This service has been delayed: A railway revolution is at a crossroads October 20, 2021 It was back in May when Grant Shapps, the one-time Tory chairman turned Transport Secretary, promised a revolution that would put passengers “at the heart” of everything to do with Britain’s railways. Critics claim his revolution – that will hand control of the railways to a quango looking something like NHS England – is nationalisation [...]
The Bank of England has developed a mythical stature – it’s time to burst it October 20, 2021 The UK, along with the rest of the Western world, has just lived through a period of low inflation. In the 25 years since the mid-1990s, inflation has averaged just 2 per cent a year. It is enough to double the price level every 35 years, but a far cry from the double-digit rates seen [...]
Streaming has changed the music industry, now artists need to be paid a fair sum October 20, 2021 For artists relying on the twin revenue streams of live performances and music royalties, the pandemic left a material dent in income. Touring profits were depleted, and while digital music saw a boom, artists weren’t able to fully fall back on streaming royalty payments just yet. With slim pay-outs per play from service providers, many [...]
Corporate reporting goes green October 20, 2021 [Re: Government to force big business to reveal green credentials, 18th October] The Chancellor has set out new standards for reporting to keep companies accountable for their environmental claims and impact. That some companies, investment products and pension funds will be required to disclose their environmental impact is hardly surprising – it has been the [...]
Opinion-in-brief: Brands need to sell less stuff to really be more successful October 19, 2021 Constantly making more things on a planet of finite resources is, by its very nature, unsustainable. As long as we remain hooked on over-consumption, a search for “sustainability” is simply not practical. Each year, the fashion industry produces over 92 million tonnes of waste and we throw away 50m tonnes of toxic electronic products. In [...]
Letters: Let’s focus on venture capital October 19, 2021 [Re:Post-Brexit marginal gains will be fuel for City’s future success, 12th October] Hopes of reaching equivalence in financial regulations are dead in the water in the post-Brexit world. There have been numerous calls from the UK Government for input from business, to help guide the UK’s financial structure in this new phase. We’ve heard plenty [...]
Editorial: What the City can learn from Succession… and what it shouldn’t October 19, 2021 There is something viscerally thrilling about the return of Succession to our screens. Whether it is the venal backbiting, the elaborate corporate power-plays, or simply the fact that the myriad troubled characters at the heart of the Roy empire speak to each other like we’d sometimes like to speak to our colleagues, there is something [...]
We could make Glasgow great again if London and Edinburgh can get along October 19, 2021 Glasgow is the fifth largest city in the UK, easily the biggest in Scotland, though still smaller than it was 50 years ago. The Dear Green Place, more aptly tagged “No Mean City” in the 1930s, was once the second city of the empire, a global hub of shipbuilding and coal-mining, beautified by trade barons [...]
The City of London should once again be a 24/7 city packed full of culture October 19, 2021 Seeing the old familiar buzz returning to the streets of the City of London is a welcome sight and one which cannot help but bring a smile to one’s face. The sight of friends and colleagues greeting one another, restaurants and cafes thriving once more and a vibrant cultural scene underlines what we always knew: [...]
Regulate now or worry about it later: Klarna has rewritten its own rules October 19, 2021 Covid-19 accelerated the rocketship of Buy Now Pay Later schemes: over 10 million Brits used the service in 2020. This trend was growing before the pandemic though, with consumers drawn to a zero-interest product that saved them £76m in interest fees in 2020 that they would otherwise have paid on credit card interest. Before, consumers [...]