Screenshot: Is Trump’s Facebook ban too hot to handle? May 7, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Brits love bent coppers **Is Trump’s Facebook ban too hot to handle? **ITV’s Summer of Love (Island) Media Moment of the Week: Brits love bent coppers Ok, so you might not have been the biggest fan of the Line of Duty season finale on Sunday. In fact, you [...]
The French fishermen blockade in Jersey was a political spectacle – but we’re all sour on the Brexit deal May 7, 2021 Brexit provided a bright spotlight for ports and shipping. The latest dramatic escalation of tensions as French fisherman turned up, armed with flares, at the Jersey port of St Helier, has once again thrown fishing onto centre stage. Jersey is an easy target. They rely on an undersea cable, connected to France, for their electricity. [...]
Has Covid changed the shape of London forever? May 6, 2021 After a rollercoaster year and a half, our economy is preparing to burst back to life. Fuelled by the joint success of the vaccine rollout and our effort in the third lockdown, we are now fighting back against our invisible foe that has, and continues, to wreak havoc around the world. Yet, life as we know [...]
Global climate change stimulus could fuel a green investment bubble May 6, 2021 Hundreds of years of history shows us that investment bubbles are a regular feature of the financial markets. For as long as humans have been trading investments, there have been periods of time when the prices of assets have become disconnected from their underlying value. Although bubbles typically are identified after they have popped, there [...]
Britain’s mayors need more teeth to succeed in creating jobs and wealth May 6, 2021 On Thursday, seven English city regions will vote in the metro mayoral elections, including West Yorkshire for the first time. These are showcase elections with candidates setting out their bold visions and plans for the future of the cities. Mayors play a critical role in our cities. They are able to use hard and soft [...]
Mayor of London election: Beware the capital’s slide into a one-party city May 6, 2021 Most major election campaigns have trademark moments or themes that leave an indelible image on the electorate and become a part of the public’s collective memory. The 2019 General Election will be remembered as the Brexit election and for Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” slogan. In the 2016 London mayoral election there was Zac Goldsmith’s [...]
DEBATE: Was Facebook’s Oversight Board right to uphold the ban on Donald Trump? May 5, 2021 Anna-Sophie Harling, Head of Europe at NewsGuard, says YES This question of the Oversight Board’s decision is, in itself, problematic. The Board, a panel of paid advisors hired by Facebook to do high-level content moderation, only has as much credibility as we lend it. As a private company, Facebook is well within its rights to deplatform Donald Trump — [...]
Britain is sitting on a mountain of debt – but there is a way to climb down May 5, 2021 The UK’s public finances – a source of perennial debate amongst politicians, think tanks, economists and investors – are in focus like never before. Covid-19 has ushered in a period of unprecedented public spending, funded in the main by large amounts of debt. Government borrowing – money it needs to borrow to pay for spending [...]
It’s time to give Scotland and Wales a dose of financial reality and rethink the Barnett formula May 5, 2021 Subsidies continue to flow from the English taxpayer to the devolved nations of the UK. Boris Johnson is reportedly considering a further massive programme of infrastructure spending to convince the Scots of the benefits of being in the Union. The so-called Barnett formula, put together in the 1970s, already ensures that Scotland always gets more [...]
Editorial: London has deserved more from an insipid Mayoral contest May 5, 2021 It is fair to say the year-long delay to the London Mayoral election has not increased the appetite for it. Nor have the last few months been a vintage political campaign of sharp differences, eye-catching promises and grand visions for the future. That’s a shame. London is a global city and will reinvent itself post-pandemic. [...]