Cocaine Bear, a drugged up warning for Netflix & co in the streaming wars December 6, 2022 Two ambulance workers rush inside a house where furniture is all over the place, and the walls are stained with blood. One of them opens a door, only to be attacked by a giant brown bear whose face is covered in – we quickly figure – human blood. These are the first 20 seconds of [...]
Explainer-in-brief: As MPs abandon politics, Sunak must call for unity December 5, 2022 Another week starts, and another swarm of Conservative MPs might announce they’re stepping out of politics. This will be Rishi Sunak’s crux today and for the foreseeable future, as the number of Conservatives saying they will stand down at the next election surpassed ten last week. One of the most notable announcements came from Sajid [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Behind Dominic Raab’s jail drives December 2, 2022 Dominic Raab is under the spotlight – again. After facing complaints of bullying from senior civil servants, he’s now accused of having led a failed prisons policy as Secretary for Justice. It emerged this week that prisons are so full that the Justice Department had to ask to use 400 police cells for inmates. Raab [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Britain is the piggy in the middle of EU-US trade tensions December 1, 2022 Emmanuel Macron is in the US this week to meet President Joe Biden and try to avoid a potential trade war. The subject is green subsidies, part of the colossal Inflation Reduction Act passed by Biden over summer. Biden wants to inject billions of dollars into US-made green technologies, and the EU is worried about [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Fresh overhauls to the Online Safety Bill November 30, 2022 People will instead be able to filter out the harmful content they don’t want to see.
Explainer-in-brief: All time high migration, but do we want more? November 29, 2022 Last week Keir Starmer came out saying that British businesses should cease their “immigration dependency” and source more of their workforce in the UK. Labour has always had a more centrist stance on immigration, but Sir Keir is keen to make clear he’s not going to unravel Brexit if he is elected. His stance echoes [...]
Explainer-in-briefs: Finding the energy for a fight over energy November 28, 2022 After housing, the next cause of rebellion for Conservative MPs seems to be energy. Last week ex-prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss joined the rebellion on onshore wind, siding with those who want to see the ban on new planning permissions removed. It is interesting, given that Johnson wasn’t a fan of onshore wind [...]
Terrible at times tables? Our reliance on fintechs doing our maths dents our income November 28, 2022 Londoners are the most “maths anxious” people in the UK. If reading this sentence sends a chill down your spine, then you’re probably one of the maths anxious people. The term is a little puzzling – do we mean people who are actually scared of numbers? After all, people seem to be scared of anything [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Tory row puts help for social housing on hold November 25, 2022 This week, the government pulled a vote on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to avoid an internal rift with Tory rebel MPs. The point of contention? The idea of top-down housing targets to be decided by central government. A total of 50 Conservative MPs have signed an amendment to the bill which would have [...]
Black Friday will have a black mark to its name if it ignores the climate question November 24, 2022 If you are walking past a colleague’s desk tomorrow, and their screen is full, not of the task due yesterday, but of Black Friday sales, they are one of the 76 per cent of customers hunting for discount deals. For some, the day of mega sales can be traced back to a Wall Street stock [...]