Boris Johnson’s calorie labelling plan is well-intentioned but economically inept July 27, 2020 Let me start with a concession to the Prime Minister: not all the policies in his anti-obesity drive are outright objectionable. Banning food advertising and telling shopkeepers where they can and can’t stock their products are obvious and unacceptable intrusions, whatever their intended goal. But as a liberal economist, I am prepared to consider some [...]
Stamp duty cut makes UK buyers among Europe’s lowest taxpayers July 27, 2020 The government’s emergency stamp duty cut means buyers in the UK now pay among the lowest in tax in Europe, even on a prime property. British buyers are now paying just 1.93 per cent of a property’s value in tax compared to the European average of 4.53 per cent, a new study by accountancy network [...]
Two Londoners clean up after flipping their business into sanitiser bays July 24, 2020 Two twenty-something Londoners are set to clean up after pivoting their mobile charging units firm into a hand sanitiser supplier. Hugo Tilmouth and Charlie Baron were set to launch ChargedUp, a network of mobile phone charging units which would sit in public places across the capital. But as Covid-19 hit, the firm – backed by [...]
The Friday Interview: London Cocktail Week back for 2020 July 24, 2020 It’s been a grim few months for the bar industry, but there’s good news on the horizon: London Cocktail Week will be back in October, with a focus on driving revenues into the hands of the watering holes that need them most. In the latest in his Friday Interview series, shining a light on the [...]
Counting the human cost of Covid — and of leaving small business owners behind July 23, 2020 The daily lists of cases, tests and R numbers tell a tale of the scale of the Covid-19 crisis, but they don’t always explain the full story of the cost on people’s lives. ACCA and the Corporate Finance Network (CFN) are running a tracker poll among accountancy firms representing more than 22,000 small businesses to [...]
Social responsibility belongs in the boardroom, not the marketing suite July 23, 2020 The issues that concern young people the most today — from the climate crisis and global pandemic to new conversations on race and privilege — are ones that also belong in the boardroom. Our world is changing fast, and so too are society’s expectations of corporate Britain — not just when it comes to the [...]
Trump offers message of support to Ghislaine Maxwell July 22, 2020 President Donald Trump has said that he wished alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell well, noting that he had met her multiple times in the past, but he had little else to say on the case involving the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump, speaking at his first coronavirus briefing in weeks yesterday, was asked if he [...]
Investors capitalise on market volatility with millennials leading the charge July 21, 2020 Investors have remained bullish on markets despite the pandemic and millennials are leading the charge. More than half of global investors are positive about the market and are looking to invest in the near future, even in the face of the coronavirus-induced volatility. A survey by global funds network Calastone found 54 per cent of [...]
Blockchain technology will only reach its full potential through industry cooperation July 21, 2020 Blockchain has come a long way since I first entered the space in 2011. Back then, altcoins were all just forks of Bitcoin, the same code with some cosmetic differences here and there. These days, we have multiple generations of blockchain with entirely different systems, each with varying and exciting capabilities. There has been a [...]
Experience you can count on: Older workers are an untapped pool of business talent July 17, 2020 Businesses of all sizes across the UK are grappling with how to emerge from the Covid lockdown, re-engage with their customers and suppliers, and — for many in more adversely impacted sectors — sadly how to make parts of their workforce redundant. Job cuts have obviously been a major concern, as evidenced by the chancellor’s [...]