With its foray into facial recognition, Uber is normalising mass surveillance January 13, 2020 The news late last year that Uber plans to introduce facial recognition technology seems to have mostly escaped the notice of the public, buried as the story was beneath five or six paragraphs in most of the reports on the loss of the firm’s London licence. Or perhaps, as one depressing Wall Street Journal headline [...]
The City should be proud of its world-class cultural scene January 13, 2020 When I decided the themes for my mayoral year, I was determined to show my support for culture, heritage and the arts, which are at the heart of life in the City and a driving force for the UK’s economic growth. Our world-leading culture offer encourages us to think differently about ourselves and our lives. [...]
Corbyn’s defeat won’t end the debate about capitalism January 10, 2020 The city, the wider business community and, indeed, our entire market economy may have escaped the ravages of Corbynism, but that doesn’t mean questions about corporate conduct or the nature of modern capitalism will fall away. Nor does it mean that business leaders and advocates of liberal, free-market economics should step back from addressing issues [...]
This Veganuary, I’m trusting people to eat what they want January 10, 2020 Welcome to January, the month of new year’s resolutions. Dietary transformation has always been central to the post-Christmas madness — eating “better” is probably the most cliched resolution there is. But whereas this used to be framed primarily in terms of weight loss, with fads like intermittent fasting and protein shakes taking centre stage, in [...]
DEBATE: Could bringing back bonuses help make pay fairer? January 10, 2020 Could bringing back performance-based bonuses help make pay fairer? YES, says Giles Gibbons, chief executive of Good Business, an ethical strategy consultancy. News this week that FTSE 100 bosses earn a typical worker’s wage in just 33 hours angered people across the UK — something has to change. And counter-intuitive as it may seem, bringing [...]
Government decision to scrap Erasmus scheme will harm UK’s bottom line January 10, 2020 The UK has always lagged behind its European neighbours in foreign language learning, and the vote this week to eradicate the Erasmus scheme will only slow that adoption further. For many, Erasmus was an opportunity to live and learn a new culture and language, free from class and income boundaries. The programme gave the UK’s [...]
Reinvigorating the regions is crucial for the whole of our country January 10, 2020 The Prime Minister had victory to savour on holiday in Mustique, and when he returned foreign policy was very much top of the agenda, with the escalating tensions between Iran and the US. But if Boris Johnson is to remain in power for a decade, he must not take his eye off the ball domestically [...]
Three ways to prevent the UK from falling into data anarchy January 10, 2020 No business will admit to using personal data in ways that are unethical or discriminatory. But when every social media click, phone call, card payment, and gym visit pings into existence a new nugget of data, how can any of us be sure that our data is being used ethically? There are many excellent examples [...]
Business needs weirdos and wild cards, too January 9, 2020 We need some true wild cards… super-talented weirdos.” That was the verdict of new Number Ten brain-in-chief, and occasional chief of staff, Dominic Cummings last week on who he wished to hire to transform the British state. His argument – in a blog that is best described as forthright – is that there are some [...]
DEBATE: Was the British Museum right to bypass BP as a sponsor for its Arctic exhibition? January 9, 2020 Was the British Museum right to bypass BP as a sponsor for its Arctic exhibition? Marine Tanguy, chief executive of MTArt Agency, says YES. I completely understand why the British Museum would be embarrassed to take the sponsorship of BP while discussing the Arctic in its next exhibition, one of the regions most affected by [...]