Mastercard vice chair: We can’t let Covid crisis hold back female entrepreneurs March 8, 2021 In Q3 of 2020, venture funding for female founders hit its lowest quarterly total in three years. Whilst the current Covid-19 pandemic stands as one of the greatest disruptors to our way of life in living memory, when we have disruption and crisis we also have opportunity to do more, and to do better. There [...]
Screenshot: Will nightclubs really reopen in June? March 5, 2021 This week: **Media Moment of the Week: Telly’s still got welly **Will nightclubs really reopen on 21 June? **The BBC turns back time Media Moment of the Week: Telly’s still got welly In the age of Silicon Valley streaming giants and relentless references to “content” and “eyeballs”, it’s easy to forget that TV can, sometimes, [...]
DEBATE: Is Universal Credit fit for purpose? March 4, 2021 Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions says NO Universal Credit has failed on its own terms. It is not offering a route out of hardship instead it is perpetuating a cycle of debt and destitution that is hurting our economy. The system starts people off in debt through the five week-wait, [...]
Budget 2021: As it happened March 3, 2021 Live updates and links to all our coverage, reactions and analyses as the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivers the government’s Budget later today – at 12.30pm. Please also visit our dedicated Budget 2021 Hub. Wrap-up of the main Budget announcements Here’s a wrap-up of the main announcements made by the chancellor in his spring Budget: [...]
A catch-up strategy? How Government can give young Brits a boost in Budget 2021 February 26, 2021 A catch-up strategy? How Government can give young Brits a boost in Budget 2021
Extending the stamp duty holiday won’t avoid a cliff-edge, it will make the eventual fall steeper February 24, 2021 The stamp duty holiday created a bloated and false economy in the housing market; it’s time to scrap the policy, not extend it. Rishi Sunak introduced the policy last summer. The idea was simple enough – add a bit of fuel to the property market and stoke consumer spending by only making buyers cough up [...]
Self-employed get tax reprieve as HMRC delays first late fee on unpaid self-assessment debt February 19, 2021 Self-employed get tax reprieve as HMRC delays first surcharge on unpaid self-assessment debt
Could the ‘circular economy’ be the answer to post-Covid growth? February 18, 2021 January’s third lockdown and fallout from Brexit have added insult to the injuries inflicted in 2020, and Britain’s economic outlook hasn’t been looking very bright in recent weeks. With the Chancellor continuing to pump money into relief schemes, with more desperately needed cash set to be announced in the March budget, those early pandemic conversations [...]
Investors should ready themselves for a great wave of innovation February 15, 2021 When I first invested in Facebook more than a decade ago, the business’s extraordinary potential was clear to me even though the full impact of social media had only begun to be realised. I was fortunate to be among the first to invest in some of the world’s most prominent start-ups, including Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, [...]
Angels in America, now on-demand, is more relevant than ever February 13, 2021 In the same month Russell T Davies’ It’s A Sin has become the most talked-about TV show in the world, the National Theatre has made its own dramatisation of the AIDS crisis, Angels in America, available to watch on-demand for the first time. Both begin in the 1980s, just as the virus is taking hold [...]