Letters to the editor January 17, 2013 HMV revisited [Re: The rise and fall of HMV: Why great companies find it so hard to adapt, Wednesday] The demise of HMV is, of course, sad. I was its finance director between 1983 and 1987, and the growth in those days was stellar. Revenue grew fourfold, and profit growth was even higher. During that period, cassette [...]
Cameron’s Europe speech: A chance for the EU to boldly embrace the US January 16, 2013 IT’S hard to imagine expectations for David Cameron’s long-overdue Europe speech getting any lower. The smart money is already on him getting caught in the crossfire between supporters and opponents of Britain’s EU membership. But it needn’t be like that. A few months before the 2010 general election, the Conservatives published a policy paper called [...]
A modest proposal to improve professional standards in British banking January 16, 2013 LONDON can lay claim to be the world leader in many things. It has, for example, the world’s most popular music venue, in the O2 centre. It has the most visited modern art gallery on the planet, at Tate Modern. It is also the world’s legal capital. London rejoices in having many of the world’s [...]
Helicopter tragedy: Why disasters are so thankfully rare January 16, 2013 AFTER a helicopter clipped a crane and crashed into a busy Vauxhall road yesterday, killing two in tragic circumstances and injuring a further 12, it’s only right that we pause our busy lives for a moment, pay tribute to the superb work of London’s emergency services, and be thankful for the miracle that there weren’t [...]
Would other member states allow the UK to renegotiate the terms of its EU membership? January 16, 2013 YES Chris Heaton-Harris Though we should be mindful of charges of “blackmail”, the UK is in a strong position to renegotiate the terms of its EU membership. The Eurozone’s drive for more integration is changing the rules of the game, and requires changes to EU treaties, over which the UK has a veto. We are [...]
Letters to the editor January 16, 2013 The drugs debate [RE: Irrational drugs policies incentivise experimenting with the unknown, Tuesday] Julian Huppert’s suggestions are a good start to restoring sanity to the drugs debate. Perhaps we should also consider rethinking the dangerous dichotomy between our understanding of drugs suppliers and drugs users. The two are often the same. Adam Watts Continuing to fight [...]
The rise and fall of HMV: Why great companies find it so hard to adapt January 15, 2013 I FIRST started work on the HMV advertising account in 1982, little knowing that I would handle the business for over 25 years, and that my path would cross HMV’s during a golden period for the record retailer. I say record retailer because that’s what it sold back then in 1982 – records made of [...]
Bad news for pension reform – we’ll live far longer than ministers expect January 15, 2013 IN A democracy, it is always a risky business for politicians to tell the electorate things they do not want to hear. So Steve Webb, the pensions minister, must be congratulated. He told the truth about the retirement age. In a speech last week, he said bluntly: “If someone tells a 30 year old what [...]
Online shopping is masking the birth of hybrid retailers January 15, 2013 THE fall of yet another iconic British retailer, HMV, does little to assuage fears that the high street in its current form is in terminal decline. The statistics are bleak. According to a survey by PwC and the Local Data Company, 32 stores closed each day in July and August 2012. Over one gloomy five [...]
Will the European ruling on wearing religious symbols at work cause trouble for employers? January 15, 2013 YES Chris Fisher In contrast with the UK courts – which didn’t see the cross as a “requirement” of the Christian faith – the European Court has said that the way a belief is manifested only needs to be “intimately linked” to the belief. Once that is established, the employer will need to justify any [...]