As we cut Russia off from our markets, we must also crack down on Western enablers May 20, 2022 During the nearly four year investigations into Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 US elections, it became glaringly obvious the extent to which malign campaigns from Russia are in fact enabled by actors in the West. Bipartisan staff on the Senate Select Committee responsible for the inquiry became increasingly jaded by the depth of [...]
Letters: Musk’s bot-tled Twitter takeover May 20, 2022 [Re: Musk says $44bn mega takeover of Twitter is ‘on hold’, May 14] Musk, now unsure the $44bn Twitter takeover is worthy based on the number of bots plaguing the platform, has started the debate on how tech platforms can better verify digital identity. It’s not an issue that can ever be in the hands [...]
From calorie counts to meal deals, Boris Johnson can’t make up his mind May 19, 2022 When American political activist Ralph Nader famously called McDonald’s double cheeseburger “a weapon of mass destruction” he was on to something. On this side of the pond too, decades of unhealthy fast – and fat – food eating have left a mark. Around 63 per cent of adults in England are either overweight or obese. [...]
Bad at maths? The cost of Britain’s poor numeracy skills is no laughing matter May 19, 2022 Our nation’s poor report card for numeracy skills has been a longstanding challenge, and the current cost-of-living crisis is making that even more apparent. We all use numbers to navigate day-to-day life – from understanding interest rates to working out value for money while shopping. Nearly half of the UK’s working population has the numeracy [...]
Letters: Small businesses will hurt first May 19, 2022 [Re: Banks across the UK are ‘pulling the drawbridge’ as lending to small businesses hits all-time low, May 16] The fact that successful applications for finance amongst small firms have plunged to their lowest level since records began – while lending to large corporates has increased significantly since the start of the year – highlights [...]
Britain is right to step in as the EU drags its feet on a Northern Ireland concession May 19, 2022 Northern Ireland was never going to be easy. From the genesis of talks about the border in 2017, through to the “backstop to the backstop” agreed by Theresa May, to the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, its evolution was complex and technical. The Protocol effectively places Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market and customs union [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Where the world was the last time inflation was this high May 19, 2022 Yesterday the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that UK inflation had hit 9 per cent, reaching the highest level since 1982. This year we have slowly emerged from the pandemic, witnessed the Kremlin’s ongoing war in Ukraine, and we’re facing a dire cost of living crisis. But what was going on last time that [...]
Fintech and the accountancy profession May 19, 2022 The union of finance and technology as fintech has become pervasive, transforming how financial services are delivered and consumed. It’s a thriving sector with many diverse parts such as online-only or neobanks, peer-to-peer lending, payment gateways / application programming interfaces (APIs), investment banking back-end infrastructure, insurtech, wealthtech and regtech. And that’s before considering some frontier [...]
Sajid Javid needs real bravery to even begin to confront NHS inefficiency May 18, 2022 A few years back a No10 aide rang me at The Sun to offer an exclusive: Theresa May’s team had decided to save Frosties’ icon “Tony the Tiger”. It was sold-in as a big victory against nanny state campaigners who wanted cartoon inducements wiped off the face of the earth to tackle childhood obesity. Unfortunately [...]