Time for the Treasury to get with the programme — Britain can afford to spend February 19, 2020 In the days of the old Soviet Union, so-called Kremlinologists would pore over every utterance of the Politburo, every sentence in Pravda, to try to work out what was really going on. Sajid Javid’s defenestration from the Treasury has led to an upsurge in similar types of intellectual effort here. What was it really all [...]
Brexit: EU hints at demand for Elgin Marbles in trade talks February 18, 2020 The EU is fighting back over Downing Street’s rejection of so-called level-playing field rules – and hinted that it may call for “cultural objects” to be removed from the UK. In a revised version of the negotiating mandate that Michel Barnier is expected to use when talks resume next week, the EU Council made clear [...]
Sadiq Khan calls for UK citizens to be made EU ‘associate citizens’ February 18, 2020 Sadiq Khan has called for Brussels to continue to allow British citizens freedom of movement within the EU with “associate citizenship” status. Khan met with Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt in Brussels today, who has been a long-time proponent of the idea, to discuss the possibility of allowing British nationals to travel and work in EU [...]
Asda sales slump due to ‘cautious’ Christmas shoppers February 18, 2020 Asda sales slumped over the crucial festive trading period due to “cautious” consumer spending, as shoppers reined in their Christmas lists. The supermarket giant said like-for-like sales excluding petrol dropped 1.3 per cent in the three months to the end of December. The sales drop was driven by “challenging market conditions”, particularly in Asda’s clothing [...]
New Cenkos appointment is second female chair of a UK stockbroker February 18, 2020 Cenkos has today announced the appointment of Lisa Gordon as its new chairman, the second female to be appointed as chair of a UK stockbroker. Gordon was the youngest woman to be made director of a listed company when she joined the board of media group Chrysalis at the age of 28. She is currently [...]
Pound rallies as UK employment hits record high and wages beat 2008 peak February 18, 2020 Wages beat their pre-financial crisis peak for the first time at the end of 2019, as the level of UK employment rose to a record high of 32.9m people. A total of 180,000 people entered the workforce between October and December 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today. That took the number of [...]
HSBC: Profit plunges as bank plans 35,000 job cuts February 18, 2020 HSBC has outlined plans to offload $100bn (£77bn) of assets and dramatically downsize its investment banking arm in a restructure that will cost 35,000 jobs over the next three years. Profit before tax tumbled by a third to $13.6bn in 2019, HSBC said as it revealed its most radical overhaul since the financial crisis in [...]
Ousting Sajid Javid could limit Boris Johnson’s options February 18, 2020 Any time a Prime Minister reshuffles his or her cabinet, there are bound to be disappointed ministers — or ex-ministers — turfed out from a job they enjoy in a system that can sometimes prize loyalty over ability. But last week’s surprise resignation of Sajid Javid, the UK’s short-lived chancellor, could actually limit Boris Johnson’s [...]
David Frost doesn’t sugar-coat it for the EU February 18, 2020 Trade deals are like sausages — it’s best not to see them being made. But while any UK-EU deal will certainly be the result of high compromise and low politics, Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator popped his head out of the factory door last night to offer some thoughts on his recipe for success. David Frost, [...]
A high-speed economy needs more than just a few extra trains February 18, 2020 History will show that productivity, not Brexit, was the economic issue of our age. And the new government has made a high-speed start. The focus on “levelling up” the UK economy — and a resultant focus on regional productivity — is completely right. The story of this country’s regional productivity is sometimes characterised solely as [...]