Dorries’ laws for Big Tech have become overrun trying to keep everyone happy March 17, 2022 Today marks the introduction of the Online Safety Bill: a “world-first” for online safety, but a behemoth bill of confusion. Variations of today’s bill have been bounced around since David Cameron, drawing media attention and public uncertainty, and ultimately landing in the hands of reality TV personality turned politician Nadine Dorries. As it stands today, [...]
Behind-the-story: Nazanin’s liberation from Iran after six long years March 17, 2022 Yesterday, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was finally allowed to return to the UK and reunite with her family after almost six years of detention in Iran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on holiday in Iran visiting her parents when she was arrested for “plotting against the government.” Another British-Iranian, Anoosheh Ashoori, was also released after being arrested in 2017. Both [...]
London’s startup community is thriving off of the full scale of investors’ tolerance for risk March 17, 2022 Last month London celebrated yet another fintech triumph. PrimaryBid, a young company that provides retail investors with fair access to public markets, secured an impressive $190m of venture funding. The size of this Series C financing round, and the involvement of internationally renowned investors provided yet more validation that world-beating start-ups are increasingly being created [...]
Sky’s video application recruiting gimmick is a dangerous step to discrimination March 17, 2022 This week, Sky excitedly announced that it was bringing in “video applications” for people applying for jobs in its back-of-house marketing team. No more CVs, but instead the submission of a two minute video where candidates explain why they want to work on the team and what they do for fun. When I read this [...]
A lot can happen in two years, just ask Governor Bailey March 16, 2022 A lot can happen in two years. Countries can go through the worst of a global pandemic and (hopefully) come out the other side. Policymakers can win plaudits and crash and burn. Nations can go to war. Governors of monetary authorities can oversee the largest level of central bank intervention in markets ever. That is [...]
Interview: Former rate setter Andrew Sentance on Governor Bailey’s ‘off the cuff’ remarks and where the BoE went wrong March 16, 2022 It is often a mark of how dire an economy’s situation is when incremental rises in interest rates hit the front pages. The worst cost of living crunch in a generation has, however, sent the Bank of England to the front of many households’ minds. Those outside of the City care less about the vagaries [...]
Explainer-in-brief: A Net Zero torpedo in a fresh energy policy March 16, 2022 The government’s energy strategy has been postponed for another week. Boris Johnson has been forced to rethink his approach to net zero, as the urgency of moving away from Russian gas has changed cards on the table. Johnson will pay a visit to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf this week to try and convince regional [...]
Letters: Russia inaction on Boris’ watch March 16, 2022 [Re: We mut not put ourselves into turmoil for a short-lived upper hand on Russia, March 14] I completely agree with Eliot Wilson’s piece on Monday that we must not hurt ourselves in our bid to look like we have a handle on the situation in Ukraine. The truth is we have forgone a serious policy [...]
Relaxed subsidies rules are a free rein to pick winners without transparency March 16, 2022 Not too long ago the thorniest issue in the United Kingdom’s relationship with Europe was about the “level playing field” and “state aid”. It may seem crazy in retrospect, but there was a serious prospect in late 2020 that the UK would sacrifice a trade deal with our closest neighbour to be freer to subsidise [...]
A renewed focus on defence spending could turbocharge Britain’s scientific innovation March 16, 2022 Germany, along with most of the rest of the EU, has finally woken up to the folly of relying on other countries – mainly the US but also the UK – to defend them. At the end of last month, Chancellor Olaf Schulz announced that €100bn will be put into a new defence procurement fund. [...]