The City is wise to wince at McDonnell’s statism November 18, 2019 This newspaper has, in the past, given credit to John McDonnell for his honesty and for his openness with the City. We may not have welcomed his ideas, but we’ve often acknowledged that he has at least been upfront about his plans for government and has ventured into City boardrooms to explain his thinking more [...]
Sajid Javid: My pitch to the businesses of Britain November 18, 2019 Britain’s 6m businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. They have driven employment to record highs, with wages outstripping inflation. And they have made our country a hotbed of furious innovation in products and services. We would all like to see higher economic growth — after a decade of recovery from the last Labour government [...]
You just can’t keep the staff these days… November 18, 2019 As we enter the next phase in political campaigning, and Christmas parties are interrupted by the forthcoming election, HR departments might want to brace themselves for the next potential wave of uncertainty. According to 16,000 UK workers recently surveyed by Totaljobs and Universum, over half of employees expect to move jobs in the next 12 [...]
DEBATE: Is there a case for Labour’s ‘free broadband’ proposals? November 18, 2019 Is there a case for Labour’s ‘free broadband’ proposals? Miranda Hall, a researcher at the New Economics Foundation and co-author of forthcoming report on digital infrastructure for Common Wealth, says YES. Without internet you can’t look for a job, receive childcare and housing benefits, or keep in touch with friends. But across the UK, digital [...]
Business cannot afford to sleep through this election November 18, 2019 Things can only get better — 1997, and not only a song for D:ream but an anthem that swept Tony Blair’s New Labour from obscurity to office. His hand-written message to the nation was “do it”. Do what? None of us knew, but who cared? The country opened its heart in droves at the ballot [...]
Creative monetary policy alone won’t spur sustainable economic growth November 18, 2019 The latest decision from the European Central Bank to reactivate quantitative easing to revitalise the comatose Eurozone economy has been met with scepticism — this time even by central bankers in the Eurozone. The doubters within the central banking community are now openly voicing their disagreement with such monetary policy tools. Monetary policy in the [...]
To tackle the challenges of our age, UK and EU finance firms must work together November 18, 2019 The economy is a hot topic this election campaign, but one issue which is attracting little attention so far is the value and significance of financial and professional services. According to new data from the Office for National Statistics, the UK exported £82bn of financial services last year, up £4bn on 2017. This gives us [...]
Labour hasn’t factored BT’s pensions black hole into its nationalisation plan November 16, 2019 Here’s a riddle: how do you spend several billion pounds of taxpayers’ money and get nothing but a bunch of smiling accountants in return? The answer: tear Openreach out of BT, as Ofcom attempted a few years ago and Labour now proposes as part of its plan to nationalise the provision of ultrafast broadband. Read [...]
Will the Tories win the General Election? It’s all in the mind November 15, 2019 What can psychology tell us about the result of the General Election? Voting is irrational. You probably don’t need me to tell you that, seeing how crazy the political world has become recently. But it is an established principle in psychology, and it’s called the Paradox of Voting. Think about it. Why bother to vote [...]
Did the BBC conspire to make Boris look better on TV? No. November 15, 2019 During my Masters degree in journalism I spent some time working for the BBC’s Daily Politics, now known as Politics Live. The show was produced and broadcast from the BBC’s Westminster studios in Millbank, and every day it was all hands on deck as a team of editors, producers, guest-bookers, script writers, presenters and technical [...]