Splash the cash and hope for the best March 12, 2020 He didn’t look or sound like a man who had only been chancellor for a matter of weeks. It would have been a difficult debut outing in good times, but delivering an emergency Budget — just hours after an emergency rate cut — would test the mettle of a seasoned parliamentary grandee. The delivery was [...]
The government should keep calm, focus on facts, and commit to a Covid-19 strategy March 12, 2020 If ever there were a case of Man proposes but God disposes, the Covid-19 outbreak would fit the bill. A subject that was not even in the popular lexicon at the turn of the year has become our only topic du jour. If this continues for much longer, we may soon be dividing time into [...]
The EU’s attempt to regulate artificial intelligence could backfire March 12, 2020 The “Wild West” of artificial intelligence (AI) needs to be reined in, according to EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton. However, regulating AI generally, rather than regulating the technology’s uses specifically, may very well be putting the cart before the horse. Late last month, the European Commission revealed its intention to draft regulation around the use [...]
By restricting free speech, we risk sleepwalking towards a tyranny worthy of Orwell March 12, 2020 In an unpublished preface to Animal Farm, discovered amongst the author’s papers in 1972, George Orwell argued that: “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” In the last two weeks, we have twice been given reason to question what our liberty is [...]
DEBATE: Will the business rates reform package be effective enough to react to the coronavirus crisis? March 12, 2020 Will the chancellor’s business rates reform package be effective enough to react to the coronavirus crisis? Lauren McEvatt, managing director of Morpeth Consulting and former government adviser, says YES. This business rates package as a whole, when coupled with the decisive action taken by Bank of England on Wednesday morning and considered alongside other support [...]
The Budget has recognised the potential of UK fintech March 12, 2020 All eyes were on the chancellor yesterday, as he delivered his first Budget against a challenging backdrop for the UK’s economy and health system alike. The focus was very much on backing the NHS, supporting small business, and boosting infrastructure spending across the country — and rightfully so, given the circumstances. We’ve also seen vital [...]
If we want cutting-edge R&D, we must rethink our attitude to failure March 11, 2020 A likely centre-piece of today’s Budget will be a new agency to fund high-risk, high-reward scientific research. Brainchild of the Prime Minister’s chief special adviser Dominic Cummings, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (Arpa) is to be modelled after similar bodies in the US — most notably Darpa which has focused on defence related research. Darpa [...]
How mathematical models attempt to predict the spread of disease March 11, 2020 The various pronouncements on coronavirus are a source of puzzlement to many. On the one hand there are lurid predictions of millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths. On the other, while the actual numbers are growing, they seem tiny so far compared to the scale of the predictions. Almost 100 years ago, [...]
Wanted: Someone to breathe new life into the fumbling BBC March 11, 2020 Today is your last chance to throw your hat in the ring for one of the most important roles in British public life. That’s right, it’s the closing date for applications to be the next director general of the BBC. The successful candidate will be the most critical appointment at the BBC since Lord Reith [...]
Rebel platoon gives government a scare March 11, 2020 Despite the best efforts of the government, today’s Budget will be the Coronavirus Budget. As much as Downing Street wants to refocus the conversation — even for a day — on its “levelling up” agenda, attention will inevitably fall on the chancellor’s economic antidote to the effects of the outbreak. But it isn’t just ministers [...]