So you’ve won over Workington Man — what next? December 11, 2019 What do you do if you’re a Conservative leader whose flagship policy has split your party down the middle, with the result that you lost your working majority live on air as a coterie of former allies quit in protest? Answer: cast your net further afield. This is the Tories’ “Workington Man” strategy — the [...]
Are the televised election debates a waste of time in their current format? December 11, 2019 Are the televised election debates a waste of time in their current format? Stuart Thomson, head of public affairs at BDB Pitmans, says YES. Despite everyone’s hopes, the televised leadership debates have been a complete damp squib. They have been a waste of everyone’s time, revealing little that we didn’t already know and failing to [...]
Britain needs a ‘national’ health service, not a ‘nationalised’ one December 11, 2019 Throughout this election campaign, the Labour party has returned time and time again to the issue of NHS “privatisation”. This won’t have come as a surprise to anyone. Indeed, it is now standard fare during elections for the argument to be put that the government of the day is pursuing “backdoor” or “creeping” privatisation. But [...]
Institute of Directors members criticise Labour nationalisation plans December 11, 2019 Members of the Institute of Directors business body have criticised Labour’s plans to nationalise broadband, with 75 per cent of members calling the policy a bad idea in a poll. In a survey of over 1,000 of its members, the IoD also found that Labour’s broader plans to nationalise swaths of the economy would result [...]
Election 2019: Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson plan last-ditch tour of UK ahead of voting day December 10, 2019 The country’s political parties will be going hell-for-leather on the last day of the campaign, as all sides try to convince a divided and confused electorate to back them at the polls on Thursday. Boris Johnson, who is hammering home his message that the country risks another a hung parliament, is remaining north for much [...]
Poll predicts Tory majority of 28, halved from a fortnight ago December 10, 2019 In a further sign that the election polls are narrowing, a comprehensive poll conducted by YouGov suggested the expected Tory majority to be 28 – a significant fall from the 68 they predicted a fortnight ago. The final MRP poll of 2019 found that were the election to be held tomorrow, the Conservatives would be [...]
Election 2019: From Cities and Kensington to East Devon and Esher – these are the seats where (almost) anything could happen December 10, 2019 It might have felt inevitable since Boris Johnson took the reins this summer, but the 2019 election is still hard to call. A consensus is building up around a slim majority for the Conservatives of around 20-30 seats – enough for Johnson to return to Number 10 and push his vision of Brexit through. But [...]
Business groups call on next government to boost lacklustre growth December 10, 2019 Business groups have called on the next government to tackle the slowing UK economy after data today showed British GDP stagnated in October. The economy’s performance was below expectations of a 0.1 per cent expansion, but marked an improvement from the 0.1 per cent drop witnessed a month earlier, figures from the Office for National [...]
US Congress and White House agree ‘best deal ever’ to replace Nafta December 10, 2019 US President Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi have agreed on a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with Canada and Mexico. The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives gave her support for the USMCA this afternoon. Read more: US and Canada quash fears with last-minute deal to revamp Nafta In exchange [...]
Pre-Election market update December 10, 2019 | City Talk The famous (or infamous) cliché ‘Buy the rumour, sell the fact’ is commonly used in the financial markets. But it contains a significant element of truth. It has been seen in the performance of the pound versus the dollar and euro since Boris Johnson ascended to the premiership. Having suffered heavily for most of 2019, [...]