Maintaining the City’s strength is in the interests of the whole economy April 22, 2012 AS I WRITE this, I am in Cyprus in advance of the Cypriot Presidency of the EU, meeting business and political leaders to set out the crucial importance of the City of London and the financial services industry in creating jobs and growth right across the European Union. The City of London remains the world’s [...]
Should government make internet service providers do more to restrict adult content? April 22, 2012 YES Claire Perry I chaired a cross-party group of MPs that this week concluded that ISPs need to do more to keep children safe online and that an industry-led opt-in system for adult content would protect choice while improving safety. For years we have known that people are concerned about what children see online and [...]
RAPID responses April 22, 2012 Not so negative [Re: Hedgies march out of Mayfair as property costs bite, Tuesday] It’s worth noting that, due to the long lease terms and notice periods associated with conventional office leases, many hedge funds probably decided to leave over a year ago. We own and operate 17 serviced office buildings in the West End. [...]
As France goes to the polls its love for London grows April 20, 2012 WALKING around South Kensington, you may have a feeling of being lost in Paris’s Latin Quarter. There are French cafés, bistros, book stores; you may even come across the Lycée Français, the established hub of the French community. The French are in London en masse and have made some parts of the capital their own [...]
Despite the Abu Qatada fiasco this was a good week for human rights April 19, 2012 DIPLOMATS have just struck an important deal at the Council of Europe conference on reforming human rights, but the implications have been overshadowed by the ongoing farce around attempts to deport the Islamist radical Abu Qatada. A further appeal lodged by Qatada’s legal team at the 11th hour now looks set to delay his removal [...]
A lesson from the age of the dinosaurs: Big isn’t beautiful in the long run April 19, 2012 Asteroids happen, and being big won’t save you. In our current world of apocalyptic economic threats, that’s a lesson that seems worth re-learning. The latest version comes in a fascinating study of the fate of the dinosaurs from the University of Zurich and the Zoological Society of London. The paper’s abstract explains that the study [...]
After City A.M. exposed Ken Livingstone for using private healthcare, is he a hypocrite? April 19, 2012 YES Priti Patel Using private healthcare is just another example of how Ken Livingstone says one thing and does another. We already know that he dubbed tax avoiders as “rich bastards”, only for it to emerge that he had been funnelling his income through a company to avoid paying income tax. And while in City [...]
RAPID RESPONSES April 19, 2012 Gas warning [Re: There’s a real danger that fracking will cause a major boom, Wednesday] This article makes some assertions on the implications of shale gas extraction in the UK – first the conclusion that shale gas would be a blow to the renewable energy industry and second that shale is cheap and abundant. In [...]
Five reasons inflation needs to be stopped before the bubble bursts April 18, 2012 THE Treasury Select Committee hit the nail on the head yesterday, when it pointed out that savers and pensioners are suffering as a result of the Bank of England’s low interest rates and quantitative easing. Disappointingly, the Committee urged the government to compensate pensioners for their losses, rather than to attack the root cause: the [...]
Who is Mitt Romney? Obama’s bid to define his opponent risks backfiring April 18, 2012 AND so it begins – the presidential election in earnest. Welcome to the next seven months of frivolous finger pointing, robo-calls, and daily polls. “Even now we have pundits on cable news telling us about the importance of the polls,” remarked one Republican strategist. “They’re lying.” For President Barack Obama and former governor Mitt Romney, [...]