How can banks factor in climate change without damaging the economy? December 5, 2019 In a few weeks, we will get the results of the UK bank stress tests, which is a measure of our biggest banks’ ability to withstand the toughest of economic shocks. In 2021, these tests will include a scenario on climate change. The regulator wants to know that our biggest financial institutions really can weather [...]
John McDonnell: A Labour government would save families thousands December 3, 2019 Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will tomorrow tell families that a Labour government could save them thousands of pounds a year as he seeks to shrug off criticism of his spending plans. In a speech in Birmingham ahead of the 12 December polling day, McDonnell will attack the Tories for overseeing a “cost of living crisis” [...]
It may be popular, but scrapping hospital parking charges would be a total disaster November 28, 2019 Amid myriad headline-grabbing proposals, you might have missed Labour’s promise to scrap hospital parking charges. This is exactly the kind of local, community-based policy that is likely to win votes — but it is a mistake. They might not be popular, but these car parking charges are actually a good thing. First, the charges bring [...]
Domestic abuse costs UK businesses £316m a year November 25, 2019 Domestic abuse against women costs UK businesses a total of £316m a year, according to a new study by KPMG for Vodafone. The new research suggests that per woman, the potential loss of earnings as a result of the negative impact domestic abuse can have on career progression could be as much as £5,800. Read [...]
Labour manifesto: Capital gains tax hike to fund £83bn spending spree November 21, 2019 Jeremy Corbyn is planning a raid on the UK’s higher earners as part of plans to fund its commitment for nearly £83bn on day-to-day spending, the Labour manifesto revealed today. In what Corbyn dubbed a “radical” manifesto, launched in Birmingham today, he revealed that a Labour government would change how capital is taxed, bringing it [...]
DEBATE: Will more government subsidies help solve the childcare crisis for working parents? November 20, 2019 Will more government subsidies help solve the childcare crisis for working parents? Harini Iyengar, GLA candidate for the Women’s Equality Party, says YES. I am answering “yes” to this question — but I would first reframe it as greater government investment, not a subsidy. While childcare is traditionally framed as a cost, raising the next [...]
Laugh about the Lib Dems’ skills wallet all you like, but we’re all going to want one November 15, 2019 It is hard to think of a more unsexy name for a policy than the “skills wallet”. Juxtaposing two profoundly unexciting terms (as policy areas go, there’s nothing fun about skills, and “wallet” is the kind of word that starts to sound wrong if you say it in your head too many times), the Liberal [...]
What Thomas Cook’s collapse tells us about the power of disruption November 4, 2019 Whilst the failure of UK holiday firm Thomas Cook was sudden and a considerable shock to many, the writing has been on the wall for some time now. Driven by technology and specifically by the advent of online booking and reservation systems, the travel industry has long been undergoing a radical transformation across each of [...]
Over the last decade, central banks have gained huge influence over our lives November 4, 2019 Monetary policy, central bank independence, quantitative easing. These and many other subjects tend to make people’s eyes glaze over, and are best left to finance nerds to battle over in quiet corners. Yet central banks have, over the last decade, emerged from the shadows of arcane macroeconomic policy discussions to become fundamental to all our [...]
Syria is the climax in the long battle over the soul of American foreign policy October 28, 2019 In defying the American foreign policy establishment, I once wrote a book that cost me my job. In 2006, in response to the looming debacle in Iraq, the British thinker Anatol Lieven and I wrote Ethical Realism. It was a broadside castigating the brain-dead, pro-interventionist intellectual sameness of the US foreign policy establishment, and the [...]