RAPID RESPONSES August 2, 2012 Many hues of Boris [Re: After calls for Boris Johnson to stand for the Tory leadership, could it happen before 2015?, yesterday] The Olympics has provided Boris with an opportunity to allow his exuberant personality to be let rip. There are even more stages to be centre of than normal, which suits the mayor’s longer-term [...]
How Olympic organisers can get shot of the West End ghost town August 1, 2012 WE’VE scared them off. Somewhere between Boris Johnson’s ominous ode to overcrowding, and TfL’s weird posters of diligent Londoners in their underwear, planning routes to work, the city’s attempts to keep moving during the Games have frightened droves of tourists into barely venturing out of the confines of the Olympic Park. If organisers don’t act [...]
Londoners may not love Romney but he is trying to woo American voters August 1, 2012 AGREAT deal of column space has been dedicated to Mitt Romney’s Olympic-sized faux pas this past week. Democrats have called Romney’s utterances over London’s preparedness for the Olympics “embarrassing” and have launched advertisements questioning his suitability to succeed Barack Obama. Will this impact November’s elections? One Republican strategist was blunt: “The London stuff? Voters don’t [...]
France’s Tobin Tax will make a little but damage a lot August 1, 2012 WHEN Napoleon Bonaparte’s regime executed an aristocrat on trumped-up charges of treason, stirring up bloody memories of the Revolution, his chief of police is said to have remarked that it was “worse than a crime; it was a blunder”. The same could be said of this week’s introduction of a Tobin Tax in France. The [...]
After calls for Boris Johnson to stand for the Tory leadership, could it happen before 2015? August 1, 2012 YES Tim Montgomerie Boris will become Tory leader before the next election if Conservative MPs conclude that they won’t keep their seats with David Cameron still in place. In such a circumstance, they’ll face a choice between almost certain political death and an almighty blonde-headed gamble. There are big practical obstacles to a Boris ascendancy [...]
RAPID RESPONSES August 1, 2012 Sporting nations [Re: Entrepreneurial nations win big in medal tables, yesterday] Stefania Lovo raises some interesting thoughts in her article, but the truth is more complicated. Why, for example, have some large nations not won more medals? The answer is linked to cultural characteristics of each particular nation. Many countries provide winning athletes because they [...]
Libor is fundamentally flawed and threatens London’s global position July 31, 2012 ONE OF the most famous security posters of the Second World War read “Loose Lips Sink Ships”. The idea was to curtail careless talk and prevent giving away information to the enemy. The Libor scandal has featured a different problem: too little careful talk. The basics of the scandal are well-known. The British Bankers’ Association [...]
A champagne prize for the worst Treasury team in modern British history July 31, 2012 AN ENJOYABLE way of spending a few relaxing holiday hours on the beach is to think about the best team that ever played a particular sport. It can be the team as a whole – for example, is the 2012 British Olympic gymnastic team better than its Russian equivalent in 1980? Or you can construct [...]
Entrepreneurial nations win big in medal tables July 31, 2012 IT’S THE question on everyone’s lips. Which country will walk away from London 2012 with the biggest medal haul? Economists are no different from the general public. Several have come up with innovative ways of predicting what it takes for a country to win more medals than its competitors. Goldman Sachs found that national income [...]
As London firms report low visitor numbers, is hope for an Olympic business boost dead? July 31, 2012 YES Nica Burns So London has a big hit – the Olympics. A brilliant show, with a cast of outstanding performers – drama, fulfilled and shattered dreams, laughter and tears. It’s a once in a lifetime and we’re riveted. We’re either going to see the events, or we’re watching them on a screen. We’ve listened [...]