Rachel Reeves urges Brits to buy stocks as she shuns risk-averse regulators July 15, 2025 Rachael Reeves has thrown her weight behind a campaign to get more Brits investing into stocks and shares as the Chancellor shunned the risk-averse culture of London’s financial regulators. In a wide-ranging address to City execs at Mansion House last night, Reeves vowed to place financial services “at the heart” of the government’s growth agenda [...]
AI browsers are about to become your biggest problem July 15, 2025 When AI agents – computer programs that use AI to do tasks and reach goals by themselves for a person or another system – become the default way people navigate the internet, the value chain will be rerouted, says Paul Armstrong very business that depends on digital reach is about to face a visibility crisis. [...]
Meta’s Llama: the strategic play behind the promise to democratise AI July 15, 2025 Meta has long promised to democratise AI, with Mark Zuckerberg frequently doubling down on his vision to make it “open and accessible” so that “everyone in the world benefits”. Yet instead, it’s been executing one of the most strategic power plays in Silicon Valley – wrapping its race for AI supremacy in the language of [...]
Sajid Javid joins calls to replace ‘unfit’ NHS with insurance model July 14, 2025 Former health secretary Sajid Javid has joined calls for a major overhaul of the National Health Service (NHS) that would see it replaced by a universal social insurance-based model. Javid said a “serious conversation with taxpayers” about how to fund the institution was “long overdue,” throwing his weight behind a paper by Policy Exchange which [...]
Tory MP formally denies sexual assault charges as trial date set July 14, 2025 A suspended Conservative MP has formally denied sexually assaulting two women at an exclusive private members’ club in London and will stand trial for the charges next summer. Patrick Spencer, who has represented Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituents since 2024, is accused of cupping the breasts of two different women over their clothes at [...]
Infrastructure capital trusts can help boost UK growth July 14, 2025 To plug the UK’s infrastructure funding gap, a new VCT-style ‘infrastructure capital trust’ could unlock billions in retail investment for crucial local projects, says Bernard Fairman An “encouraging” 0.1% improvement in growth forecasts might, if the Chancellor is right, indicate a more fruitful economic spell for the UK. This sounds optimistic. Sustained growth in this [...]
Buy UK: City stocks set for boost from Trump’s trade war with EU July 14, 2025 As the chaos around President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff agenda shows no sign of abating, brokers have thrown their weight behind UK stocks. Just this weekend, Trump threatened escalations with Mexico and the EU before slapping a 30 per cent levy on the 27-state bloc from August 1. But among the geopolitical noise, the UK [...]
High inflation ‘not sufficient’ to scupper Bank of England interest rate cuts July 14, 2025 June inflation data showing a 3.4 per cent year-on-year rise in prices would not put Bank of England officials off voting for an interest rate cut in August, leading economists have said. A Bloomberg poll of City analysts has predicted that inflation will remain above the Bank’s two per cent target as price growth is [...]
For first time ever, more small firms expect to shrink than grow July 14, 2025 More small business owners expect their firm will shrink, shut or be bought over next year than predict a year of growth – for the first time in at least 15 years. According to a poll by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), 27 per cent of bosses believe their company will downsize, be sold [...]
AI disrupts UK hiring for tech and entry level roles July 14, 2025 UK employers are significantly scaling back hiring roles at risk of being disrupted by artificial intelligence (AI), adding signs of a broader labour market slowdown. New data from McKinsey & Co revealed that online job postings fell 31 per cent in the three months to May, compared with the same period in 2022. Yet the [...]