The tech export boom shows the UK is leading innovation at a crucial time September 3, 2020 The UK has been at the vanguard of technological change, with our tech creators, innovators and risk takers helping shape the digital world around us. Whether you are tracking your heart rate on a run, finding ways to be carbon neutral, taking education to the next level, or increasing financial inclusion, the UK’s tech businesses [...]
Business has a moral duty to tackle the scourge of human trafficking — starting with supply chains September 2, 2020 The impacts of this pandemic have been countless and varied — from health to the economy, education to technological development. But one tragic side effect of Covid-19 has sadly too often gone unspoken: an increase in instances of human trafficking and forced labour abuses taking place amid the disruptions to global supply chains. According to [...]
DEBATE: Should we be worried about a tech bubble? September 2, 2020 Should we be worried about a tech bubble, particularly in emerging markets? Tatjana Puhan, managing director and deputy chief investment officer at TOBAM, says YES. Over recent years, we see a clear trend of investors becoming exposed to higher concentration risk in specific sectors like technology. Having represented already a considerable risk exposure in major [...]
Can office workers save the day for local businesses ravaged by Covid-19? September 2, 2020 The sudden shift to remote working put in place by the majority of UK businesses may herald the end of the office, at least as we know it. Five months and multiple government campaigns later, and the shift to the kitchen table continues, seemingly unabated. According to a survey from US bank Morgan Stanley, just [...]
Science and tech has proved a damp squib in the fight against Covid-19 September 2, 2020 Few of us alive today have lived through a year so tumultuous, historic, and (yes, that word again) unprecedented as 2020. We are seeing the biggest health pandemic since 1918’s Spanish Flu; the biggest threat to the world economy since 1929’s Great Crash; and the biggest civil unrest in the US since 1967 — all [...]
The national productivity recovery depends on getting people back to the office September 2, 2020 Office workers continue to display reluctance to return to their workplaces, despite encouragement from the government for them to head back. The immediate consequences for the service jobs in cities which depend on people commuting into the office are apparent, hence the government drive. But is office work a good thing for the workers themselves? [...]
The government needs to take nurseries more seriously as part of its education strategy September 1, 2020 As schools prepare to return, so soon after the A-Level fiasco, there is a huge focus on education. However, one very important part of the education sector, which has been underappreciated for too long, is that of day nurseries, pre-schools and childminders. These early learning providers cater for 2.1m children under the age of five [...]
Covid-19 could be the largest insured loss in history. How can the insurance industry adapt? September 1, 2020 Covid-19 has us all living through a live, catastrophic event. It is dramatic but makes the non-life insurance world a fascinating place to be. There will be significant insured losses from Covid-19 with obvious examples of the Olympics being postponed, Wimbledon and other sporting events being cancelled, and hundreds of thousands of travel insurance claims [...]
Technology can help bridge the divide between tenants and landlords September 1, 2020 Covid-19’s impact on the world has been seismic. Closer to home, the UK is facing its worst recession in decades if not centuries, and recently the government’s debt exceeded the size of the economy for the first time in more than half a century. But the crisis could have been so much worse without technology. [...]
Pandemic hysteria is blinding us to the virus’s real risks August 31, 2020 I have long held off writing this column, as I well know it will lead to some hysterical responses. Nevertheless, the credo of any good opinion writer surely must be to be fearless, to fly in the face of received opinion if the cause is just. And there has rarely been a greater need for [...]