This incompetent handling of a media storm is a bad look for the Tories March 14, 2024 Distracted as they are from governing, the Conservatives have got themselves into yet another unholy mess over their now “controversial” donor Frank Hester. A story that should have been over in the space of a news cycle has now dragged on for days thanks to a strange combination of bad media management and an unwillingness [...]
Worst corporate jargon of the week: Deck March 14, 2024 The deck. Is it a boat? Is it a game? No, it's corporate jargon, and we're checkerboard fading it, and the shame of making Powerpoint presentations for a living, out of our lives.
How community groups are making the city greener March 13, 2024 London has amazing parks, but community gardens are just as important for recreation, wellbeing and climate resilience. Rebecca Dillon-Robinson explains how you can get involved… Green spaces in the City benefit us in a myriad of ways. It would be tempting to call them priceless. But in fact their benefits have been quantified. A City [...]
Will it work? VAT cuts for small businesses March 13, 2024 Where Sam Fowles strips the politics from policies and asks if they solve the problem they’re supposed to. Today, raising the VAT threshold.
Tories should get back to the real world – just not the one Lee Anderson lives in March 13, 2024 Far from reflecting ‘the real world’, the Anderson extended universe is as full of artifice as anything else in politics, says Alys Denby Lee Anderson’s show on GB News is called The Real World, yet behind the scenes it’s anything but. The show is broadcast on a Friday evening and set up to give viewers [...]
Targeting non-doms was a cheap hit the Chancellor will regret March 13, 2024 The ultra-wealthy may be an easy target, but the government is sending a signal that playing politics matters more to them than securing investment, says James Price he temptation to play politics is often an irresistible one around fiscal events, and with the twin straitjackets of the Office for Budget Responsibility and a looming election, [...]
A trade deal with Texas: The UK can learn from the Lone Star State March 13, 2024 There are three ways to look at the trade “co-operation” agreement which will be signed today between the UK and the great state of Texas. The first is as a largely pointless press release, a damning indictment of pre-Brexit promises of an all-singing, all-dancing trade deal with the entire United States, not just a particularly [...]
If you think crime is bad in London, visit a deprived small town March 12, 2024 While focus is rightly on Sadiq Khan’s appalling crime record in the capital, what is too often missed is why the public feel unsafe outside Britain’s big cities, says Adam Hawksbee The police station in Eston, a small town near Middlesbrough, is closed to the public. But there are still a few posters on the [...]
Vandals who attack our heritage must be prepared to face the consequences March 12, 2024 Defacing a portrait of a former Prime Minister, as pro-Palestine activists did last week, is an attack on democracy itself, argues Bella Wallersteiner When a protestor drenched a portrait of former Prime Minister Lord Balfour in red paint and slashed it to pieces she didn’t just attack a work of art, she assaulted democracy itself. [...]
It’s now up to the City and the regulator to keep a close eye on crypto mania March 12, 2024 Much like watching somebody stand too close to the edge of a rooftop can bring on the heebie-jeebies, the City’s institutions giving a guarded welcome to more crypto-backed vehicles can also leave an observer a little nervy. It is not that long ago that we were in the ‘crypto winter,’ watching token prices crash and [...]