Cromwell should fall – and so should all government statues October 9, 2018 For those of us whose first exposure was Monty Python’s song about him, it’s difficult to get animated about whether Oliver Cromwell’s statue should continue to adorn the parliamentary estate. But the legacy of the seventeenth century Lord Protector does seem to upset many, not least Brits of Irish descent. The historian Jeremy Crick recently renewed [...]
DEBATE: Would a scheme encouraging landlords to sell to private renters help solve the housing crisis? October 9, 2018 Would a scheme encouraging landlords to sell to private renters help solve the housing crisis? Will Tanner, director of Onward, says YES. Britain’s housing market has many flaws, but one of its most pernicious is the never-ending treadmill of private renting. The average renter in London today spends 40 per cent of their post-tax income [...]
A transition agreement would be enough to calm business nerves October 9, 2018 Two reports published yesterday paint radically different pictures of the future for post-Brexit Britain. This quarter’s Deloitte CFO survey makes for troubling reading. Concern over Brexit is at a record high, with 79 per cent of CFOs expecting a deterioration in the business environment, and just 12 per cent thinking now is a good time to [...]
Give businesses a tax-break to encourage investment, CBI tells Chancellor ahead of Budget October 9, 2018 Philip Hammond is under growing pressure to hand businesses a tax-break in the upcoming Budget to boost competitiveness. The CBI today echoed calls from the British Chamber of Commerce to increase the amount firms can invest without being taxed. The Annual Investment Allowance currently stands at £200,000 a year, but the CBI is calling for [...]
APPC merges with PRCA to form ‘united voice’ for lobbyists October 8, 2018 Members of the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC), the self-regulating body for professional lobbyists, have passed a vote to merge into the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), a trade association for people in the public relations sector, to form a “united voice” for the UK’s lobbyists. At a emergency general meeting of the [...]
Kremlin says Netherlands’ expulsion of Russian agents was a “misunderstanding” October 8, 2018 Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov today dismissed the charges against four Russian military intelligence (GRU) agents in the Netherlands as a "misunderstanding". The four agents were arrested by Dutch authorities in the middle of an attack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in April, and were later expelled from the country. "There [...]
Education secretary Damian Hinds blasted by statistics watchdog for ‘serious’ concerns over use of figures October 8, 2018 Education secretary Damian Hinds has been given a public dressing down by the statistics watchdog after his department made misleading and incorrect claims about England's schools. Sir David Norgrove, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, has written to Hinds urging him to hire analysts to check before future information is given out in speeches and [...]
Downing Street plays down EU rhetoric on a Brexit deal being close October 8, 2018 Downing Street today called for actions, not words from the EU as the clock ticks down on the Brexit talks. Speaking ahead of a crunch summit in Brussels next week, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said there are still "big issues" to be worked out before a deal can be agreed between the UK and [...]
Brand Boris: Johnson needs to shed his disrupter image if he wants to become a leader October 8, 2018 There was a particularly pithy Tweet doing the rounds just after the Conservative party conference last week: “in summary: Boris’s speech not good enough for him to take over; May’s not bad enough to be kicked out”. So, was Boris Johnson really just one speech away from leadership? Possibly. Because Boris, just like Donald Trump, “has [...]
DEBATE: Would creating a ‘Free Time Index’, as the Green Party suggests, improve wellbeing in the UK? October 8, 2018 Would creating a ‘Free Time Index’, as the Green party suggests, improve wellbeing in the UK? Leni Zneimer, WeWork general manager for UK and Ireland, says YES. There is an increasingly strong business case being made for prioritising employee wellbeing – and change on a national scale is long overdue. Research from ACAS estimates that mental [...]