DEBATE: Has Fever-Tree lost its fizz as growth in the UK slows down? November 21, 2019 Has the fizz gone out of tonic water maker Fever-Tree as growth in its core UK market slows down? Joe Healey, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, says YES. Fever-Tree has had a good run, but investors are likely to be tetchy going forward. The drinks phenomenon has struggled in its main UK market [...]
HS2 needs government support, not more dithering and debate November 21, 2019 Last week, a leaked draft of the HS2 review revealed recommendations that the controversial project should go ahead as planned. This has sparked some debate, with opponents citing the project’s escalating costs and delays. Yet, when builders’ timescales and budgets for even small-scale domestic construction projects are almost always optimistic and therefore taken with a [...]
The internet can help left-behind constituencies step into the future November 21, 2019 It can sometimes be easy to forget that the internet plays a vital part of everyday life. It makes a substantial economic contribution to the UK, creating approximately 400,000 jobs, 80,000 businesses, and £45bn in gross value added to the UK’s GDP. Most importantly, the internet improves people’s lives with products and services that make [...]
Boris Johnson is right to delay corporation tax cuts November 21, 2019 Boris Johnson showed a lot of guts to go to the CBI Conference and announce that he was delaying a planned corporation tax cut in order to fund public services. This was a speech which was long overdue. Since 2010, governments have given away corporation tax cuts worth over £60bn. This figure doesn’t include the [...]
A welcome revival for tax-cutting instincts November 21, 2019 Tax cuts — remember them? So far, this has not been an election campaign to warm the hearts of those who yearn for a smaller state, whether it comes to the government’s outgoings or its revenue-raising appetite. The Liberal Democrats yesterday joined the political pole vault contest in which parties promise to spend ever higher, [...]
The scary movie cliches your business might be committing November 20, 2019 The choices that characters make in scary movies can often seem baffling. Why do they never turn the lights on when entering the house at night alone? How come they always run upstairs and never outside when being chased? These may be fictional scenarios we’ve seen on the screen many times, but real-world businesses are [...]
Why take-up of shared parental leave is so dismally low — and the solution November 20, 2019 When the government introduced shared parental leave back in 2015, the idea was to encourage more fathers to stay home to care for their young children so that new mothers could go back to work if they want to. It was hoped that this in turn would go some way to closing the gender pay [...]
McDonnell wields his corporate cattle prod November 20, 2019 While Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson slogged it out on TV last night, the City was still digesting the latest softly-spoken assault by Labour’s shadow chancellor. John McDonnell doesn’t fly into fits of outrage, not even when attacking the “obscene wealth” of billionaires. He appeared to unveil plans for the biggest revolution in company law [...]
Keep calm, and don’t get carried away by lurid rumours about the Russia report November 20, 2019 One of the great mysteries of this election campaign to date has been why an unpublished report should be the cause of great and sustained political hysteria. This document has been cited by numerous sources as of pivotal significance to national security. Even Hillary Clinton — remember her? — has popped up to opine solemnly [...]
DEBATE: Will more government subsidies help solve the childcare crisis for working parents? November 20, 2019 Will more government subsidies help solve the childcare crisis for working parents? Harini Iyengar, GLA candidate for the Women’s Equality Party, says YES. I am answering “yes” to this question — but I would first reframe it as greater government investment, not a subsidy. While childcare is traditionally framed as a cost, raising the next [...]