Boris Johnson picks Number 10 official as top civil servant August 31, 2020 Boris Johnson has reportedly chosen a Number 10 official as the head of the civil service, indicating the Prime Minister is pressing on with wide-sweeping reforms. Johnson will appoint Simon Case to head up the civil service on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times. Case was appointed as the PM’s temporary permanent secretary in Number [...]
Plastic carrier bag charge to double from April August 31, 2020 The price of plastic carrier bags will double from next Spring and extend to all shops in England, as the government ramps up its efforts against plastic pollution. The charge for single-use carrier bags will increase from 5p to 10p and small retailers – those employing 250 people or fewer – will no longer be [...]
UK consultants paid £100m to advise government on coronavirus August 31, 2020 Some of the UK’s largest consulting firms have reportedly been paid more than £100m to advise the government on its response to coronavirus. Delayed disclosures reveal a total of 106 contracts worth £109m have been agreed between various government departments and consulting firms such as PwC, Deloitte and McKinsey since the pandemic took hold in [...]
Gas Wars and The Hotgate August 31, 2020 2-3 months ago, a Defi presale would be 100 Ethereum (ETH) at the most. At that time, ETH was around $200. The sale lasted for a day or two, and the standard announcement was: “We are going to launch this project. We will launch it at this particular time. Buy it at Uniswap.” Fast forward [...]
Pandemic hysteria is blinding us to the virus’s real risks August 31, 2020 I have long held off writing this column, as I well know it will lead to some hysterical responses. Nevertheless, the credo of any good opinion writer surely must be to be fearless, to fly in the face of received opinion if the cause is just. And there has rarely been a greater need for [...]
Supporting young people’s education will create lasting value for London and the UK August 31, 2020 You’d have to be on a desert island to miss the fact that in recent weeks pupils across the capital have received their A-Level and GCSE exam results. This has been a year like no other. Not only has every school had to adapt and find new ways of working following closures forced by the [...]
Former Saga chief to return and invest £100m as part of equity raise plans August 30, 2020 Saga, the over-50s travel and insurance specialist, will welcome back former chief executive and chairman Roger de Haan as part of plans to raise £150m in fresh capital. De Haan sold Saga for £1.3bn in 2004 to private equity group Charterhouse. He will inject up to £100m into the company as part of the equity [...]
Spirits, telecoms and financial services set to be in UK-Australia trade deal August 30, 2020 Trade secretary Liz Truss will next week outline her plan to broker a UK-Australia trade deal that scraps tariffs for cars, clothing and spirits. Truss will tell MPs that talks are set to intensify between the two countries and that agreements on financial services, telecoms and technology could be in the deal, according to the [...]
Row over train operators’ finances threatens to hamper back to work plan August 30, 2020 The government’s back to work campaign, due to launch this week, could be derailed amid a row brewing with train operators. In March the coronavirus outbreak prompted ministers to take the UK’s trains under emergency measures for six months to protect them from any losses incurred by the 95 per cent slump in passenger numbers. [...]
UK ready to walk away from Brexit trade talks over state aid demands August 30, 2020 The UK has said it will walk away from post-Brexit trade talks if Brussels does not drop its demand to align with EU state aid rules. UK Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost has told his counterpart Michel Barnier that the UK is not willing to compromise on this point as the potential of a no-deal [...]
