The UK trade team had better up its game – and fast July 12, 2019 Yesterday, on talkRADIO, secretary of state for work and pensions Amber Rudd confirmed that, regardless of who wins the Conservative leadership contest, the option to leave the EU without a deal will be “part of the armoury” for the new government. While not quite the “do or die” remarks that Boris Johnson gave to the [...]
Give me a fulcrum and lever long enough: London’s engineers are moving the world July 12, 2019 British ideas continue to move the world. Irrespective of the political developments around Brexit, the soft power and influence of our industrial intellectual property and engineering innovation benefits not just Britain, but transforms lives around the world. Today, London and the rest of the UK celebrate the fiftieth anniversary winner of the Royal Academy of [...]
DEBATE: Will Instagram’s new anti-bullying features help to make the social media platform safer? July 12, 2019 Will Instagram’s new anti-bullying features help to make the social media platform safer? Derek Roga, chief executive of EQUIIS Technologies, says YES. Instagram has been under a lot of pressure to tackle online bullies after a few highly publicised cases. With the government taking action against online bullying and finding ways to prevent it, the [...]
Vodafone rings cynical tone with token gesture on executive pay July 12, 2019 Talk about a late call. By the time Vodafone signalled a concession this week over long-term share awards granted to its top executives, the damage had already been done. The “voluntary request” (a phrase underlining the City’s talent for tortured tautology) made by Nick Read and Margherita Della Valle has stuck in the craw of [...]
Panorama revealed a Labour party that’s rotten to the core July 12, 2019 The Labour party has declared war on the BBC. In response to (in fact, ahead of) Wednesday night’s Panorama film about the party’s handling of antisemitism within its ranks, a concerted campaign was whipped up online to discredit the journalist at the helm, John Ware. How times change. Back in 2002 a group of MPs [...]
Deutsche Bank: saved in the nick of time? July 11, 2019 Will this be seen as the week when the Deutsche Bank supertanker started to turn, or began to list? The scale of the restructuring announced by chief executive Christian Sewing was certainly dramatic, but it left many in the City asking why the bank had waited so long before attempting to change course. Traders in the [...]
In the case of sugar, the nanny state really does know best July 11, 2019 Boris Johnson created a furore last week by announcing that he was considering getting rid of the so-called sugar tax. Was he right to question the levy, or does it serve a purpose? Introduced in April 2018, manufacturers now have to pay more tax if their drinks contain a high amount of sugar. The producers [...]
DEBATE: Should ambassadors be political appointments? July 11, 2019 Following Sir Kim Darroch’s resignation, should ambassadors be political appointments? Olivia Utley, deputy editor at TheArticle, says YES. To repair a special relationship which has gone – to put it mildly – a little sour, the new Prime Minister needs to appoint a special kind of ambassador. Sir Kim, who spent most of his career [...]
Immigrants are building Britain’s fastest-growing businesses July 11, 2019 Too often, immigrants get a bad press. But we’re trying to change the narrative in today’s report Job Creators: The Immigrant Founders of Britain’s Fastest Growing Businesses. It reveals that – despite just 14 per cent of UK residents being foreign-born – 49 per cent of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses have at least one immigrant [...]
Oil and gas companies have no reason to fear divestment July 11, 2019 Petrol heads pay good money at the pumps