Letters: Festive cheer in short supply December 16, 2021 [Re:New virus rules pass, yesterday] For many small businesses, the run up to Christmas was to be the saving grace of 2021. Even before Omicron arrived, that just didn’t turn out to be the case, with supply chain issues, fuel and energy costs, finance costs and delays across sectors leading to a big mountain to [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Biden’s Beijing face off – just not with facial recognition December 16, 2021 US President Biden has put eight Chinese companies on an investment blacklist, meaning American investors are not allowed to take stakes in these businesses. Targeted companies include DJI, the biggest drone manufacturer globally, Yitu Technology, an artificial intelligence company, and CloudWalk Technology, working with facial recognition. The Biden administration believes their products are used by [...]
Behind the slippery slope mystery: intervention will always justify more December 16, 2021 I don’t think this is a big step or a slippery slope, Dominic Raab said on Tuesday when asked about the introduction of Covid-19 passes. This will come as news to the people of Italy, New Zealand and several other countries where normal life is now impossible without proof of two jabs. In Austria, the [...]
Precaution is a useful thing, but designing policy based on maybes is a dangerous road December 16, 2021 It is is so familiar, the script almost writes itself. Health professionals start to call for more restrictive measures at the slightest whiff of bad news. The government initially dismisses the concerns. Gradually, ministers – many of them almost wholly innumerate – are beaten into submission by projections of what might happen. If we were [...]
Sunak’s quietly simplified tax policy could unshackle our economy – or strangle it December 16, 2021 Tax Day hardly sounds like the kind of day we want to mark on the calendar. It is a relatively new practice, when the government dumps an array of tax consultations, reforms and policy proposals on the Treasury’s website, all in one go. Unsurprisingly, they mostly happen without fanfare. But they do offer us helpful [...]
Commons snapshot: Boris’ worst enemies were in plain sight December 15, 2021 As Boris Johnson faced down a mass rebellion on his backbenches last night, there was also a sting from within his own Cabinet. Health Secretary Sajid Javid drew a line in the sand, saying he would “never” support vaccine passports which do not also have an option for a negative lateral flow test. For those [...]
Keir Starmer’s anti-Brexit frontbench needs to banish their love of Brussels December 15, 2021 There’s at least one Christmas Party the Prime Minister will enjoy remembering. On December 12, 2019, Boris Johnson celebrated in style after wrapping himself in Brexit and securing an election landslide. It’s easy to forget now as the Prime Minister fights for his political life, but just two years ago he handed the Tories an [...]
Omicron Covid-19 pass fury sheds light on the hypocrisy of voter ID laws acquiescence December 15, 2021 With the surge of cases from the Omicron variant and the subsequent introduction of Plan B restrictions, how we monitor our identity – and crucially – our vaccine status, has sparked outrage from wings of the Conservative party. For many, vaccine passports are a sensible step to minimise infection risks at large events or venues. [...]
Check out 2021’s top ten most read articles in ICAS’ CA magazine December 15, 2021 | City Talk Read December/January’s CA magazine now Explore our top ten most read articles from this year’s CA magazine This past year has marked many milestones as the world has moved through another 12 months of the Covid pandemic, featuring large-scale but uneven access to vital vaccinations, the tentative reopening of economies and attempts to blend the [...]
Human rights are designed to be invisible but we must not take them for granted December 15, 2021 Human rights laws are a perennial bugbear of governments of all stripes for a reason – they limit what they can do in some areas and oblige them to act in others, regardless of party politics. But if you find yourself asking “What have human rights ever done for me?” it may be because human [...]