It’s not about fish, it’s about control December 11, 2020 Throughout the highs and lows of the Brexit rollercoaster over the past five years, there has been precious little that can be regarded as consensus. One thing we can probably agree on, however, is that of the 17,410,742 people who voted to leave the EU, most of them probably didn’t do so on the basis [...]
The late payments problem is easier to fix than you think December 11, 2020 Small businesses will be at the heart of economic recovery. They will launch, create jobs, build, grow, and bristle with vitality. These small businesses deserve all the support they can get at this critical time. It has been argued that they need taxpayer handouts and top-down schemes to get moving again. But not necessarily: for [...]
Celebrity vaccine endorsement? Try behavioural science instead December 10, 2020 A Covid-19 vaccine has been approved, and the nation celebrated as the first shots were administered this week. Now, the conversation around coronavirus has developed from how we can produce a cure to how we can successfully convince people to take it. While the vaccine is being heralded as the end of the pandemic, some [...]
How Covid-19 turned out to be Open Banking’s moment to shine December 10, 2020 If you were to ask a UK business in the past few months whether they use Open Banking, they might look confused. But if you asked them whether they’ve been using digital tools to help them forecast their cashflow, see their accounts in real time, issue paperless invoices to clients or apply for a government [...]
Grandiose plans for a green revolution are great, but first let’s fix our ageing electricity network December 10, 2020 Thousands of commuters stranded on frozen trains, traffic lights unable to direct, and 1.1 million people left without power marked out an otherwise normal Friday evening in August 2019. The failure of a gas power plant and an offshore wind farm had led to a power outage, as the UK electricity network failed to handle [...]
Pay no attention to the left-wing brigade, a Covid wealth tax would be a disaster December 10, 2020 It is incredible how, in the 12 years since the financial crisis, the position of so many organisations has changed. In 2008/9, think tanks like the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) argued that the British day-to-day deficit required prudent reforms to public spending, while those on the left claimed that there wasn’t a problem and [...]
Give our events industry the tools to save itself from Covid December 9, 2020 More than 1.5 million people are employed in the UK’s events industry and we all have one thing in common: we are problem solvers. That is what we do, day in, day out. We are logistics experts, known the world over for our technical and creative talents. We are ready to get back to work, [...]
Unleash the power of digital across our nation December 9, 2020 Digital capital has transformed every role I’ve held. As a business leader, the emergence of digital markets and communication transformed my industry. As an MP and minister, I wrestled with how access to digital information shaped opportunities. I worked to widen access to digital skills for women (only 19 per cent of workers in tech [...]
Hurrah for a vaccine — but was lockdown actually worth it? December 9, 2020 The development of the vaccines has changed many things. It has even influenced the opinion of the Prince of Lockdown himself, health secretary Matt Hancock. Life, he pronounced at the weekend, would be back to normal by the spring and the “blasted regulations” abolished. But one thing has remained constant: the government’s continued refusal to [...]
The government must fix the broken procurement system before the next crisis hits December 8, 2020 The two caricatures of how the government has worked with the private sector during this pandemic do not add up. In one, championed by ministers in press conferences and interviews on a daily basis, the government has leveraged the best of British and international business to answer the biggest challenge this country has faced in [...]