Mutuals will stay high street bit players for many Christmases yet December 17, 2013 MUTUALS and co-operatives have been promoted as the acceptable side of business by both arms of the coalition. Nick Clegg has lauded the Waitrose and John Lewis model. Advisers to David Cameron, as well as Vince Cable, have argued that the banking sector would be more stable if more companies followed the mutual model. But [...]
Letters to the Editor – 18/12 – Airport capacity, End of teaching, Best of Twitter December 17, 2013 Airport capacity [Re: Boris Island misses out on new runway shortlist, yesterday] An airport at the Thames Estuary is the most logical option, and it is disappointing that the proposal was excluded from the Davies Commission’s shortlist yesterday. We need to accept that the alternatives present too many complications. The political and environmental obstacles to Heathrow [...]
It’s time to kick politicians out of the crucial debate on airport expansion December 16, 2013 AFTER reviewing more than 50 airport expansion proposals, Sir Howard Davies’s Airports Commission is releasing its shortlist today. If the government pays heed to its findings, one of these proposals will be given the green light and become a reality. There has been a great deal of speculation about the options Davies is likely to [...]
Why we need to re-think welfare – and it’s about more than saving money December 16, 2013 “IT IS getting to the stage where our government is doing welfare and little else”. That was the verdict of the Institute for Fiscal Studies’s Paul Johnson at a post-Autumn Statement briefing. You wouldn’t think it from media reports, but the welfare state is becoming more significant in scope, if not in absolute size. Although [...]
Ed Miliband’s attack on developers ignores why housebuilding is in crisis December 16, 2013 ED MILIBAND was right to identify the housing affordability crisis as one of Britain’s most important policy challenges in his speech yesterday. Sadly, his mixed bag of proposals (expanding urban council boundaries, a 200,000 annual home-building target and fines for “land hoarders”) does not address the fundamental reasons why developers are not supplying the market [...]
Letters to the Editor – 17/12 – Scrap Davies, Alternative finance, Best of Twitter December 16, 2013 Scrap Davies If you believe that the importance of hub capacity is overstated there is clearly no need to expand Heathrow. If you believe, as I do, that London and the UK needs an internationally-competitive hub airport, we should be clear what that means. It means an airport with four runways and the capacity to [...]
Rise of alternative finance could put business bankers’ incumbency at risk December 15, 2013 DISRUPTION is capitalism’s great party trick. The history of business is full of seemingly insignificant upstarts who cottoned on to a new technology or idea, and used it to embarrass, and then destroy, proud incumbents. It’s a lesson that makers of mainframe computers, record labels, and bookshops have all learnt to their cost. But consumers [...]
City Matters: Delaying a decision on airports threatens London’s role on the global stage December 15, 2013 IT HAS not been a good week for airports, airlines or passengers. Not only did an air traffic control glitch lead to hundreds of flights across the country being cancelled, but thick fog also later caused significant delays and disruption in the South East. As the industry deals with the backlog, it seems somehow fitting [...]
Why higher education is this country’s secret industrial powerhouse December 15, 2013 WHEN considering the powerhouses of the British economy, most people’s minds flick to the City, or perhaps pharmaceuticals or retail. Yet it’s British universities – the envy of the world – which have the potential to save the British economy. Higher education is the UK’s secret industrial powerhouse. UniversitiesUK suggests that our universities are responsible [...]
Letters to the Editor – 16/12 – UK drugs policy, Passenger duty, Best of Twitter December 15, 2013 UK drugs policy [Re: Failing UK drugs policy should take a leaf from Uruguay and Portugal, Thursday] We need to stop this foolish and unwinnable war against cannabis. Independent research has shown that a tax and regulate policy would produce a large net gain for the UK economy, while saving millions of pounds from the [...]