Government’s communications failures can be remedied – if they’re fixed soon January 12, 2021 The Prime Minister’s lockdown announcement last week has left a collective sense of déjà vu and a frustration at seemingly being back to square one ten months into the pandemic. Whilst we are facing an evolved virus, a key component to our fight against the virus has not changed: human behaviour. Rallying behind an approach [...]
The case for investing in financials January 7, 2021 Entire tomes have been devoted to investing in the financial services sector – hardly surprising when you consider its size, and therefore its significance to the world’s capital markets. To say the financial sector is large doesn’t do it justice. Of the total market capitalisation of the S&P 500, the world’s largest stock market index, [...]
When will our lives begin? What I learned from 2020 — and from Disney’s Tangled December 31, 2020 Like so many people tasked with entertaining children over Christmas, I have spent the last week watching an inordinate amount of Disney. That is to be expected. What I did not expect was finding the ultimate lockdown song. I am talking of the opening number from Tangled, the 2010 version of Rapunzel, entitled “When will [...]
Bitcoin 2021 outlook and challenges in charts December 21, 2020 2020 has been crucial for Bitcoin, we see it as the year of legitimisation for the broader public and investors, accelerated by the COVID crisis and the consequent rapid escalation of QE. Our conversations with institutional clients have changed considerably over the course of 2020, what was typically a desire to speculatively invest has now [...]
Foreign aid isn’t charity, it’s an investment in our own prosperity December 15, 2020 When he announced his decision to cut UK foreign aid spending from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of GDP, chancellor Rishi Sunak, argued that the sum was hard to justify to the British people during a pandemic. In fact, it is not so hard. Aid is not charity, and its benefits are neither [...]
Supersizing DAZN: Why a UK launch is just the start of the sport streaming service’s global ambitions December 11, 2020 “Supersizing” is the buzzword of the moment at DAZN, the sport streaming service that finally launched in the UK this month. It’s an appropriate one, in that it reflects DAZN’s expansion to more than 200 countries, making it the first global platform of its kind. It is also suitably bullish for a company that is [...]
Four in 10 Londoners to switch jobs due to declining sector opportunities December 9, 2020 More than four in 10 (42%) Londoners are leaving their current jobs and sectors for fear there are declining job opportunities in their current line of work. Londoners are seeking job opportunities that are more stable and will not be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly half (49%) of those polled moving sector for [...]
Savings shortfall: 41% worry they won’t have enough to retire December 4, 2020 If you are worried you will not have enough saved for your retirement, you are not alone, a major new study has found. Figuring out how much you should save for your retirement is never easy. Your needs change over time, just as your income fluctuates. If you knew exactly how much you would earn [...]
Supermarket heavyweights the Co-op and Waitrose face mounting pressure to return business rates relief December 4, 2020 High street titans the Co-op Group and Waitrose are facing mounting pressure to follow their peers and hand back millions of pounds of business rates relief dished out to keep the companies afloat during the pandemic. The Co-op is facing growing disquiet from members after refusing to emulate rivals Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Aldi, [...]
Vaccine or no vaccine, Britain must relearn how to live with risk December 4, 2020 The approval this week of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the UK heralds the beginning of the end of this hellish pandemic. People are rejoicing — and rightly so. A vaccine was the light at the end of the Covid tunnel, and with the first doses due to be administered in a matter of days, there [...]