Ousting Sajid Javid could limit Boris Johnson’s options February 18, 2020 Any time a Prime Minister reshuffles his or her cabinet, there are bound to be disappointed ministers — or ex-ministers — turfed out from a job they enjoy in a system that can sometimes prize loyalty over ability. But last week’s surprise resignation of Sajid Javid, the UK’s short-lived chancellor, could actually limit Boris Johnson’s [...]
Who do you think you are? A conscious AI workforce could lead to a world of slaves February 18, 2020 With artificial intelligence (AI) promising to make huge numbers of people redundant across a swathe of industries, there’s been much discussion of “the world without work”. Some see in that a utopia, in which automation provides us all with limitless free time; others, a nightmarish end to human dignity. But if the machines do take [...]
David Frost doesn’t sugar-coat it for the EU February 18, 2020 Trade deals are like sausages — it’s best not to see them being made. But while any UK-EU deal will certainly be the result of high compromise and low politics, Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator popped his head out of the factory door last night to offer some thoughts on his recipe for success. David Frost, [...]
A high-speed economy needs more than just a few extra trains February 18, 2020 History will show that productivity, not Brexit, was the economic issue of our age. And the new government has made a high-speed start. The focus on “levelling up” the UK economy — and a resultant focus on regional productivity — is completely right. The story of this country’s regional productivity is sometimes characterised solely as [...]
The privacy paradox: How we got trapped in a data dystopia February 18, 2020 One of the less encouraging reports to come out of the tech world this month was that Facebook, everyone’s favourite villainous corporation, knew very well about the colossal security flaw that let hackers rob personal data from millions of users long before the breach itself. Facebook employees have said that they felt “guilt” and “hurt” [...]
Think carefully before shaking up the BBC licence fee February 18, 2020 The future of the BBC is in the spotlight once again. The government is running a consultation on the decriminalisation of the licence fee, and there has been plenty of speculation in the press as to whether there could be further changes to the way the BBC is funded or what its remit should be. [...]
DEBATE: Should the new chancellor suspend the IR35 tax regulation changes? February 18, 2020 Should the new chancellor suspend the IR35 tax regulation changes? Alasdair Hutchison, policy development manager at IPSE, says YES. We should be building a vibrant and competitive economy after Brexit, not making it harder to do business or under-mining our flexible labour market, one of the UK’s main competitive advantages. Businesses are simply not prepared [...]
Barclays and Downing St have some thinking to do February 17, 2020 Once is unfortunate, twice could be coincidence but three times starts to look like a pattern. We can now say Jes Staley’s unfortunate habit for gathering eyebrow-raising headlines certainly looks like the latter. The latest is the controversy surrounding his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and two watchdogs’ investigation into whether he was [...]
The Democrats’ Bernie Sanders problem will lead to the re-election of Donald Trump February 17, 2020 The perpetual problem of the American left is that it wants to feel good, rather than do good. This tendency to suicidal virtue-signalling — damn the consequences — is glaringly apparent in the Democratic party’s full-blown Bernie Sanders problem, made real by his tie for first in Iowa, and his outright victory in last week’s [...]
Research parks can help turn the light-bulb moment of science into business success February 17, 2020 Based on 35 years of experience, I am a proponent of the idea that “place matters”. Businesses benefit from being located in an environment willing to share the risks involved in fostering entrepreneurship. That’s why the global research and science park movement has taken off. It is designed to support the clustering of enterprises to [...]