The rock, paper, scissors of ESG: when social missions clash with corporate governance August 24, 2021 In ESG terms, Ben & Jerry’s decision not to renew the contract of its Israeli licensee was described by the company as an “S” decision. The irony is that its “social mission” is likely to prompt a heavy-hitting response by investors in its parent, Unilever, on governance, or “G”, grounds. It has been widely reported that investors subject [...]
Journey to Net Zero: Green infrastructure will be the next big thing for tech investors August 23, 2021 If we’re going to hit net zero, we need a huge change to our energy infrastructure in a very short amount of time. This is needed to help us overcome challenges like how to store renewable energy, solve grid intermittency, and electrify our heating supply. The build out of new renewable energy infrastructure is happening, [...]
Leaders are entitled to holidays but Dominic Raab’s Crete vacation was a dereliction of duty August 23, 2021 Last week Foreign Secreatry, Dominic Raab was harangued from all sides because he was on holiday and either uncontactable or unwilling to disrupt his respite to make a telephone call to a minister in Kabul. The question of whether or not a conversation between Raab and his Afghan counterpart, Mohammad Hanif Atmar would have made [...]
Global Britain must pivot towards Asia but it must also ensure polluting countries take climate change seriously August 23, 2021 If the Government’s Global Britain vision is to be a success, the UK must strengthen ties with the most populous continent in the world: Asia. An agreement to boost cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – ten member countries in the Indo-Pacific, home to nearly 10 percent of the world’s population – [...]
Action Fraud was fruitless agency – its downfall should teach us the perils of letting skulduggery go unpunished August 21, 2021 At the end of July, the Government announced it would scrap Action Fraud, the national gateway for triaging and allocating fraud complaints for police investigation. The decision is long overdue. Official reports criticising Action Fraud’s performance have been practically an annual event. The repeated criticism was that Action Fraud was a toothless crime-recording body – a [...]
Weekend Read: Ailing business investment will dampen the economy’s post-Covid prospects August 21, 2021 The good pandemic-related news continued to emerge last week. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics shows output jumped 4.8 per cent in the second quarter of this year, driven by the lifting of Covid restrictions on sectors that rely on face-to-face and social contact to generate income. The services industry – which accounts [...]
Sadiq Khan’s £15 congestion charge is preventing London’s bounce back from the pandemic August 20, 2021 There is rarely such a thing as a temporary regulation or tax, even those instituted in response to an emergency. Politicians enjoy the power to regulate and even more the receipt of taxes. But regulation and taxes are the enemy of innovation and business, especially small businesses. The damage they do can take years to correct. [...]
The British Virgin Islands and the UK: A modern partnership is one of equals August 20, 2021 With a thriving financial services sector and a safe and reliable place to do business, the British Virgin Islands is important not only as one of the UK’s Overseas Territories but as a partner to the City of London. Under the BVI constitution, responsibilities are shared between the elected Government, led by me as premier, [...]
Britain 2030: Writing off the high street is unambitious; its future is bespoke, local and community-driven August 20, 2021 After years of decline, the Covid-19 pandemic further hammered the high street, leading to boarded up shops and mass job losses, and some to declare the high street “dead”. But writing off the high street could prove to be unambitious, as, with the help of local government and private stakeholders, the post-pandemic high street could [...]
China’s cover up of Covid exposes a rotten regime built on deceit August 19, 2021 Too often, conspiracy theories rest on the erroneous assumption that our enemies are both highly evil and highly competent. Most of the time, the opposite is true. The description of Watergate in the peerless thriller All the President’s Men, offers us a more accurate picture: “Forget the myths you’ve read about the White House, these [...]