Khan’s mayoralty is an audition for Labour leader – but it’s at our expense February 21, 2022 Today was supposed to be an important day for the administration of London. The Crystal, the new home of City Hall in Newham, Royal Docks, was due to open and inaugurate a fresh chapter in our governance: a slimmed-down, more efficient headquarters for the mayor and the London Assembly in the east of the capital. [...]
A two-tiered debt capital bond market puts economic equality in the UK in peril February 21, 2022 The pledge to tackle economic inequality across the country is a central ambition of this government. What the financial industry can do in this process is a key question of our times. Finding an answer can help define the City’s legacy and the financial industry’s impact on broader society for generations to come. The City [...]
The fierce wind of Storm Eunice shows why we must not forget about climate change February 21, 2022 Storm Eunice hit on Friday, bringing disruption across the country and once again focusing minds on climate change and how it may impact our lives in the future. Scientists are often reluctant to blame specific weather events on climate change, but the Met Office predicts that in future the UK will see warmer and wetter [...]
Opinion-in-brief: The Building Safety Bill won’t land only on developers February 18, 2022 The government’s amendments to the Building Safety Bill are intended to place the costs of remediation entirely on developers and building owners. That may not be where the final bill lands, however. There will be an increase in disputes as developers and owners look, where possible, to recover these costs from contractors, sub-contractors and professional [...]
The spectre of entrenched inflation will soon hit loss-making start-ups hard February 18, 2022 Larry Summers was Treasury Secretary to Bill Clinton, Barack Obama’s Director of the National Economic Council, and President of Harvard University. When he offers an economic prediction, therefore, he is worth listening to. A recent one was sobering. Summers believes we are entering a period of “higher entrenched inflation”. Make no mistake: inflation is a [...]
We must end our dependency on Russia’s gas and embrace renewable opportunities February 18, 2022 Our energy bills are up by 54 per cent this year. It’s not just gas – the cost of fuel, food, and furniture is ticking up too. The Bank of England now expects inflation to surge past 7 per cent by the end of this year. That’s going to price many of us out of [...]
A second term for President Macron would be welcome news for the Euro area February 18, 2022 While President Macron has yet to officially say he will run for a second term, the announcement is expected any day now. The majority of opinion polls put him way out in front. He is followed by three candidates with not much separating them, including Valérie Pécresse, the candidate of the conservative Les Républicains party, [...]
Opinion-in-brief: Free Covid-19 tests enable personal responsibility February 17, 2022 Boris Johnson will announce his strategy to “live with Covid-19” next Monday, bringing an end to all restrictions in England. The provision of free rapid flow tests is also under review in a bid to save as much as £10bn. Johnson has put considerable effort into turning the Covid-19 strategy into a question of “personal [...]
Lazy parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan’s plight only help Putin and Xi February 17, 2022 Beijing is watching developments in Ukraine with an eager eye. It has key economic interests at stake and a shared goal with Russia in undermining Western soft power and liberal institutions. It also has an economic interest, with Russia relying on China to bail it out if the West does impose harsh economic sanctions. In [...]
Andrew Bailey fell asleep on inflation and now it is workers who will face the flames February 17, 2022 Is there a comfortable chaise longue in the office of Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England? I think we should be told. Because it has become apparent that the Bank has been asleep on the job. In the year to December 2021, consumer prices rose by 5.4 per cent. We have to go [...]