Politicians are wading in abstract sentiments, it won’t win votes November 8, 2023 Rishi Sunak can be forgiven for not weighing down the King’s Speech. Political parties can't win unless they explain what they will do.
A toast to the pubs, restaurants and cafes that keep London alive November 7, 2023 Many people harbour a secret – and not so secret – desire to run a restaurant, a pub, or a teashop. Many who make the leap find it rather more difficult than they’d expected; the margins are non-existent, the hours are often utterly miserable and thanks to the rise of anonymous reviews, social media and [...]
It’s time for politicians to stop fighting the Brexit battle November 6, 2023 Today a new report claims to show that Brexit “has not had a major detrimental effect on UK–EU trade”.
London’s exchanges are losing companies again. It needs to stop. November 2, 2023 Even by recent standards, this has not been a banner week for London's stock exchanges.
Without the City, this country wouldn’t work November 2, 2023 Every day half a million people pile into the Square Mile, and many more beyond it, to ensure the wheels of UK finance keep spinning around.
Cummings’ insults are petty distraction from grim lockdown lessons November 1, 2023 The originator of the phrase is lost to the vagaries of time, but talk to enough people in the pubs of Westminster about the inner workings of British politics and sooner or later someone will offer it up.“The only difference between Westminster and The Thick of It,” they’ll say, referring to the foul-mouthed BBC comedy, [...]
Britain must remember its post-Holocaust pledge: never again October 31, 2023 The last day of October, and the last day of a month that will live in infamy. Hamas’s attacks on Israeli citizens just over three weeks ago have triggered a Middle East conflagration that threatens to become a defining conflict of our age. It is to their credit that the British government, so far, has [...]
Cash isn’t the problem – the public sector isn’t innovating fast enough October 30, 2023 Broken Britain? The latest report from the Institute for Government (IfG) certainly suggests exactly that.Name a public service, and the IfG identifies the many different ways in which they’re underperforming.It is easy to place the blame exclusively on one factor: cold hard cash. But it is much, much more complex than that. Leadership, accountability and [...]
Why ditching the bankers’ bonus cap was the right choice – even if it’s largely just a signal October 25, 2023 The likelihood of the banker bonus cap being removed making a tangible difference, in and of itself, to London’s competitiveness is relatively minimal. But as a signal of a willingness to back the City, it’s not bad at all. It’s worth reminding ourself of how the bonus cap came into being. A political reaction to [...]
Lyons’s tenure as Lord Mayor is a shining example of leadership at its best October 24, 2023 A year is a long time in the Square Mile. Extraordinarily, it is coming up to the end of the current Lord Mayor’s 12 months at the helm. Venture capital firms signing up to put their heft behind the Mansion House reforms, spearheaded by its incumbent Nicholas Lyons, is another success for a Lord Mayor [...]
