Opinion: Geronimo cannot be saved without sacrificing the UK’s food standards August 9, 2021 It’s August and an alpaca craze has overtaken British politics. After a chaotic few years banging on about Brexit and Covid, this summertime story has captivated the nation. Officials have ordered Geronimo, an alpaca imported from New Zealand, to be put down after twice testing positive for bovine tuberculosis. But alpaca owner, Helen Macdonald, claims [...]
Britain 2030: High-tech manufacturing set to become a quiet British success story August 9, 2021 When it was first announced that this year’s G7 summit would be held in Cornwall, the decision was met with some raised eyebrows. But for a government which has made the combination of “levelling-up” the UK’s regional inequalities and tackling climate change its foremost priorities, it made perfect sense. In the last few years a [...]
London needs to work with cities around the country for economic recovery August 9, 2021 As Lord Mayor, I would normally have visited more than 20 countries over the course of the year, to promote partnership with the UK’s world-leading enterprises – mainly financial and professional services – and showcase our unique cultural offer. Since the start of the pandemic I have replaced these with over 2,500 video calls. It [...]
Rolling out the welcome map for tourists will pay off for London August 9, 2021 Anyone who has lived in London for more than a few months will have a jaundiced view of tourists. They crowd the pavements and the Tube, they form great queues outside museums and galleries, they book out restaurants and they seem to have a preternatural ability to wander aimlessly in a way which is maximally [...]
Weekend Read: We may be about to find out what shape the recovery takes August 7, 2021 Since the first cases of Covid-19 began to disrupt the global economy, economists have not been shy of predictions. V-shaped, L-shaped, even hockey-stick recoveries have all been on the table. We may be about to find out who was right. While output growth and economic activity are still historically strong, in developed economies, those indicators [...]
Private equity needs to start speaking up for itself – it could be the key to ‘levelling up’ August 6, 2021 Private equity’s reputation is once again in the spotlight. With the supermarket Morrisons in the industry’s crosshairs, the public memory is reminded of previous scandals involving other household names. The multi-billion-pound bidding war for a major employer, headquartered in the north of England, has understandably attracted the interest of ministers and opposition politicians sensitive to [...]
The recovery requires more capitalism, not less August 6, 2021 Last week, the US tech giants reported profits the size of a small country’s GDP. At around the same time, news broke that Conservative donors were paying to bend the ears and influence the policies of our Prime Minister and Chancellor. It wasn’t hard to conclude that something is rotten in the state of capitalism [...]
Does big tech have a blind spot? August 5, 2021 The giants of Big Tech have emerged as the undoubted corporate victors of the past decade. Throughout that period, companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google dominated the global marketplace, capturing ever-larger market shares and destroying upstart competitors in their way. These firms built impressive businesses, and investors rewarded their achievements with doubly impressive valuations: the [...]
Time for Shop Out to Help Out the High Street August 4, 2021 As Coronavirus restrictions are lifting and the highly anticipated ‘freedom day’ has arrived, life may feel like it’s gradually getting back to normal – but for independent retailers, it’s another story entirely. With even the well-known high street stores in disarray, how do we expect the smaller independent businesses on our high streets to power through, [...]
Embracing uncertainty is the only path out of the pandemic August 4, 2021 A few days ago, Sajid Javid made one of the most thoughtful and encouraging statements by a government minister during the whole Covid crisis. Early In July, he seemed to be falling under the control of the modellers. The number of daily infections, he stated confidently, would soon reach 100,000, bowing to the so-called experts. [...]