50 days after the Ever Given blocked the Suez canal, supply chains still have not recovered May 12, 2021 On the 29th of March, tug boats and dredgers freed the Ever Given from the banks of the Suez Canal. In just six days the blockage obstructed over $60 billion of global trade, sending disruptive ripples to every corner of the world. The beached container ship, weighing in at 220,000 tonnes and longer than the [...]
Social care reform must do more than prop up of a broken system with a bottomless pit of money May 12, 2021 Cries of a missed opportunity for social care reform have been rife following the Queen’s Speech but let’s be honest, we knew it was coming. It doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow. It’s more than a missed opportunity. It’s an absolute disgrace for a system that has borne the brunt of the catastrophic [...]
Sharing about Mental Health Awareness Week? Beware targeted advertising preying on your weaknesses May 12, 2021 This year the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is on nature and the enormous benefits it has for our mental health and wellbeing. In a year cut off from loved ones, with our lives pushed online and limited availability of real-life hugs, the wild green spaces of South West London have been fundamental to [...]
To level up, Boris Johnson needs to build homes in satellite towns May 12, 2021 A key priority for the government is to revive the fortunes of Britain’s old industrial towns. Boris Johnson promised to bring jobs and skills directly to these areas, so people no longer need to leave in order to prosper. The economic revival of regional cities in the past two decades or so has put even [...]
Extinction Refinancing: Banks are the next generation of climate activists withholding funding for carbon-heavy businesses May 11, 2021 Banks are unlikely to be the first group that comes to mind when thinking of climate activists. Although there is now immense and growing pressure on every area of the financial community to drive down emissions and lead the transition to a low-carbon economy, banks often seem to face the most scrutiny. A massive 92 [...]
Queen’s Speech: Planning reforms are badly needed but must also deliver for London’s hopeful homeowners May 11, 2021 The Queen’s Speech will include the biggest overhaul of England’s planning system in seventy years. The country will be split into “growth” and “protection” zones – with a potential third “regeneration” designation. Growth areas will have limited restrictions on development while building in protection areas will be restricted. The zones are to be designated by [...]
We must open up venture capital investment to pension funds to deliver for British savers May 11, 2021 Darktrace’s IPO was a relief to investors and founders considering a float on the London market, doing much to take away the bitter aftertaste left by Deliveroo’s lacklustre debut at the start of April. Yet even this very British success story, founded by expert mathematicians in Cambridge and invested in by some of the UK’s [...]
Vaccine patents: When does free for all become a free-for-all? May 10, 2021 As the UK begins to see the light at the end of the Covid tunnel, at least in terms of mass vaccination and the lifting of most personal restrictions, the virus has hit the headlines anew elsewhere in the world. Its virulent spread in India has been the most eye-catching and heart-rending, with deaths topping [...]
Scotland election: Boris Johnson must face down the threat of independence with the spirit of Northern Conservatives May 10, 2021 Two things were confirmed by last week’s election result in Scotland: the country is split down the middle on the question of independence and Scots want to keep the prospect of a second independence referendum on the horizon, but no closer than that. More than two and half million voters took part in the election, [...]
Forget Cornwall, London should be the summer holiday destination of choice May 10, 2021 There’s nowhere in the world as vibrant as a central London street in the evening. People come from all over the world, to be with people from all over the world. A person born in Camden can sit outside a café next to someone who has just arrived from the airport to start a new [...]