Letters: Next episode might be better? April 21, 2022 [Re: Netflix shares tumble as streaming giant loses 200k subscribers, yesterday] Quelle surprise, as the French would say. After years of being trapped at home having little else to do except watch TV, people have started to cancel their subscriptions for Netflix. If the streaming giant wasn’t prepared for this moment, then they really were [...]
Has British politics finally become a meme? April 21, 2022 Is an Islington suit an Islington suit if it was bought in Camden? Does Keir Starmer have more “posh north London” vibes than Jeremy Corbyn? After all his time in politics was “a tiny brain” the best slur Boris Johnson could come up with for the Leader of the Opposition? Yesterday’s PMQs was an old-school brand of entertainment.
Our judicial system is failing as courts and the profession lose their lustre April 21, 2022 As we finally emerge from the worst of the pandemic, things like the Nightingale Courts might be a fading memory. Much like the Nightingale Hospitals, they were set up to deal with urgent cases and individuals who couldn’t have their needs addressed remotely. In the case of the courts, they were a genuine commitment to [...]
London could be revolutionised with an Oyster-card system for drivers in the capital April 21, 2022 Not since the advent of the motorcar a century ago have London’s roads undergone such rapid change. Some of this is driven by technology – electric cars, e-bikes, e-scooters – and some by policy changes to tackle the city’s carbon emissions.The latest is the Mayor of London plan to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone [...]
Time to talk about the price of milk: artisan cheese could save our dairy industry April 21, 2022 Milk has always held a curious place in the political psyche. It has long been used as a measure of affordability of everyday goods – and our leaders’ understanding of the challenges facing many Britons. As inflation, pressures on transport and the war in Ukraine have triggered a spike in prices, the price of milk [...]
Balancing the budget won’t win voters hooked on Sunak’s years of spending April 20, 2022 On a balmy September day eight years ago, Ed Miliband strode onto the stage at Labour Party Conference and proceeded to deliver a marathon 66-minute speech without notes. Unfortunately for the then Labour leader, he managed to forget a key chunk of his prepared remarks – the bit about tackling the deficit. Cue glee from [...]
Our high streets need a new lease of life but forced auctions could be fraught with uncertainty April 20, 2022 This week, the government unveiled plans to revitalise high streets up and down the country. Under the new policy – which will only be revealed in full during the Queen’s Speech next month – landlords will be forced to rent out shops that have been vacant for more than six months. The aim is to [...]
Letters: Stop paying out without result April 20, 2022 [Re: Deloitte wins £9m contract with government, April 12] Last week, Deloitte won a new £9m contract with the government, having previously won a £4.8m deal, for work on One Login – a type of digital identity system for across government services. Currently, around half of the 370 different services on gov.uk have their own [...]
Explainer-in-brief: a social tariff to keep the heating on April 20, 2022 Energy bosses yesterday called for a social tariff to try and ease pressures on those hit hardest by the spike in energy prices. Such a plan would require the government to implement legislation for a tariff below the Ofgem price cap – which is subject to variability in energy prices. It would require each provider [...]
It’s time to salvage rational thought when we look at immigration plans for refugees April 20, 2022 Priti Patel’s proposals to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda has sent the usual suspects into a veritable lather. Not since the peak days of the pandemic, have we seen such a number of people indulge in virtue-signalling. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury has joined in, cornering the headlines on Easter Sunday. He seems to have [...]