Former Chancellor predicts PM will U-turn on HS2 cuts George Osborne Former Chancellor George Osborne has predicted Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a U-turn on the government’s decision to cut HS2’s eastern leg. Talking to the Financial Times’ Payne’s Politics podcast, Osborne – who was Chancellor from 2010 to 2015 during David Cameron’s government – labelled the decision to scale back on HS2 as “pretty [...]
Former chancellor George Osborne named British Museum chair Former chancellor George Osborne named British Museum chair George Osborne has been named as the new chair of the British Museum, marking the latest high-profile role for the former chancellor. Osborne will join the board in September and take up the role of chair from 4 October. He takes over from former Financial Times editor and CBI director general Sir Richard Lambert, who [...]
George Osborne takes up full-time banking role at Robey Warshaw George Osborne takes up full-time banking role at Robey Warshaw George Osborne is joining boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw, as he shuns a portfolio of wide-ranging roles to become a full-time mergers and acquisitions banker. The former chancellor will step down from his current roles as editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard and a senior advisor to Blackrock at the end of March, taking up a [...]
We turn politics into a deposition at our peril May 30, 2019 Politics is not known as one of the more truthful professions. Spin, exaggeration, and truth-stretching are all staples of the politician’s toolkit. We might prefer it to be otherwise, but the reality is that an astute public must take claims uttered by those in office with a healthy dose of salt. It is therefore worrying [...]
Theresa May calls for return of maintenance grants for poorer students May 29, 2019 Theresa May will call for the reintroduction of maintenance grants for university students from poorer backgrounds on Thursday. The outgoing Prime Minister is backing a recommendation made by an independent review of further education, which calls for handouts of at least £3,000 for those from poorer backgrounds. Maintenance grants were axed in 2015 by then-chancellor George [...]
Esther McVey reveals she will stand in the next Tory leadership contest May 9, 2019 Another Conservative MP has joined the race to become the next Prime Minister, with former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey announcing she will stand in the race to succeed Theresa May. McVey, who lost her Wirral West seat in 2015 before being elected as MP for Tatton two years later, revealed this morning that [...]
Evening Standard set to cut jobs as it merges print and online business May 3, 2019 The Evening Standard is to announce a string of job cuts as it looks to merge its print and online businesses. Read more: Mirror publisher Reach revenues slip amid pressure on print In an email to staff, editor George Osborne said the paper is making the cuts in a bid to counteract rising costs. “We [...]
Labour policies will represent ‘revolution’ for UK economy says John McDonnell April 29, 2019 Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Labour will unleash an economic “revolution” if it wins power. The Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, who has previously named Soviet revolutionaries Lenin and Trotsky as key intellectual influences, told the BBC he saw parallels with 1979 when Margaret Thatcher swept to power. "Things aren't working for people, so they're [...]
A new book about austerity has put Keynesian economists on the defensive April 29, 2019 Notoriously, economists quarrel about almost everything in their subject. But since the publication of John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in 1936, they are supposed to agree on one point: that increases in government spending boost demand and output, and reductions in government spending depress them. Indeed, according to the theory, a [...]
DEBATE: Should individuals be held accountable for the failure of the Garden Bridge project? April 12, 2019 Should individuals be held accountable for the failure of the Garden Bridge project? Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, says YES. When £53.5m is spent on a project, including £43m from the public’s pocket, and there is literally nothing to show for it, some very fundamental questions have to be answered. I fundamentally [...]