The future of the Covid generation rests on putting skills first July 15, 2020 Throughout my career, the skills crisis has never felt more acute than it does now — and nor has the momentum to address the challenge been greater. We are reminded today, UN World Youth Skills Day, that while the pandemic has amplified the problem, it is not the cause. Even before Covid-19 took its grip [...]
DEBATE: Is there any point in members of the wealthy elite calling for higher taxes in response to Covid-19? July 14, 2020 In light of this week’s Millionaires for Humanity letter, is there any point in members of the wealthy elite calling for higher taxes in response to Covid-19? Gary Stevenson, inequality economist and trader, says YES. On Monday, 83 millionaires — myself included — signed an open letter calling on governments to raise taxes on people [...]
Businesses must find their purpose, or risk becoming the next corporate scandal July 14, 2020 In the midst of a pandemic, the corporate scandals keep coming. The most recent is Boohoo, a previously admired brand in the fashion industry that has been accused of sourcing clothes from a Leicester factory where workers were paid as little as £3.50 an hour. For many in the fashion industry, the darker side of [...]
Lockdown London: A tale of two cities July 14, 2020 On Sunday evening, a friend and I had a game of tennis in a small unremarkable suburban local park. Surrounded by terraced houses, it is the kind of park of which there are 3,000 dotted across the capital. Too hilly for a game of football but with a couple of rarely used tennis courts for [...]
My son needs medical cannabis — but the UK approach remains a national disgrace July 14, 2020 For any parent to hear a child’s horrific scream as they have a seizure, not breathing or responding, is a rude wakeup call that life will be far from normal. Alfie was just eight months old and diagnosed as suffering from a rare form of epilepsy. For us as a family, every day became crisis [...]
The Kickstart Scheme should have kickstarted years ago July 14, 2020 For years I have been banging the drum for apprenticeship reform as the answer to the UK’s skills shortage and unemployment issues. For a decade it has fallen on deaf ears — with the apprenticeship levy, the government’s only solution, turning out to be a complete dog’s dinner. But finally, the government has come to [...]
Workplaces should be a lifeline for those suffering domestic abuse July 13, 2020 At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we asked people to stay at home to protect themselves and others from the virus. The home should be a safe haven. But for victims of domestic abuse, it can be a very dangerous place to be. National abuse helpline Refuge reported a 25 per cent increase in [...]
Let’s transform our coastal communities into the beating heart of a green industrial revolution July 13, 2020 Covid-19 is set to do long-term damage to the communities of the three million people who live along the UK coastline. These communities often felt neglected even before the outbreak, and now they are especially vulnerable. Coastal constituencies overwhelmingly voted Conservative in the 2019 election on the promise of a “levelling up” agenda. Yet they [...]
Market abuse in the age of coronavirus July 13, 2020 During lockdown I have been re-watching a few of my favourite movies about crime in the capital markets — older classics like Wall Street and Boiler Room, as well as the more recent The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street. The reality of market abuse is somewhat less glamorous. It is, however, just [...]
Europe is no longer America’s sidekick when it comes to China July 13, 2020 With the death of the thrilling composer Ennio Morricone this past week, I have been thinking (and humming) a lot about the Spaghetti Westerns that made his name. For the spaghetti trilogy contains just about every human emotion it is possible to think of. Love, hate, revenge, loyalty, honour, cruelty, and power — they are [...]