Financial services trade talks with Switzerland may be a template for post-Brexit success September 8, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic might have left us with a mountain to climb, but our nation’s economic recovery can be accelerated by one of our greatest trading assets: the UK’s financial services sector. As chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Insurance and Financial Services – and a former insurance broker – I know first-hand how [...]
Let’s hope tough new rules on children’s online data collection deliver, and give parents peace of mind September 8, 2020 From today, our children’s online privacy is protected by default. Literally. New rules will force companies to give children and young people automatic specific privacy protections. That’s 76 days, according to research, that neither you or they have to spend reading all those terms and conditions. Thankfully, from now on, the so-called Age Appropriate Design [...]
Shaun Bailey: London deserves better than the mayor’s message of doom September 8, 2020 Tube use is down 70 per cent. High streets are empty. Only 17 per cent of people are back in offices. These are unprecedented times for London. So you’d think the mayor of London would have a plan to get people back to their offices safely and securely. You’d think he would be innovative, like [...]
Worried about furlough fraud? Now is the time to check your claims September 7, 2020 When Covid-19 struck, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) introduced the furlough scheme at remarkable speed to help people and businesses through the pandemic. But when claims are made in a rush – and under huge pressure – mistakes are inevitable. Also, sadly, when a recession hits the likelihood of fraud tends to increase. That is [...]
DEBATE: Is criticism of the government plan for digital ID cards justified? September 7, 2020 Is criticism of the government plan to spend money on digital ID cards justified? Silkie Carlo, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, says YES. When Theresa May scrapped Blairite plans for national ID cards in 2010, she warned that they would “increase state control over law abiding people”. And yet, this is what the Johnson [...]
We’ve spent months on Zoom, but we mustn’t forget to “zoom out” September 7, 2020 When threatened, human beings automatically focus intently on the danger. This amazing ability to “zoom in” is why you’re here. It kept your ancestors alive while others weren’t so lucky. In hunter-gatherer tribes, threats were short-lived but lethal. When a rival clan runs out from the trees, being focused pays off. However, what kept our [...]
Public Health England dropped the ball on the pandemic — but the new restructuring offers hope September 7, 2020 Mike Tyson’s infamous line about everyone having a plan until they get punched in the mouth could be the epitaph for Public Health England. The quango made many mistakes in its response to Covid-19, but planning for an influenza epidemic was perhaps the most fatal. PHE had swine flu, rather than the SARS coronavirus, in [...]
Putin holds all the cards in Belarus September 7, 2020 One of the greatest problems in political risk analysis is that the heart so often gets the better of the head. Because we want a political outcome to happen, we think that it will. Karmic justice must apply to all situations in history, with the good rewarded and the bad punished. But this is to [...]
The Square Mile is welcoming Londoners back to the City September 7, 2020 Every week, we are seeing more people trickling back to the City of London for work, school, or simply to visit this world-class destination. Despite the sights across the Square Mile remaining strikingly familiar, those who have already returned will have noticed a number of changes. A new dawn has begun in the City. A [...]
Rishi Sunak must walk a tightrope on his pitch of Tory economic competence September 4, 2020 Yesterday Rishi Sunak was photographed carrying a note with the text of his address to the 1922 Committee. This was something we lived in constant fear of when I worked in No.11. One day I forgot to put a folder round a note I was carrying on our 2018 Budget ‘rabbit’ and subsequently spent the next six [...]