Autumn Budget: Which taxes will Rachel Reeves hike? October 22, 2024 With the Autumn Budget set to be delivered in just a few days, speculation about which taxes Chancellor Rachel Reeves will opt to raise has reached fever pitch. On entering No 11 Downing Street, Reeves commissioned the Treasury to conduct a thorough spending audit, which she claimed unearthed a “fiscal black hole” of £22bn, paving [...]
Will carbon capture work? Nobody knows – and that’s the problem October 16, 2024 UK’s clumsy carbon capture punt is result of top down intervention – but there’s a better way, writes Paul Ormerod The government confirmed this month the funding for the UK’s first carbon capture sites. The technology, it is claimed, captures CO2 emissions before they reach the atmosphere and stores them away safely. Based on Merseyside [...]
The Notebook: Starmer leading like a civil servant isn’t working October 14, 2024 And it is leading to dangerous, unwanted and undemocratic policymaking – like the introduction of bank spying powers, writes Silkie Carlo This weekend marked 100 days of the new Labour government – a period of deliberate doom and gloom rather than honeymoon. As I wrote in my Notebook for this paper upon his election, Sir [...]
Nuclear war is not just an 80s TV dystopia, it could happen October 10, 2024 Can we sit calmly when there are 12,000 nuclear warheads in the world? Will Cooling reflects on the continued possibility of nuclear war
New sanctions unit launched with ‘enhanced powers’ to fine businesses October 10, 2024 The UK government has launched a new unit to crackdown on businesses that are in breach of UK sanctions, in an effort to strengthen Britain's sanctions regime
Why Panama is an undiscovered wonder for nature lovers October 9, 2024 I spot a cayman a couple of metres away on the umber riverbank. It is as still as a park bench, its jaws wide open. I’m not describing a Porsche Cayman with its bonnet up awaiting a recovery truck, I’m talking about a crocodile with a hungry look in its eyes. It surveys me with [...]
Russian spies plotting to cause ‘mayhem’ on streets of UK and Europe October 8, 2024 The Russian intelligence service is on “a sustained mission to generate mayhem” on UK streets, the head of MI5 has warned. Ken Mccallum said GRU agents have carried out “arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions” in Britain amid the UK’s support for Ukraine in the war between the two nations. Speaking at the counter-terrorism operations [...]
Why Georgia’s capital Tbilisi is the most fascinating city in Europe October 7, 2024 Towering over the Georgian capital of Tbilisi is Mtatsminda Park, a Soviet-era fairground and gardens set atop a craggy hill. Accessed by a funicular railway, you will find a host of terrifying, creaky old amusement rides, including the 65-metre-high Giant Wheel, which seems to bow outwards over the edge of a sheer cliff. Dotted around [...]
Elliott’s appeal over London Metal Exchange nickel shutdown dismissed October 7, 2024 A UK court has dismissed Elliott Investment Management bid to appeal a decision in the nickel case against the London Metal Exchange.
The ECHR is a vital guarantor of our freedom October 3, 2024 Far from endangering our freedoms, the ECHR makes the individual, not the state, the centre of the international order, says Sam Fowles An immutable law of modern politics is that the louder a politician bloviates about “freedom” the more authoritarian they will be in power. The last government waxed lyrical about “freedom of speech” then [...]