OnlyFans: The ‘UK success story’ and online safety pioneer June 13, 2022 OnlyFans has a tendency to make headlines – and sometimes for the wrong reasons. Founded in the UK in 2016, the company has experienced momentous growth in the depths of lockdown, shifting from 17m fans to over 100m in 2020. In 2022, the platform boasts 200m fans, with over two million creators serving up content. [...]
The Conservative Party under Johnson has given up its devotion to freedom June 13, 2022 It was country music legend Toby Keith who observed that “Freedom don’t come free”. Nevertheless, when the Conservative Party adopted the Manchester liberalism of Margaret Thatcher nearly 50 years ago, it was willing to pay the price. Freedom, in all its forms, became a touchstone of the Conservative brand, pursued not only for its beneficial [...]
We won’t be able to create social impact until we learn how to measure its success June 13, 2022 Today, it is more common than before for younger people to think about the ethics of a business before they pull out their contactless cards. So the pressure is on for firms to show their positive impact on society – to attract customers and talent. Morgan Stanley reported recently that millennials are twice as likely [...]
The government’s corporate audits reforms are lukewarm at best, shallow at worst June 13, 2022 In late May, the government gave more detail on how it plans to reform big corporate audits. Inappropriate audits have contributed to several significant corporate failures – including that of the late construction giant Carillion in 2018. The government has acknowledged this, producing a report which has since been the focus of a consultation. The [...]
Letters: The pitfalls of Right to Buy June 13, 2022 [Re: Johnson unveils series of housing reforms to increase home ownership, June 9] Boris Johnson announced new policies to support home ownership on Thursday including a Right to Buy (RTB) scheme enabling housing association tenants to purchase their home. I strongly agree that it is wrong that so many households are precluded from the benefits [...]
Opinion-in-brief: Right-to-Buy is a headline-grabbing policy for the few June 10, 2022 “We will back the British people for as long as it takes”, said Boris Johnson yesterday in a speech to try and restore some confidence in his government. The prime minister plans to do that first through housing reforms – a mortgage review, and the reintroduction of the Right to Buy. With the latter, tenants [...]
Crime in our capital city will stay high unless confidence in the Met is restored June 10, 2022 London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan warned this week that the cost-of-living crisis may lead to an increase in violent crime in the capital. Policing – like every other twenty-first century public service – is replete with numbers that measure performance. The number of police officers working on the frontline; how long it takes for the police [...]
The Oat Wars teach us that successful businesses choose cooperation over rivalry June 10, 2022 The feud between the David and Goliath of vegan oat-based products continued when last month Glebe Farm, the British independent, family-run business that grows gluten-free oats, unveiled a billboard campaign at London Victoria station to promote a major rebrand across its entire product range. One of the straplines read, “Oatly sued us. We won. Because [...]
Andrew Bailey’s confusion over inflation is a worrisome precedent for policy-making June 10, 2022 The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet again next week to assess inflation. In the last two years the Bank’s inflation forecast has proven systematically wrong, showing a fundamental error in the models and rationale used. In a conference hosted by the Austrian national central bank last month, the Governor of the [...]
Letters: Taking care of customers June 10, 2022 [Re: No more Netflix and chill: Consumers cancel subscriptions and miss out on meals out amid historic inflation, June 7] In a week with an avalanche of new retail data, it is easy to miss the big picture. The BRC data has a clear message: online is here to stay. Hasty predictions that online would [...]