Minimum wage set to rise to £9.50 per hour October 25, 2021 The National Living Wage will increase from £8.91 per hour to £9.50 in the Budget this week. The 59p an hour boost means a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will see a pay rise of more than £1,000 a year. This is a 6.6 per cent increase in the minimum wage, which is [...]
Ed Warner: Activity vouchers can solve post-Covid sport participation problem October 21, 2021 I addressed a bunch of politicians, advisors and sports industry types at a Westminster Forum this week on the challenges facing sport and the public funding priorities as we come out of the pandemic. The risk on these occasions is that you get caught in an echo chamber, telling the audience what it already thinks [...]
Sunak’s budget must navigate the Catch-22 of inflation and recovery October 21, 2021 There have been some pretty bleak backdrops to budget announcements over the years. In March 2008, Alistair Darling faced the daunting task of delivering a budget while the world was in the teeth of the financial crisis. Denis Healy’s April 1979 budget was surely the worst, after the government lost a vote of confidence. The [...]
Kenneth Murray CA: ‘Awareness, acceptance and accommodation of ADHD on the part of employers would be a powerful statement on inclusivity’ October 13, 2021 Kenneth Murray CA, Head of Forensic Accounting at Police Scotland discusses being diagnosed with ADHD at 59 and what employers should be doing to destigmatise the neurodiversity. What is ADHD? ADHD stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a complex brain disorder that is a development impairment of the brain’s executive functions. People with ADHD often [...]
Looming cost of living crisis pinches Brits’ confidence in finances October 12, 2021 The spectre of inflation is acutely impacing Brits’ confidence in the health of their finances. Nine in 10 households are worried about their finances, found research by Barclaycard. Brits across the country are facing a severe cost of living crisis caused by soaring energy prices, wider inflation and looming tax hikes, which is weighing down [...]
Delphlyx: The start-up offering football bosses data analytics for dummies October 8, 2021 From Harvard graduates building bespoke programmes for Liverpool to the video analysis tools now available even to Sunday league coaches, 21st century football is awash with data. But what might have been overlooked is that some are drowning in it; while today’s club analysts and scouts may be data-literate, their older superiors frequently are not. [...]
Tory conference: Boris Johnson’s speech in full October 6, 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered his second leader’s speech at Conservative conference today. Here is his speech in full. Isn’t it amazing to be here in person the first time we have met since you defied the sceptics by winning councils and communities that Conservatives have never won in before – such as Hartlepool in [...]
Boris Johnson admits UK shortages are here to stay until Christmas October 3, 2021 Boris Johnson has admitted the UK’s goods shortages will likely last until Christmas, while adding that “we need to see” a “period of adjustment” post-Brexit. The Prime Minister said today that he would not “pull the lever” of more immigration in the short-term to stop the lorry driver shortages. Petrol shortages are still being seen [...]
Sunak should slash taxes at budget to protect recovery, urges taxpayers’ lobby group September 30, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak should slash taxes at the budget to prevent the UK’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis running out of steam. That’s according to the chief of the top lobby group for taxpayers, who warned looming tax hikes will hit hardworking families and businesses and cause the recovery to “fall flat”. John O’Connell, [...]
What China crisis? Crypto markets rally despite Beijing clampdown September 27, 2021 The price of Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies tumbled on Friday, as news spread that China’s central bank had again declared all crypto-related transactions illegal.