Dog Fight: Why competition must be at the heart of the Heathrow expansion project June 27, 2019 In 1968, the Roskill Commission recommended the expansion of Heathrow. Last week, the airport’s owner, Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL), said that it would finish increasing its size and capacity by 2050 – 31 years from now and 88 since the original findings. We need a bigger Heathrow sooner than that, one that can cater for [...]
A bold pro-business Prime Minister should let Liz Truss shake things up June 27, 2019 There’s another month to go until we have a new Prime Minister, but pro-market Conservatives can already start breathing a sigh of relief. For a start, both contenders for the top job have pledged to cut tax. Jeremy Hunt has promised to cut the rate of Corporation Tax from 19 per cent to 12.5 per [...]
The FCA must stop making excuses and act to avoid another GRG scandal June 27, 2019 It is six years since the damning accusations came to light that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) had been decimating small businesses for its own benefit. It was in fact a businessman, an adviser at the time to Vince Cable as business secretary in the coalition government, who uncovered and pulled together the dossier [...]
Like Boris, Jeremy Hunt should be wary of promising spending splurges June 27, 2019 Earlier this week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) performed a useful public service, placing Boris Johnson’s spending proposals under the microscope. The less-than-glowing conclusion was that the plans would be immensely expensive, and have the side-effect of helping wealthy retirees more than current workers. Today, the IFS has done the same favour for rival [...]
Istanbul has rekindled Turkey’s fight against religious autocracy June 26, 2019 Istanbul is one of the most famous cities in the world, on account of a storied history encompassing myriad great events. As Byzantium, it was first the fortress of the eastern Roman Empire and then the bastion of Orthodox Christianity. After its fall to the Turks in 1453, the newly-minted Constantinople became the capital of [...]
Through the smoke: The legal path to Britain’s cannabis market June 26, 2019 The great and the good of the global cannabis industry (which, for those behind the curve on such things, is no longer a contradiction in terms), are assembling in London for a dazzling set of events under the banner of European Cannabis Week. Even those who follow the headlines about the industry’s rapidly escalating size [...]
DEBATE: Is the obsessive focus from politicians on increasing home ownership misguided? June 26, 2019 Is the obsessive focus from politicians on increasing home ownership misguided? Clive Docwra, managing director of McBains, says YES. Politicians are obsessed with home ownership, including both contenders for Prime Minister. Jeremy Hunt has put a new “right to own” policy at the heart of his bid, while Boris Johnson has backed replacing Help to [...]
Tragedy awaits if we don’t bridge the gap between beliefs and reality in the NHS June 26, 2019 A tragic story over the weekend revealed how a man who died of lung cancer was failed abysmally by the NHS. Two separate sets of doctors omitted to tell him for over a year that he had the disease. The added poignancy of the news item was that the victim was a relative of Nye [...]
The special Anglo-American relationship is still worth celebrating – and defending June 25, 2019 To understand how close the relationship between Britain and America really is, consider a conversation that took place in December 2003, between the heads of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK’s GCHQ. There was intelligence, the US intelligence chief said, to suggest that al-Qaeda was planning a nuclear attack. So if [...]
DEBATE: Will character matter more than policy detail in the Tory leadership contest? June 25, 2019 Will character matter more than policy detail in the Tory leadership contest? Alex Deane, a Conservative commentator, says YES. Our members aren’t going to cast their votes based on policy minutiae. Plainly, whether or not you think that they should, they’ll be voting on character. When I say “character”, I don’t mean it in the [...]