Barclays’ high street U-turn exposes a divide in British banking April 8, 2026 Bank have ditched the high street over the last decade but is a comeback on the horizon? Samuel Norman explores the changes in this week’s column. In Westminster, the news cycle is never short of drama over U-turns. Subtle tweaks or direct bait-and-switches on policy are batted away by government spokespeople as mere “pivots” as [...]
Graduates are the canary in the coalmine for a failing welfare system April 7, 2026 The welfare state is a Ponzi scheme that’s dependent on an ever shrinking cohort of taxpayers, says Anne Strickland Discussion about student loan unfairness has dominated the headlines over the last month, after a freeze in the repayment thresholds led to a backlash about the student loan system in general. With fiscal drag pulling more [...]
On This Day in 1980: America severs diplomatic relations with Iran April 7, 2026 The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980, after the Ayatollah Khomeini refused to order the release of the American hostages who had been held at the US Embassy since the previous November, writes Eliot Wilson If you remember good relations between the United States and Iran, you are at least facing [...]
The madness of a state that spends more on welfare than it raises from income tax April 7, 2026 If it were possible to buy Happy New Tax Year cards you’d surely find them stocked in the ‘With Sympathy’ section. As of yesterday, the state has increased its demands on a host of taxpayers. Dividend tax is up two per cent for basic and higher rate taxpayers, with the latter now hit by a [...]
British business is using AI to survive, not grow April 7, 2026 British businesses cannot simply endure AI, they must find a way to positively embrace it, writes Adaora Geiger.
Lab-grown diamonds are an inflection point for luxury April 7, 2026 Lab-grown diamonds are chemically, physically, and optically identical to mined stones and they’re going to disrupt an entire industry, says Nathalie Morrison I spent much of my career in rooms where value was measured in basis points, not brilliance. As the youngest senior client partner at Coutts at 26, I advised clients on wealth management, [...]
Will this year’s university cohort be able to get a job? April 6, 2026 At a time when many university students are revising for their final exams, data from the Office for National Statistics highlights a sharp slowdown in entry-level hiring, leaving this year’s cohort facing growing uncertainty about what awaits them after graduation, says Rod Flavell With just three months to go before exams and the transition into [...]
Keir Starmer believes undoing Brexit will solve Britain’s problems – he’s wrong April 6, 2026 The only way Starmer can get everything he wants from a relationship “reset” with Brussels is by rejoining the EU, says Eliot Wilson This Wednesday is the anniversary of Britain and France signing the Entente cordiale in 1904. It was actually three separate agreements, ostensibly dealing with colonial boundaries and fishing rights, but in practice [...]
Declining patent filings show Britain has stopped innovating April 3, 2026 There are lots of ways to measure innovation, but if we go by patent filings, it's a sorry image for the UK, writes Ayushma Maharjan.
Crypto, international competitiveness and consistency: where the UK’s going wrong April 3, 2026 The UK’s ambition to be a global crypto hub is being undermined by the government’s decision to the exclude Crypto Exchange Traded Notes (cETNs) from Stocks and Shares ISAs, which risks the country’s international competitiveness and credibility as a predictable place to invest, says John Glen The UK’s ambition to be a global crypto hub [...]