Lagarde’s challenges start close to home November 15, 2019 When things get heated at work it’s only a matter of time before someone proposes an “off site.” Getting away from the office and taking in new surroundings can work wonders for morale and facilitate fresh thinking. It was in this spirit that the new head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, whisked [...]
Laugh about the Lib Dems’ skills wallet all you like, but we’re all going to want one November 15, 2019 It is hard to think of a more unsexy name for a policy than the “skills wallet”. Juxtaposing two profoundly unexciting terms (as policy areas go, there’s nothing fun about skills, and “wallet” is the kind of word that starts to sound wrong if you say it in your head too many times), the Liberal [...]
Fancy a four-day work week? Look to the private sector, not misguided politicians November 15, 2019 Labour’s promise of a four-day work week was put through the wringer this week, when questions surfaced over whether the policy would apply to NHS employees. The shadow health secretary said it wouldn’t, the shadow chancellor promised it would, and suddenly people were wondering how the NHS would cope if it were to lose twenty [...]
British business needs more than a Brexit resolution November 15, 2019 With the election campaign now in full swing, the familiar ideological battle lines are being drawn: the size of the state, the NHS, and, of course, Brexit. The impact of Brexit uncertainty on enterprise has been discussed ad nauseam — but sadly, this hasn’t made it any less real. Numerous missed Brexit “deadlines” and ongoing [...]
DEBATE: Is the UK going to require higher taxes in the future? November 15, 2019 Whoever wins this election, is the UK going to require higher taxes in the future? Adam Corlett, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation and author of its report “The shifting shape of UK tax”, says YES. Tax is set to be a major battleground at the election. Labour has been upfront about its plans [...]
Tories deserve to win the economic battle November 14, 2019 The Conservatives have taken a fair bit of stick for their claim that “the cost of Corbyn” would come in at £1.2 trillion. Independent fact-checkers have dismissed the methodology and pointed out that it’s difficult for the Tories to cost Labour’s manifesto commitments when the manifesto hasn’t been published. Still, the £1.2 trillion figure isn’t [...]
Our Westminster politicians must pay heed to the Union November 14, 2019 Pollsters at election time are a funny breed. Like Father Christmas, they drop nuggets of data into the hands of grateful journalists and analysts hoping to make sense of what is going on around them, trying to drown out the noise of election campaigns and listen to what really matters. Yet the most interesting — [...]
Retraining course: The case for lifelong learning November 14, 2019 As the General Election race heats up, it was great to see the focus on adult skills and further education among the first announcements to be made by both the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party this week. Given that this area is often an afterthought by policymakers and politicians, long may this renewed focus [...]
DEBATE: Is ‘Equal Pay Day’ a valid part of the gender pay-gap debate? November 14, 2019 Is ‘Equal Pay Day’ a valid part of the gender pay-gap debate? Vivienne Artz, president of the industry networking group Women in Banking & Finance, says YES. What gets measured gets done. Equal Pay Day is calculated annually from the UK government’s datasets on the gender pay gap, and effectively represents the day each year [...]
How can you stop your credit card being sexist? November 14, 2019 Can a credit card be sexist? It’s not a question most people would have thought about before this week, but on Monday, the US financial regulator announced an investigation into claims of gender discrimination by Apple Card. The algorithms Apple Card used to set credit limits are, it has been reported, inherently biased against women. [...]