DEBATE: Did Boris Johnson’s ‘Build, build, build’ speech succeed in rebooting his premiership? June 30, 2020 Did Boris Johnson’s speech succeed in rebooting his premiership? John Oxley, a Conservative commentator, says YES. Boris is back in business. He has mastered his own recovery from coronavirus and is now ready to tackle the nation’s. It is a challenge he would have never expected when he entered Downing Street, and an important evolution [...]
A pandemic is no excuse for the return of all-male boards June 30, 2020 At the 30 Per Cent Club, we never believed in “one and done”. Losing your only female director and reverting to an all-male board is all too easy, as Dominos found out earlier this month. Of course, that’s not the case for Aston Martin, which had two women non-executive directors and a female chair until [...]
Confession of an ESG sceptic: How I learned to stop worrying and love ESG June 30, 2020 For a long time, it would be fair to say I have been brutally sceptical about Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investment. However, the Covid-19 crisis has turned ESG from a trendy investment fashion to something that matters. My scepticism began with the fact that ESG was an unbalanced concept. Too many people focus only [...]
Boris built a digital London — now he must turbocharge digital Britain June 30, 2020 With the economy slowly beginning to reopen as lockdown measures are eased, all eyes this week will be on the government’s plan for reigniting confidence and growth. The Prime Minister is expected to refocus on the levelling-up agenda, skirting any suggestion of a return to austerity and concentrating instead on public services, the environment, and [...]
Flexible thinking has got small businesses through this crisis — now we can shop local to support them June 30, 2020 Over the past few months we have seen and heard countless stories of small, local businesses hit hard by the economic lockdown. Covid-19 has triggered businesses to reassess how they can engage with customers in new and innovative ways, and many have had to adapt quickly to survive. Art workshops and yoga classes are being [...]
Greta is wrong, environmentalists need markets to protect the planet June 29, 2020 Free market advocates have too often vacated the environmental battlefield. And they have been scared off for good reasons. At best, climate politics is dominated by those who see little to no role at all for markets. At worst, environmentalism is a thinly disguised excuse for advocating far-left economic and social policies. Some have labelled [...]
Help young Londoners take their first step on the career ladder June 29, 2020 For so many young people, the coronavirus pandemic has left them questioning their educational future and career pathways. It has been such an uncertain time for pupils across the capital. And that’s why this year we were even more determined than ever before to host the London Careers Festival (LCF), albeit in a new format. [...]
Lessons from the data: How can countries avoid a second Covid wave? June 29, 2020 The Economist Intelligence Unit recently launched an index to rank the quality of the policy response to coronavirus across 21 OECD countries. Countries are assessed against three “quality of response” criteria: number of above-average excess deaths, number of tests, and provision of non-Covid-19 healthcare. Three mitigating criteria adjust scores to take pre-existing risk factors into [...]
Let’s build back green, not grey June 29, 2020 Despite the tragedies of the last few months, we have not been short of the rays of hope and human courage that often come to define crises of these kinds. As cliched as it may now be to say, the weekly showering of applause for our keyworkers shows that even when facing the greatest adversities, [...]
China has miscalculated — India will be the big winner of this new world order June 29, 2020 My friend, the Indian diplomat and politician Shashi Tharoor, once wisely said: “Everything in India is recycled, even dreams.” And now in our new era, India’s rightful pride in its fabulous history — and perennial fervent desire to return to the top table in global politics — is about to at last be realised. Delhi [...]