Foreigners’ flight from Hong Kong means Britain must step up even more June 4, 2021 Earlier this month, a survey by The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong found that 42 per cent of foreigners were planning or considering leaving the city, with more than half citing fears over the draconian national security law imposed by China last year. However on Tuesday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam brushed aside [...]
Beware the unintended consequences of messing with the secondary ticketing market June 4, 2021 There are few things in life that command unanimous agreement. One is that everyone is delighted that the UK events industry will be starting to return to normal this summer. The return of theatres, concerts, and live events of all kinds will be welcomed by fans. This return is also desperately needed with the entire [...]
New tech regulation mustn’t be allowed to stifle innovation June 3, 2021 There is scarcely any market that could not be described as digital in 2021. In ten years time, the phrase ‘digital market’ will be, effectively, redundant. We should be concerned, then, by the creation of a powerful new regulator with a remit to cover all ‘digital markets’. Read more: UK says any global tax deal [...]
Darktrace: What we learned from building a £2.5bn UK success story June 3, 2021 There were just a handful of us clustered around a Bloomberg screen waiting for the moment that Darktrace would finally be launched onto the London Stock Exchange. In the end, that’s what a float comes down to – the final few seconds before the clock ticks round to 8am and the numbers start moving. If [...]
Corporate Britain needs to wage war on jargon and speak like the people they are trying to serve June 3, 2021 Gilbert and Sullivan are not primarily known as great gurus of business. But their 1893 operetta Utopia, Limited is an unlikely but rather acute insight into the idea of the modern corporation. Improbably based on the Joint Stock Companies Act 1862, William Gilbert’s script and lyrics tell the story of corporate purpose, in words that [...]
Travel abroad will be safer this summer and the UK’s green list update should reflect this June 2, 2021 Travel abroad will be safer this summer and the UK's green list update should reflect this
British farmers should stop fearing a UK-Australia trade deal and learn to take competition in their stride June 2, 2021 Britain is on the cusp of a trade deal with Australia, set to be finalised by early June. Concerns from farmers, however, have dominated the discourse amid fears over what an influx of cheaper imports could mean for them. It is vital the deal is not derailed and watered down in the face of these [...]
Longer lockdown based on hypotheticals would come with serious economic costs June 2, 2021 The penny is finally beginning to drop. The health service’s focus on giving absolute priority to the treatment of Covid-19 generates costs and problems on a massive scale. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, has warned of the huge pressures on the NHS from the backlog of non-Covid cases. Many of these are life-threatening [...]
The damning case against China over Covid-19 deserves proper attention June 1, 2021 As John Stuart Mill so eloquently wrote: “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” Fortified by this moral admonition, I went on to write an April 2020 piece in CapX, charging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with direct culpability in the spread of [...]
Office politics: Hybrid working will make WFH look like a walk in the park June 1, 2021 The pandemic has disrupted society on every level. For the world of business, the first national lockdown brought about seismic changes, as entire offices were sent home and IT systems were overhauled within the space of a week or two. But incredibly, this rapid shift to home working was the easy part of the journey [...]