Brexit campaigners need to remember, “its the economy, stupid!” May 25, 2016 Less than 30 days to go, and Boris Johnson has been speeding around in a sports car to over engineer a “take back control” metaphor while Nigel has been doing his latest man of the people act outside a pie and mash Café in Essex. Photo opportunities can, of course, make or break any campaign – [...]
RMT’s vote for a strike over Night Tube will be Sadiq Khan’s first test as mayor of London May 25, 2016 Well, that parade has been been well and truly rained upon. At the start of this week, TfL announced – to widespread cheers – that the long-promised Night Tube would (finally) launch in August. That promise remains on track, but yesterday the sense of triumph was darkened by the prospect of more strikes. The RMT, [...]
There is a smart case for diversity – but it’s not the one favoured by the trendy liberal elite May 25, 2016 Andy Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England, hit the headlines last week with his confession that even he could not understand much of the material which pension providers give to customers. Less noticed, however, was a speech he gave the previous week at a dinner organised in aid of Children in Need on [...]
The UK has been negligently slow to frack – but shale gas has more promise than ever May 25, 2016 At last, five years after Cuadrilla’s last frack near Blackpool, Third Energy has been given the right to extract shale gas in North Yorkshire. This is what Churchill might have called “the End of the Beginning”. It’s a big moment, but only because the UK has been so negligently slow to seize the environmental, strategic [...]
With world leaders congregating in Japan for the G7 summit, is it just a pointless talking shop? May 25, 2016 Steve Davies, education director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, says Yes. The G7 summit, which is now a regular event in the circus of international get-togethers, is indeed both pointless and a talking shop. The problem is that its perceived point is neither possible nor desirable. These meetings give the impression that the attending world [...]
Don’t blame the global slowdown for Brazil’s economic ruin May 25, 2016 If the diverging fortunes of Africa make it palpably clear that the Brics hysteria about the inevitable rise of most emerging markets is intellectual fool’s gold, what is going on in South America definitively drives a stake through the heart of that argument. For yesterday’s darling Brazil continues to fall off the table, just as [...]
Building an economy of the future: Why the Conservative government needs to change its fiscal mandate May 24, 2016 Since the Conservative's won their majority government in 2015, our economy has begun to waver. In the first quarter of this year growth slowed, with construction output falling by 0.9 per cent. The OECD has downgraded forecasts, as has the CBI. In addition, 10-year gilts hit an all-time low in February and foreign investment is collapsing, [...]
The power of emotional intelligence: Why AI and robots will never compete with human creativity May 24, 2016 There have been an increasing number of reports about the rapidly developing world of AI, where computers can learn to use big data independently. Most recently, Google yesterday announced it would begin exploring whether automated machines are capable of creativity and producing original artwork and music. Many people's gut reaction to this is that nothing, not even the [...]
Is the Stock Spirits activist investor rebellion an omen of things to come? May 24, 2016 The shareholder showdown that has broken out between Stock Spirits and family office Western Gate Private Investments in the last two months may seem unusual from the outside. Western Gate Private Investments, led by Portuguese tycoon Luis Amaral, is an almost 10 per cent shareholder in the European drinks company. It successfully overrode the board to appoint [...]
Why Brexit won’t be a disaster (and as former City minister, I should know) May 24, 2016 As someone who spent 25 years working in finance, four years scrutinising the Treasury as a backbencher, and then two years first as City minister, now as Energy Minister, I've seen at first hand the economic cycles, the disasters and triumphs. These experiences tell me that the UK has an outstanding future as a free trading global [...]