Rishi Sunak must stop dragging his heels and seize a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fix global corporate tax May 21, 2021 Anger at the never ending stories of global corporations dodging tax is set to hit boiling point. Barely a day goes by without a fresh tale of a big multinational paying ultra-low rates of tax. Even after a year of record sales during the pandemic, Amazon Europe did not pay any corporation tax on the [...]
Great British Railways: an eerie reminder of state ownership detested by free marketeers and socialists alike May 21, 2021 The current amount of taxpayers’ money being paid to operate and maintain the railways is unsustainable, the authors of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail report wrote in the opening pages. The railways lack a guiding focus on customers, are too fragmented, too complicated, and too expensive to run. Instead, the authors herald a new age, [...]
Screenshot: Have the streaming wars just gone nuclear? May 21, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: That’ll do, you donkeys **Have the streaming wars just gone nuclear? **Can London close the tech gap on Silicon Valley? Media Moment of the Week: That’ll do, you donkeys Shrek turned 20 this week. Ah lovely, an innocent reminder of youth, I bet you’re thinking. Wrong. It’s actually [...]
The Treasury’s narrow-minded Net Zero review is holding back Boris Johnson’s climate agenda May 21, 2021 Some truisms are worth repeating: the Treasury is powerful. Unlike its counterparts overseas, the Treasury in Britain is ale to set policy for economic development and control government spending. This power, however, is also an impediment on progress. It is one of the slowest Whitehall departments to change its ways and is holding back the [...]
Boris Johnson must throw his support behind London to ensure an economic recovery May 20, 2021 Many people are overjoyed to return to central London and the streets are slowly coming back to life as colleagues, friends and families meet in outdoor cafes, restaurants and bars. Talk to any cabbie or shopkeeper and they’ll tell you that business and footfall is a long way from pre-pandemic levels. Hopes are pinned on [...]
Furlough and unemployment will keep inflation figures down and give Rishi Sunak breathing room May 20, 2021 Fresh statistics have shown inflation in the UK has more than doubled in the last month. This has dominated the headlines as many economists fear spiralling inflation. However, the reaction is The news from the ONS that UK inflation has more than doubled in April has generated concerned headlines. Such a reaction is somewhat inevitable. [...]
Australia-UK trade tensions are a post-Brexit crossroads: do we want to be Global Britain or do we want to pursue protectionism? May 20, 2021 When it comes to sport, particularly cricket and rugby, there is perhaps no fiercer rivalry than between the UK and Australia. Yet away from the Test arena, there are perhaps very few countries that share such a strong relationship. Both nations share a language, the monarchy, similar cultural connections and diplomatic and security ties. The strength of [...]
Beijing has done irreparable damage to Hong Kong after freezing top media mogul’s assets May 19, 2021 On Friday, the owner of Hong Kong’s biggest pro-democracy newspaper had his assets, amounting to HKD$500 million, frozen. Mr Lai was already facing trumped up charges under the National Security Law, but this step is the biggest blow to date for press freedoms and puts the long-run viability of his newspaper, Apple Daily, into question. [...]
Scientists’ dire warning of thousands of deaths from Indian variant is a dangerous abuse of public trust May 19, 2021 The epidemiologists are at it again. The Indian variant of the Covid virus has resurrected their projections of doom and gloom. The scientists who advise the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have said the full lifting of lockdown on 21 June could lead to 1,000 deaths a day and no fewer than 10,000 hospitalisations [...]
KPMG Chair: We can only tackle social mobility once we confront falling numeracy levels May 19, 2021 Numeracy skills are vital to us all, whether at work or simply helping us to navigate daily life, like managing money. Despite this fact, far too many people are lacking in confidence where our maths ability is concerned. In fact, nearly half of the UK’s working population has the expected numeracy level of a primary school child. [...]