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 [...]
The Met need to spend less time on Twitter – and more time policing October 23, 2023 For reasons that remain unclear, the Metropolitan Police feels it necessary to be present – and indeed active – on Twitter. It’s possible they’ve chosen to do so as a sort of safety valve for Londoners; somebody to vent at when the police choose not to investigate your bike being nicked or your house being [...]
Record rent rises are an existential challenge for London’s future October 19, 2023 It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who lives in London, but yesterday the capital clocked a record increase in private rental prices, with the cost of leasing a flat in the capital ticking up by 6.2 per cent in the year to September, up from 5.9 per cent in August. It is the [...]
Don’t stop the music, let Goldman Sachs chief DJ if he wants October 18, 2023 Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon will step down. No, not from his career at the top of the investment bank, but from what has been labelled his colourful side hustle – DJing. DJ-D Sol as he’s known on the circuit will only play privately for family and maybe friends after some of the stiff [...]
If we want change, we need to prioritise action over sensitivity October 12, 2023 Tonight a contingent of our staff will make the journey from City A.M. Towers to Canary Wharf, for KPMG’s Black Entrepreneurs Awards. It will be a heart-warming evening: 12 finalists, from startups to much bigger businesses, pitching their ideas in just three minutes to an array of judges. The winners walk home with some cash, [...]
Anti-Semitism in London is rife – it’s time the Met stood up to it October 11, 2023 In the days before the 2019 election, this paper published an editorial which asked – begged – its readers not to vote for Jeremy Corbyn. Not because of his economic policies (illiterate though they were), his instincts towards business (envious as they seemed) nor for any politically partisan reason: but because a Corbyn victory would [...]