Time to invest in infrastructure we actually need February 19, 2012 IT MAY be winter and pretty rainy but now is the time to start thinking about this summer’s inevitable water shortages in southeast England. For years, the government’s strategy has been to ration water. Yet in parts of the UK it rains almost every other day all year long. The wet regions are economically deprived; [...]
The City can help build bridges to Gulf states February 19, 2012 AT A time when political tensions are running high in Syria, Iran and parts of the Gulf now might not seem like the best time to be leading a senior City business delegation to the region. Business confidence relies on a stable environment but despite the current uncertainty there remain huge two-way opportunities for closer [...]
RAPID RESPONSES February 19, 2012 Vive la difference [Re: Marc Sidwell’s column, Licensing the press – it’s just not very British, last Friday] The title of Sidwell’s column was apt. We only need to look across the channel to see the difference between Napoleonic prescriptive freedoms and British liberty. The French law of 29 July 1881 purports to guarantee freedom [...]
Ireland is plagued with debt it cannot repay and remains exposed to euro contagion February 16, 2012 FOR many, Ireland is the poster boy for how to deal with a banking crisis. I disagree. Lauded by European governments for its quick decisive actions, Ireland effectively contributed to bailing out the entire European banking system and, in doing so, has left a legacy of bankruptcy that puts huge financial pressure on its citizens [...]
We need better communication, not extra rules February 16, 2012 BRITAIN’S comply-or-explain system of corporate governance has come in for some stick in Brussels since the banking crisis. Sometimes dubbed self-regulation, it is seen as unreliable, and a number of senior officials have indicated their preference for codes to be replaced by more prescriptive regulation. Yet the facts tell a different story. Systematic research by [...]
Licensing journalists – it’s just not very British February 16, 2012 OUR national poets understood how much freedom matters. Milton! you should be living at this hour: England has need of you – William Wordsworth sighed at the dawn of the nineteenth century. In the second decade of the twenty-first, when British journalists are rounded up by the police in dawn raids and both a senior [...]
RAPID RESPONSES February 16, 2012 Debt is soaring [Re: The real reasons why the UK is in trouble, Wednesday] Government spending has exceeded income for most years post WWII. There is a cycle which goes from growth, when tax receipts eventually catch up with spending, almost immediately followed by recession, when deficits return. The busts have been getting ever bigger [...]
The real story on high pay – how manipulated statistics misled the national debate February 15, 2012 IT’S much more satisfying shopping the heads of our major corporations than providing unbiased facts about what’s really happening. Now an independent High Pay Centre promises to deliver the “high quality research that this area of debate badly needs”. Deborah Hargreaves, its director, may find that challenging. When chairing the High Pay Commission in 2011 [...]
I’m not waiting for graduation to find recruits February 15, 2012 YESTERDAY’S unemployment figures show that over 1m 16-24 year olds are still unemployed. With university fees rising and continued uncertainty in the global economy, how are we going to be able to help our young people enter the workforce and begin their careers in meaningful roles? I believe there is a simple solution companies can [...]
Santorum’s surge will be tested by past sins February 15, 2012 EXACTLY a year ago, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels called on Republicans running in 2012 to agree to a truce on social issues and focus instead on the economy. Daniels earned some criticism for this plea, but one voice in particular was vocal in its dissent. For Rick Santorum, social and economic issues are one and [...]