How Iceland found the perfect Christmas campaign formula December 11, 2019 Twas the month before Christmas (in 2018), and the festive cheer was seemingly “cancelled” for British frozen food giant Iceland. “We’re absolutely gutted,” a defeated Richard Walker, Iceland’s managing director, told the BBC. “We wanted to share this message far and wide.” Well, for Richard, Christmas miracles are very much real. This particular miracle began when [...]
The parenthood penalty facing working mums and dads needs to be fixed December 10, 2019 Earlier this year, journalist Emma Duncan asked why we work so hard to avoid our children. Will future generations look back and wonder why parents fought tooth and nail for time in the office? If today’s battles result in a childcare sector that offers real choice at a lower cost, and a society where having [...]
Eight reasons the Tories are a safer bet than Labour this election December 10, 2019 This election will define our country. Either Britain will continue to be a liberal open democracy continuing what frankly has been a very successful recovery from a global crisis – or the UK will slip towards a highly centralised command and control model that has failed the world over. My last article outlined just what [...]
Whoever wins this election, our politics will remain in flux December 10, 2019 Nothing except an election lost can be half so melancholy as an election won. That’s what the Duke of Wellington might have said after he swapped the battlefield for politics. Come Friday morning, each of the major parties will be reckoning with the result — and may find pain in victory as well as defeat. [...]
The Beeb needs reform December 10, 2019 In an unconventional move for a frontline politician at election time, Boris Johnson yesterday offered an honest and reasonably clear answer to a question. Asked what he thought of the BBC licence fee he said — whilst muttering something about not concocting policy on the hoof —that it seemed rather outdated. Well, he’s right. Some [...]
This country has not had enough of experts December 10, 2019 Michael Gove famously said that the “people in this country have had enough of experts”. Of course, that’s not the full story — at the time, Gove was specifically targeting experts who, he claimed, kept getting things wrong. But regardless, the “had enough of experts” quote went viral, and came to be viewed as something [...]
DEBATE: Should business rates be scrapped and replaced with a land tax, as the Lib Dems suggest? December 10, 2019 Should business rates be scrapped and replaced with a land tax, as the Lib Dems suggest? Liz Jarvis, writer, editor, and Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Southampton Itchen, says YES. Nearly a million businesses in the UK have closed in the past three years. Businesses, especially small firms unable to bear the brunt of Brexit [...]
It’s not just that Corbyn hates capitalism — he doesn’t even understand it December 10, 2019 It’S not exactly news that those at the top of the Labour party dislike capitalism. But what’s less often pointed out is how little they actually understand about it. Last week, on my Twitter account, I published something of a demolition of Labour’s claim to save every household £6,700 a year. After only a cursory [...]
How the Tories could become the party of the working class December 10, 2019 Polls are inherently unreliable. We know this from the 2017 election, the 2015 election, the 2016 EU referendum — the list goes on. The latest polls show a roughly 10-point lead for the Tories. That should be enough to form a government, but is some way off the 68 seat majority that YouGov’s famous MRP [...]
When did making money in tech become so unfashionable? December 10, 2019 It is commonly accepted that technology companies have irrevocably changed the world we live in. This is especially true in the finance industry where fintech companies are successfully disrupting the status quo, forcing incumbent firms to evolve alongside these new challengers. While competition and technological innovation in any market is to be welcomed with open [...]