100,000 Londoners join protests around the world marching for equality – and against Donald Trump January 21, 2017 Over 100,000 people marched through London today in support of women’s rights, joining groups around the world in protests spurred by the inauguration of Donald Trump as US President against discriminatory policy. Protesters marched from the US embassy in Mayfair to Trafalgar Square to show support for a wide variety of causes, including equality and access to reproductive healthcare. [...]
Full steam ahead: Tunnelling for the £1.2bn Northern Line extension starts in March January 20, 2017 The first extension to the Tube network since the Jubilee line in the late '90s kicks off in March, as tunnelling gets underway to branch out the Northern line. Sadiq Khan has announced that tunnelling will get underway to create the £1.2bn extension of the line between Kennington and Battersea. Two 650-tonne boring machines (each the length [...]
Freezing Londoners’ travelcards would have cost City Hall £132m a year January 19, 2017 Expanding London Mayor Sadiq Khan's controversial fares freeze to include Londoners' travelcards would cost City Hall a total of £132m a year. Khan campaigned on the basis of freezing the capital's travel costs for four years, but it later emerged that this would affect only a limited selection of travel costs. Only single and pay-as-you-go fares are including [...]
London mayor Sadiq Khan issues London-wide air quality alert due to pollution “crisis” January 19, 2017 The mayor has issued air quality alerts across the capital, with moderate pollution expected until the weekend across 17 boroughs. Some boroughs in particular are expected to have the worst of it today: Westminster, City of London, Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston and Hounslow and Wandsworth. There is also a chance of moderate nitrogen dioxide [...]
Ditch the congestion charge for road pricing, London Assembly Transport Committee tells Sadiq Khan January 19, 2017 The current congestion charge is "no longer fit for purpose" and road pricing should be rolled out instead, says the London Assembly Transport Committee. In London Stalling, a report released today, the committee urges the mayor to change the current system and bring in a way of charging people for road usage that is targeted at [...]
“Privileged” Single Market access is critical for London, says Khan January 18, 2017 London mayor Sadiq Khan will brand "privileged" Single Market access as "critical" for the capital in his response to Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit speech. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Khan will say getting a good deal on trading into the Single Market should be May's top priority in her negotiations with [...]
Sadiq Khan blames Tube strike troubles on “toxic hangover” left from Boris Johnson’s industrial relations January 18, 2017 Sadiq Khan came out swinging for his first Mayor's Question Time of the year, blaming strike troubles on "a toxic hangover" from Boris Johnson's mayoralty. The mayor has come under fire from London Assembly Conservative members for breaking his "zero days of strikes" made on his campaign trail. "What happened last week was the result [...]
Volkswagen shares crash in line with brand woe January 18, 2017 With consumer-facing companies that rely heavily on a single brand there is often a strong relationship between public perception of that brand as measured daily by BrandIndex, and the company’s share price. An example of this is Volkswagen and its emissions scandal where the fundamental driver of the decline in its share price was a [...]
Donald Trump’s business meddling: Crony capitalism to a Tea January 17, 2017 To understand why many large businesses and pro-market US policy wonks are anxious about a Donald Trump presidency, one has to understand the lessons of the Tea Party. No, not the recent grassroots phenomenon caricatured in the UK media. I’m talking about the Boston Tea Party of 1773 – in which American colonists, belonging to [...]
Post-trust society: We now trust algorithms more than politicians, journalists or business leaders January 16, 2017 In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, many Remain types pointed to "post-truth" – but new research suggests the UK is more post-trust, after the public's faith in politicians, business and the media plummeted. Edelman's trust barometer showed public trust in the government fell 10 percentage points between 23 December and 9 January, from 36 per cent [...]