Labour’s pro-business boasts ring hollow October 28, 2024 Rachel Reeves once vowed that if Labour won they “would be the most pro-business government this country has ever seen”. With just two days to go until the Budget, that pre-election pledge appears to be in the gutter. Reassuring the business community was an essential part of Labour’s pitch for power, but almost everything they’ve [...]
The walls are closing in on the Chancellor October 23, 2024 With just one week to go until the Budget (arguably one of the most consequential in recent memory) economists, investors, analysts (and most certainly journalists) are scouring everything from tea leaves to official data for indications of what exactly the Chancellor is going to say next Wednesday. Most people agree that her choices are limited [...]
It’s hard work working out what ‘working people’ means October 22, 2024 Politicians do like to lump people together. In recent years we’ve had the squeezed middle, the just-about-managing, hard working families and (who could forget?) Nick Clegg’s “alarm clock Britain.” To this list of amorphous jargon we must now add “working people.” Labour figures have been leaning on the phrase for months, not least as part [...]
Labour must pull back from the brink and support the UK’s founders October 21, 2024 With half term holidays upon us, Portugal is a safe bet for a bit of winter sun. The forecast for Lisbon this week is 24 degrees and sunny, whereas London is set to be much cooler with rain sweeping in by Friday. Things may get even gloomier when the Chancellor unveils her Budget next week. [...]
When it comes to national insurance, the government is pulling a fast one October 16, 2024 One of the many problems the government has got itself into over tax rises that may or may not appear in the upcoming Budget is an oversimplification of where the cost of a certain tax falls. Ministers and their supporters talk about Capital Gains Tax as if it only lands on rich people selling off [...]
Starmer did well with the CEOs, but he can’t ignore the start-up founders October 15, 2024 It rained pretty much all day in the City of London yesterday, but this didn’t stop Keir Starmer basking in the warm glow of success. Despite complaints about a chaotic organising process in recent weeks, and a bit of real-time grumbling on the day itself, the Prime Minister’s investment summit was a triumph. A tightly [...]
Starmer’s big day in the City October 14, 2024 The Guildhall, in the heart of the City of London, has been a vital commercial centre for hundreds of years. The main building, in which the Prime Minister will this morning address an impressive gathering of CEOs and investors, dates from the 15th century and a time when powerful merchants exercised huge influence over the [...]
Labour’s arrogance is disrespectful to business October 10, 2024 When it emerged that Boris Johnson reportedly muttered “f**K business” during a meeting as Prime Minister, he was rightly castigated. For many people it marked an emphatic break in the relationship between government and the private sector. We might not be able to point to any similarly totemic moment in Keir Starmer’s first three months [...]
Chancellor’s tightrope walk will leave us holding our breath October 8, 2024 By tradition, Chancellors are allowed a stiff drink at the despatch box as they deliver their Budget. Parliamentary records tell us that Gladstone enjoyed sherry and beaten egg while the most recent Chancellor to indulge in this ancient right, Ken Clarke, opted for a straight whiskey. Since then, there’s been nothing but water in the [...]
It wasn’t supposed to be this way, was it? October 7, 2024 Kremlinology is an old Cold War concept referring to the study of key individuals high up in the Soviet government. Who was in favour, who hadn’t been seen in a while, who was winning power struggles and who had been shot; Western analysts devoured such intelligence in an effort to understand who was actually in [...]
