Deutsche Bank: saved in the nick of time? July 11, 2019 Will this be seen as the week when the Deutsche Bank supertanker started to turn, or began to list? The scale of the restructuring announced by chief executive Christian Sewing was certainly dramatic, but it left many in the City asking why the bank had waited so long before attempting to change course. Traders in the [...]
Labour should be riding high, instead they’re drowning in scandal and incompetence July 9, 2019 With the Tory party engaged in a civil war (albeit one tempered by the Queensbury Rules) a competent opposition could expect to spend the summer shoring up a lead in the polls and presenting itself as a government in waiting. Unfortunately for the Labour party, competence eludes them. Yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn was finally forced off [...]
Hunt is right to take a firm line on China July 5, 2019 Jeremy Hunt has been talking tough on China. Is this because he’s the foreign secretary or because he’s in the fight of his life to become Prime Minister? In a way, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the UK stands up to China on a matter of law. The two countries signed the Joint [...]
Lagarde’s ECB job is a victory for Macron and a chance for Osborne July 5, 2019 The chatter in Paris is that Emmanuel Macron has played a blinder. On Monday night he was raging to the media about the shoddy state of EU decision making, but by Wednesday evening he was patting himself on the back. Macron pushed Ursula von der Leyen as a compromise candidate for Commission president, simultaneously helping [...]
Should 160,000 Tories choose our next Prime Minister? Yes, actually June 28, 2019 Discussing the Tory leadership election on Sky News earlier this week, host Adam Boulton asked me why the party members seemed so relaxed about Boris Johnson’s controversial private life. “Isn’t this the party of family values?” Boulton asked. It’s a fair point. Three quarters of the party’s 160,000 members believe that “young people today don’t [...]
Attracting talent from India is crucial for UK success June 24, 2019 Three years ago today, as the country absorbed the result of the EU referendum, few people were talking about the intricacies of trade policy, the complexity of bilateral negotiations or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Three years on, and while the country appears no closer to a negotiated exit than it was 1,000 [...]
There’s a first time for everything… including marrying your friends June 21, 2019 Over the years I’ve ticked off most of the public speaking formats. I’ve enjoyed after dinner speeches, panel discussions, debates and events of all sizes. Last week, I ticked off another category of performance by conducting my friends’ wedding. The only other time I’d been as surprised at a suggestion was when the proprietors of [...]
The leadership race has reignited the party’s capitalist spirit June 17, 2019 The man most likely to be the next Prime Minister will this morning sit down with 25 leading City figures in a bid to mend relations with the business community. Boris Johnson reportedly said “f**k business” when confronted with industry groups’ concerns over Brexit last year. The remarks have hung around his neck ever since [...]
Editor’s Notes: Davos – a festival of irrelevance and hypocrisy January 25, 2019 Davos brings the same delights every year. From the press release about the number of private jet movements to Oxfam’s annual criticism of the global super-rich, there are predictable elements to this week-long event. Another thing you can always be assured of is that some staggering hypocrisy will be on display. I came across a [...]
Bank of England governor Mark Carney tries, and fails, to prevent Brexit analysis frenzy November 28, 2018 House prices plummeting 31 per cent. Unemployment shooting up to 9.5 per cent. GDP collapsing by 4.3 per cent amid a sharp recession. These were the scenarios the Bank of England used to conduct its mandated “stress test” for some of the UK’s biggest financial companies back in 2016. Last year, the wonks at Threadneedle Street [...]
