Behind the story: Europe’s dance with a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics December 10, 2021 The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have all confirmed a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics. On Wednesday, Boris Johnson said the UK would “effectively” boycott the Beijing Games, causing dismay from some China hawks who see it as the PM dodging the question. France has said they will not boycott, [...]
Without securing our trust, public and private leaders will fail our economy December 10, 2021 As we head into winter, with the prospect of more restrictions at a time when trust seems to be in freefall, we have all been reflecting on how this is going to impact our communities and how we can use the opportunity to make the economy work better for all. The first few months of [...]
All of our cities are at risk this Christmas as they wrestle with Covid uncertainty again December 10, 2021 Boris Johnson has now confirmed our fears: Plan B will be brought in, and with it, more mask rules, Covid passports and work from home advice. It will undoubtedly have a monumental impact on businesses that rely on high footfall in city centres. December was supposed to be the month that saw many nightclubs, bars [...]
A diplomatic boycott of Beijing’s winter Olympics is a vote for a free Hong Kong December 10, 2021 The Olympic motto of ‘Faster, higher, stronger” is as famous as it is inspiring. The recent update from Pierre de Coubitin’s original iteration now includes “together”. It is in this renewed spirit that the UK must now stand together with the USA and other countries who are staging a full diplomatic boycott of the 2022 [...]
Opinion-in-brief: Reckoning with our online identity crisis December 9, 2021 Anyone can target other people anonymously and spread lies about them online – but as the law stands, very little can be done about it. Rampant hate speech and fake news allow conspiracy theories to flourish and online spaces become sowed with divisiveness. Absolute anonymity online is a key enabler: giving online users the ability [...]
Sunak’s tax policy is trying to straddle two worlds and failing on both fronts December 9, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak seems to be in the midst of an identity crisis. After taking drastic measures to put the public finances on a sustainable footing in the wake of the pandemic, by raising the tax burden, he now wants to present himself as a tax cutting Tory. The problem is, he can’t be both. [...]
The Brexit jury is still out as we fail to grasp the vision of freedom we were promised December 9, 2021 Since leaving the EU, there is no doubt that the UK has made impressive progress in signing Free Trade Agreements, including not only roll-overs of EU agreements like those with Canada and Turkey, but entirely new ones with Australia and New Zealand. The UK’s application to join the CPTPP mega-regional trade agreement is also well [...]
The stages of a Downing Street scandal: first comes anger, then disillusionment December 9, 2021 There is a weary exhaustion to the fall-out of the cheese and wine, secret santa filled Christmas party at Downing Street last year, while many of us were in Tier 3 lockdown. It arrived in a week when we should have been talking about the ghost children missing from our schools, the people who were [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Dialling down the temperature in Ukraine December 8, 2021 US President Joe Biden and Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin were on the phone yesterday about what on earth are Russian troops doing on Ukraine’s borders. There’s been bad blood between the two presidents, with Biden previously calling Putin a “killer”. The relationship between Russia and Ukraine has historically been complicated. Europe’s magnetic attraction is at [...]
Naughty or nice: Big Tech is eyeing up our kids for their Christmas wishlist December 8, 2021 Christmas is coming and the Amazon parcels are gathering in drifts of tech gifts around Christmas trees all over the world. This year, again, Christmas wishes are being realised online as we wonder nervously whether we might be able to visit family for Christmas or if new travel restrictions may thwart Santa’s plans too. Like [...]