George Osborne’s former adviser Rupert Harrison: Extra spending in Budget is ‘welcome’ March 10, 2020 Rupert Harrison has spent the last few weeks monitoring obscure economic indicators – everything from pollution in Chinese cities to traffic in Milan – in an effort to guide his clients at investment giant Blackrock through the worst market crisis since 2008. He’s no stranger to financial turbulence, however, having been chained at the hip [...]
Can the chancellor protect the UK economy from coronavirus? March 10, 2020 You have to feel sympathy for Rishi Sunak. Suddenly appointed as chancellor after the unexpected resignation of Sajid Javid, he found himself with just weeks to put together the first Budget of the Boris Johnson era. Any chance he could simply copy Javid’s homework was then dashed when the former chancellor gave the Times chapter [...]
DEBATE: Should the chancellor bend the fiscal rules to increase spending in his first Budget? March 10, 2020 Should the chancellor bend the fiscal rules to increase spending in his first Budget? Will Tanner, director of Onward, says YES. It is the prerogative of a twenty-first century chancellor to set the rules of your own tenure. Gordon Brown, George Osborne, Philip Hammond and Sajid Javid (who never delivered a Budget) all established the [...]
Downing Street to publish draft FTA before second round of trade talks March 9, 2020 Downing Street is planning to publish draft legal texts including a free trade agreement ahead of the second round of trade talks with the EU, government revealed today. Boris Johnson’s sherpa David Frost met with his counterpart Michel Barnier last week for the first round of talks, with both sides agreeing there were significant differences, [...]
Downing Street defends coronavirus strategy after Italy lockdown March 9, 2020 Downing Street said today the coronavirus will spread in a “significant way” across the UK, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson chaired a Cobra meeting on the outbreak. A Number 10 spokesman said Britain is still officially trying to contain the virus as part of its four-step coronavirus strategy. But the government said experts now believe [...]
UK must ‘think about trade-offs’ in post-Brexit trade talks, says Commission boss March 9, 2020 The UK must “make up its mind” about which trade-offs it is willing to accept when it comes to striking a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen has warned. The first round of talks, which took place in Brussels, ended last week with negotiators acknowledging there were serious gaps [...]
Coronavirus: Rory Stewart says authorities should look at shutting down the Tube March 9, 2020 The UK’S public transport systems and schools should be shut down early to combat the spread of Coronavirus, according to independent mayoral candidate Rory Stewart. Stewart said the “short-term economic damage” of shutting down Transport for London, for instance, would be worth it to “stave off a bigger spread”. It comes after London mayor Sadiq [...]
Sadiq Khan’s real opponent in the London mayoral election is Boris Johnson March 9, 2020 Just days into the formal mayoral election campaign and Sadiq Khan has already shown why he is arguably Labour’s most successful politician since Tony Blair. The mayor of London launched his re-election campaign last week by labelling the contest as a “referendum on rent control”, demanding central government grants him the power to cap rents [...]
Human ingenuity and working together will pull us through the coronavirus crisis March 9, 2020 Last week, Bank of England governor Mark Carney gave his economic view of the possible consequences of coronavirus: he expects it to cause “disruption” and not “destruction”. In saying this, he follows the measured words of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, who made the point that preparing for the worst is the job at hand. [...]
Coronavirus: Milan among cities quarantined in mass Italian lockdown March 9, 2020 Italy took the extraordinary step yesterday of quarantining 16m people in one of the country’s most prosperous regions as it ramped up its battle to halt the spread of Coronavirus. All 10m people from the region of Lombardy, including Italy’s financial capital Milan, have been placed into lockdown until 3 April, along with cities including Venice, Padua, Modena, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and [...]