Brics defended us from anti-growth greens at Rio+20 June 24, 2012 THE OUTCOME of the UN Rio+20 conference last week was a welcome surprise. The conference was held to review the progress of the UN’s global programme to manage environmental issues, adopted in Rio de Janeiro 20 years before. Rio+20 rejected calls by green NGOs to endorse green economics and restated the need for an open [...]
Russia’s potential in financial services is a prize the City should unwrap June 24, 2012 IT’S ASTONISHING that you can travel by train from the heart of the City of London right to the Pacific at Vladivostok, crossing nine time zones and an eighth of the world’s landmass on the way. Sadly, the pace of business doesn’t allow such journeys anymore, so I will be taking my business delegation to [...]
Is Ed Miliband right to propose restrictions to immigration to protect British workers? June 24, 2012 YES Andrew Harrop Ed Miliband is trying to avoid being typecast as an urban liberal with a relaxed attitude to migration numbers. So his speech was grounded in two other dimensions of his political personality – he worries about people struggling on low incomes and he wants more responsibility in how people and businesses operate [...]
RAPID responses June 24, 2012 Return to O-levels [Re: Cameron must back Gove for the sake of Britain’s children, Friday] Michael Gove’s proposal isn’t perfect, but it’s an improvement on the failing system we have today – a de facto two-tier system of double-digit top grades and a long list of failures. Let’s hope Gove can defeat his third-rate political [...]
Gove’s exam reforms will confront wasted potential in British schools June 21, 2012 OUR EXAM system should be up there with the best in the world. It should push bright kids and be renowned for its academic rigour. At the moment, GCSEs simply don’t do that. Every year, GCSE results day is accompanied by accusations of “dumbing down” and respect for them is diminishing among employers and universities, [...]
Unlikely pairings of demons and classics hold lessons for timid politicians June 21, 2012 NO ONE will ever produce a film called David Cameron: Vampire Hunter. Abraham Lincoln, on the other hand, got a Hollywood blockbuster this week that reinvents his life as a fight to the undeath. Lincoln’s cod-historical battle with soulless, slave-owning bloodsuckers adapts a mash-up biography/monster novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, whose back catalogue of left-field bestsellers [...]
Even the ultra rich are struggling to keep their wealth June 21, 2012 FOLLOWING one of the most volatile periods in the last 15 years, the aggregate investable wealth of high net worth individuals (HNWI) declined by 1.7 per cent last year – the first fall since 2008. This came out of the latest research from the World Wealth Report, published this week by Capgemini and RBC Wealth [...]
RAPID RESPONSES June 21, 2012 Modest proposals [Re: We need a flat tax with no loopholes to reduce avoidance, yesterday] There’s a strong argument for saying that, considering the incompetence of successive British governments in spending tax revenues, legally minimising tax contributions is actually the most ethical option for British taxpayers. Edward Fox The easiest and most effective way to [...]
Reform, not a bailout, will save Italy June 20, 2012 WITH Greece on life support from the European Union and Spain squirming in the financial vice grip of its insolvent banks, talk of an Italian bailout is nigh. Without a growing economy to generate wealth, Italy is having a hard time convincing current and prospective bondholders that it can pay its debts. But throwing money [...]
Obama is banking on Latino votes but the economy is the issue that unites June 20, 2012 THOSE expecting Barack Obama to provide a rousing campaign speech in Ohio were left disappointed. Instead, the President decided to make headlines the following day, issuing an executive order halting the deportation of illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria. It’s a move that may well have reinvigorated the President’s re-election prospects. Immigration is one of [...]