Nadir – the SFO does not have the resources to fight fraud August 21, 2012 ALTHOUGH the jury is still out on nine of the charges in the Asil Nadir case, the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) successful conviction of Nadir on three charges is a nice win following a two-decade long pursuit of the tycoon. Sadly, this success is not indicative of the SFO’s recent experience. The Nadir case needs [...]
How to unpick the apparent paradox of falling GDP and rising employment August 21, 2012 THE City always eagerly awaits the latest GDP estimates. These figures dominate the media headlines and huge significance is attached to trivial differences between market expectations and the announced figure, and to subsequent revisions to the data. But GDP is not something that can be put in a set of scales and measured accurately. The [...]
Olympian defends football stars – at least off the pitch August 21, 2012 FOLLOWING the recent success of Team GB at the London Olympics, many people are inevitably comparing footballers with athletes. As such, many expect fans and athletes of other sports to dislike footballers. But this comparison isn’t entirely fair. The combination of enormous wages, lavish lifestyles and bad headlines has made footballers fair game for relentless [...]
Is the government right to seek to raise revenue by selling NHS services abroad? August 21, 2012 YES David Stout This idea to “sell” the NHS abroad is not necessarily new. But these proposals present an opportunity to do what is already being done in a much more systematic way. We know the NHS is well-regarded internationally, and these proposals mean we can help generate additional income off the back of our [...]
Rapid Responses August 21, 2012 Plain packaging [Re: As Australia confirms a law banning branded tobacco packaging, should the UK follow suit?, Thursday] Whether plain packaging of cigarettes prevents children from smoking is irrelevant. Cigarettes are illegal for under 18s to buy, and draconian and nannying measures like this will likely creep into the alcohol and unhealthy food markets. Liberty [...]
Hollande’s raid on rich is the wrong kind of revolution August 21, 2012 AFTER little more than a hundred days in power, French President François Hollande’s popularity is dropping fast. Recent polls show that 54 per cent of French citizens are dissatisfied with his performance, compared with approximately 40 per cent in July. It’s little wonder – taxes on the rich, which initially attracted voters, are in danger [...]
The Eurozone’s new quick fix risks papering over much deeper cracks August 20, 2012 WITH European politicians still nursing their holiday sunburns, speculation has already returned to the Eurozone crisis. Unsurprisingly, the focus is again on European Central Bank (ECB) intervention, not least because its president Mario Draghi’s commitment to “do whatever it takes” to save the euro may now require him to follow through. The main plan being [...]