How banks should be looking at the climate change challenge September 26, 2019 Mitigating the impact of climate change is not just an environmental responsibility – it is also an economic necessity. This is a clear message as global leaders met for the UN Climate Summit this week in New York. The impact of climate change will only intensify over time: rising seas and greater storm surges alone [...]
Strap in, impeaching Trump is going to be a bumpy a ride September 26, 2019 On Tuesday night, speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into the unlawful conduct of the US President. Donald Trump is therefore almost certainly going to become the third American President in history to be impeached by the House – the first step in a long process that could signal [...]
This is no time to turn fire on the judiciary September 25, 2019 The decision of the Supreme Court to find Boris Johnson’s conduct unlawful was truly momentous and will have consequences not just for immediate political considerations but for the future understanding of our constitution. The judgment itself also allowed those who would seek it to find some perspective, relying as it did on a court ruling [...]
We should celebrate the glory of Britain’s unwritten constitution September 25, 2019 For most of the Cold War, there sat in a safe in Whitehall a 16-chapter document. It was a game plan for when the bombs started falling. In four minutes, as the warning sirens wailed, the United Kingdom would be turned from a constitutional monarchy to 12 regional mini-kingdoms. Each would be overseen by a [...]
Watch out for the unintended ripples of the Supreme Court verdict September 25, 2019 There are times in the life of a nation when a single decision made by an authority can have ramifications well beyond the narrowness of the issue at hand. When the US Supreme Court decided in Roe versus Wade in 1973 that a pregnant woman should have the freedom to choose to have an abortion [...]
DEBATE: With Labour’s plans to scrap private schools, should the state have a monopoly on providing education? September 25, 2019 With Labour’s plans to scrap private schools, should the state have a monopoly on providing education? Maya Goodfellow, a freelance writer and author of Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats, says YES. Private schools are designed to give some children a leg up – if they weren’t, what would be the point of paying for [...]
In such volatile times, the safest assets aren’t necessarily what investors think September 25, 2019 Given the climate of intense uncertainty, the FTSE index remains remarkably resilient. It currently sits almost bang in the middle of the 7,000-7,600 range, where it has been since the beginning of January 2017. Brexit does not seem to trouble share prices. Nor do the threats by John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor, to carry out [...]
Seven steps to quitting your job and creating the life you want September 24, 2019 As summer becomes a distant memory and the commute gets more crowded, you might be daydreaming about leaving your job forever. At this time of year, lots of people are secretly tempted to quit office life to create a “be your own boss” career that suits their personality and the life they want. However, while [...]
There’s something important that Corbyn still needs to learn from Tony Blair September 24, 2019 To say that the Labour party conference hasn’t been going quite as the leadership might have intended would be something of an understatement. There have been the usual volcanic rows about Brexit, an abortive coup against deputy leader Tom Watson, the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn’s policy chief with a statement machine-gunning the leader’s most senior [...]
Small but mighty: SME export champions deserve to be heard September 24, 2019 Anyone watching the news earlier this month may have spotted figures showing the UK trade deficit narrowing by £14.9bn to £2.9bn in the three months to July. This is of course a promising sign of the UK’s future trading position. Yet these figures miss a big part of the story: the role of the UK’s [...]