Letters: 2008, for crypto November 28, 2022 [Re: FTX implosion shows urgent need for crypto rules, says Bank of England, Nov 21] The sudden interest by global regulators in response to the FTX fiasco only serves to further highlight that the events of the past few weeks might well be looked back on as our industry’s version of the Lehman collapse. Just [...]
Saturday Sitdown: ‘Private equity keep everything simple’, says City M&A chief November 26, 2022 It’s no surprise that economic turmoil often drives consolidation. Companies may be struggling to survive and looking to M&A as a way to drive value. Not to mention the current weak pound that makes UK-based businesses, especially those with a global footprint, more attractive to overseas buyers. According to recent ONS data, Q2 this year saw [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Tory row puts help for social housing on hold November 25, 2022 This week, the government pulled a vote on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to avoid an internal rift with Tory rebel MPs. The point of contention? The idea of top-down housing targets to be decided by central government. A total of 50 Conservative MPs have signed an amendment to the bill which would have [...]
Our climate guilt is a weapon for fraudsters promising to help us help the environment November 25, 2022 Fraud moves with the times. This summer we experienced more sweltering heatwaves and droughts. Coupled with this month’s Cop27, climate change is again a regular feature in our daily news intake. While others saw a rise in phishing attempts and cost-of-living based scams, we’ve seen climate fraud cases grow exponentially, now involving millions of pounds [...]
Top down targets won’t resolve regional divides as inflation shrinks spending November 25, 2022 For both parties, one of the challenges they face is that in truth many of us in the North have never fully understood exactly what what levelling up means.
Letters: Reading into the data of AI November 25, 2022 [Re: UK set to become next AI superpower says new report, Nov 23] Amidst the hype about the UK as the “next AI superpower”, the WPI Economics Report should be seen as a much bigger call to action to improve how the UK public sector approaches data. Having enhanced AI capabilities is all very well [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Housing is the new Europe in the Conservative Party November 24, 2022 It was ardent Brexiteers who rumbled up enough angst to secure a referendum. But will pro-housing Conservatives have enough heft to stare down the Tory big wigs rebelling against housebuilding targets and planning reforms? Priti Patel, the former Home Sec, Damien Green, former deputy PM to Theresa May and Iain Duncan Smith, the ex-Tory leader, are [...]
It could be said the EU was never going to offer Britain a Switzerland-style deal November 24, 2022 It is often said that Britain is a nation divided by our relationship with Europe, but British people are in fact united in their disinterest as to how the European Union works. To most it will always come across as a byzantine mixture of commissions, councils, and competencies presided over by a rather grey cadre [...]
Royal Mail strikes will crush retail and small businesses when we need them to grow November 24, 2022 The UK boasts one of the world’s most sophisticated ecommerce economies, with small businesses thriving by scaling up their retail operations online. But more than four decades on from the Winter of Discontent, industrial action risks destabilising this flourishing online economy. We understand the challenges that workers are facing during these unprecedented times, with higher [...]
Black Friday will have a black mark to its name if it ignores the climate question November 24, 2022 If you are walking past a colleague’s desk tomorrow, and their screen is full, not of the task due yesterday, but of Black Friday sales, they are one of the 76 per cent of customers hunting for discount deals. For some, the day of mega sales can be traced back to a Wall Street stock [...]