Letters: Inflation puts us back on the brink April 14, 2022 [Re: Inflation reaches 7 per cent as Brits fear cost of living crisis, April 13] The fact that inflation has reached a thirty-year high is a reminder of the huge disparity between the needs of businesses facing financial difficulties and the lack of support from the Government in addressing these challenges. Britain has not seen [...]
How accountancy can help advance the global economies of tomorrow April 14, 2022 Society’s expectations of business and governments have shifted with speed and intensity. This has been driven by the profound impacts of Covid-19, compounded by deeply alarming threats to peace and prosperity from the war in Ukraine and conflict elsewhere. The humanitarian cost is devastating, while economic growth, public debt and wellbeing have all been adversely [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Safety in numbers lures Nordics to Nato April 14, 2022 Finland’s Prime Minister said yesterday the country would decide “within weeks, not months” if the nation would apply for Nato membership. Sweden is expected to follow swiftly as the war in Ukraine forces the Nordics to look at their allies. In Finland, a margin of six to one voters backed membership of the defensive alliance. [...]
Musk’s anarchic vision won’t help Twitter but a subscription model might April 14, 2022 In late January, an unknown investor began quietly building a stake in Twitter. A little over two months later, Elon Musk breached the surface. On April 4th, he revealed a 9.2 per cent stake. Though two days later an official filing corrected that to 9.1 per cent, Musk has become Twitter’s largest shareholder. Poor arithmetic [...]
Gove has signed a cladding deal – but it could kickstart a fight over affordable homes April 14, 2022 Political tensions enmeshed in the cladding crisis have raised their ugly heads again this week, as developers have come out and argued they won’t be able to build enough affordable homes if they’re made to pay even more for cladding remediation. Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has secured his first real win, with a deal [...]
If the FCA stays stuck in the past, London will lose capital to European competitors April 14, 2022 Sometimes, when things are not working fully, you have to start from the beginning. Perhaps it was this rationale driving Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, when he made several promises in the regulator’s “three year strategy” almost identical to those made by George Osborne in 2011 when the body was set [...]
Letters: New rules for a new age? April 13, 2022 [Re: Police training documents suggest the force are unequipped to investigate Big Tech, 11 April] Matthew Lesh’s comment that the Online Safety Bill is “draconian”, and the government’s focus on it means it is “failing to educate and resource the police to tackle real crime”, fails to acknowledge the crux of the bill and what [...]
Behind-the-story: A British volunteer soldier turned twitter persona April 13, 2022 The war in Ukraine has been fought on two fronts: on land against Russian troops – and on social media. Aiden Aslin, a British national fighting with the Ukrainian forces, personified these simultaneous struggles. The former care worker from Newark, in Nottinghamshire, was engaged in the very real fight against Russian troops. But was also [...]
Rishi Sunak’s weak stomach for a scandal could spell the end for Johnson April 13, 2022 When Boris Johnson catapulted a young upstart from Treasury minister to Chancellor of the Exchequer, he likely envisaged Rishi Sunak would be pliable and amenable to his insatiable desire for spending rather than the thin-skinned thorn in his side.
Scandals within the NHS have finally made us question the angelic halo of our doctors April 13, 2022 Much of the narrative around the health service over the past few years has depicted nurses as angels and doctors as living saints. Soap operas are helpful purveyors of this narrative. Perhaps the most famous is George Clooney as the charismatic Dr Ross in the long running American medical drama ER. Dr Ross, despite the [...]