Editorial: Time to knock heads together until planes can fly at full capacity August 3, 2022 Imagine if the London Olympics were being hosted next week: the stadium would have been a shadow of itself with ticket-holders still stuck on the tarmac.
Online safety laws are nonsensical as long as we water down human rights August 3, 2022 In the context of a tumultuous political landscape, the Online Safety Bill, designed to regulate tech giants, fell off the agenda as a result of a “lack of Parliamentary time”. Under a Liz Truss premiership, it would be brought back. Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary has said it will make the UK “the safest place [...]
Britain’s waistline won’t be slimmed by sugar taxes – they could even make it worse August 3, 2022 Britain has an obesity problem – and it’s getting worse. According to a report from the King’s Fund think tank, the proportion of obesity in deprived areas is 37 per cent, up from 32 per cent three years ago. Theresa May’s government tried to curb obesity with the “soft drinks industry levy” in 2018 – [...]
FCA rules could strip people of the choice to take a risk August 3, 2022 Since the early 2000s, the Financial Conduct Authority has been pushing hard on its “treating customers fairly” agenda. The principles behind the new consumer duty, telling retail firms to give customers a “good outcome”, are not entirely original. But the burden put on financial services firms to be proactive in the execution of that duty [...]
Letters: An Israeli flavour of tech success August 3, 2022 [Re: UK in talks with Israel for post-Brexit trade deal as £34bn contract up for grabs, July 20] A new trade deal between Britain and Israel, focusing on the enormous potential in the latter’s services industry, will augment the UK’s booming tech scene through competition. The Israeli tech ecosystem, with over 6,000 active start-ups, is [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Breaking the Odessa deadlock August 2, 2022 Yesterday the first container ship filled with grain left Ukraine after months of impasse. It was a huge breakthrough, enabled by a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. The cargo ship was loaded with 26,000 tonnes of corn. It left Odessa, a Black Sea port that’s been blocked since the beginning of the [...]
Editorial: The next prime minister must put an end to our U-turn habit August 2, 2022 Rishi Sunak has promised to cut income tax to 16p in the next seven years after calling Liz Truss' plans to slash the tax burden were a "fairytale"
Even as we turn inwards to shore up security, globalisation is still alive August 2, 2022 Ten years ago, it would have been hard to imagine an end to the all-conquering forces of globalisation. Our world has been on a one-way ticket to integration since the mid-20th century – and it has shown little sign of return. Yet with the dual shocks of Covid-19 and the invasion of Ukraine revealing the [...]
We need to encourage home ownership, but Londoners can barely afford to rent August 2, 2022 IT COMES down to simple supply and demand economics. When a good or service becomes scarce and demand is in the ascendency, the price will go up. Tenants in the London rental market have found this out the hard way. It has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which held city rents lower than they should have [...]
Ditching net zero is a colossal act of self-harm for our economy and global vision August 2, 2022 Amidst the politicking that inevitably surrounds any leadership race, a handful of Conservative MPs have demanded a review of our commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. These calls betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the wider benefits of decarbonisation to UK interests and the global momentum towards net zero. More than 130 [...]