Letters to the Editor – 25/11 – Broken promises, Party change, Best of Twitter November 24, 2013 Broken promises [Re: Osborne’s budget deficit is going down but progress is slow, Friday] Thank you for reminding the chancellor about his pledge to increase the inheritance tax threshold. This (so far) broken promise leaves a bitter taste for self-reliant people who want their children and grandchildren to have a better standard of life. The [...]
Three steps David Cameron can take to end our dysfunctional green farce November 21, 2013 THERE is some controversy over whether David Cameron actually told his team they need to “get rid of all the green c**p”. But while Downing Street has denied it, there is little doubt that some ministers are realising they need to do something about the punishing costs of their current energy policies. They are right [...]
The Long View: Bob Dylan and the selfie: The world’s now a stage and we’re all performing November 21, 2013 MY SMARTPHONE has a feature I can’t ever imagine using – it promises to insert my live picture into any snapshot I take by turning on both front and rearfacing cameras at once. But I’m clearly behind the times. Even as I cling to my old-fashioned desire to take photographs of the things that I [...]
The 24 hour Tube is a triumph for London – but we can go further November 21, 2013 IN AN open letter to passengers, the mayor and Transport for London have committed themselves to a 24 hour Tube. It’s an exciting announcement, and will undoubtedly deliver a boost to London’s £8bn a year dining and entertainment industry. But there are wider implications for the capital. For decades, the Underground has run New Year’s [...]
Letters to the Editor – 22/11 – Picking winners, Board quotas, Best of Twitter November 21, 2013 Picking winners [Re: Government helped get my business going – now it’s boosting startups again, Wednesday] Grant Shapps praises government startup loans. You might wonder what some other taxpayer could have done had the money been left in their hands. Started their own business? Government should not be picking winners, risking taxpayer money on enterprises [...]
University has become an arms race: We must give students an alternative November 20, 2013 THESE are not great times to graduate from university. Against the backdrop of a declining graduate premium (the difference between the earnings of graduates and non-graduates), university fees have shot up, and both the graduate unemployment rate and the share of graduates who have ended up in non-graduate jobs have increased (from 37 per cent [...]
Against the Grain: What chess champions can teach us about how businesses make decisions November 20, 2013 THE WORLD Chess Championship is underway, and the current champion – the Indian Viswanathan Anand – is trailing his young rival Magnus Carlsen by three to five. In the opinion of many, Carlsen is set fair to become the strongest ever human player. The match is an absorbing spectacle, but the game of chess is [...]
There’s much more to the financial services industry than London November 20, 2013 THE FRUITS of Britain’s banking industry stretch well beyond the Square Mile and Canary Wharf. This morning, for example, I will be speaking to members of Manchester’s business community. When it comes to picking impressive banking hubs, you may not think of the northern city that gave us Thomas de Quincey, Emmeline Pankhurst and the [...]
Letters to the editor – 21/11 – Gibraltar trouble, Pension fund, Best of Twitter November 20, 2013 Gibraltar trouble [Re: Spanish ambassador called over Gibraltar, yesterday] The Spanish government continues to play the Gibraltar card to bury political scandal and harsh economic news at home (including unemployment of 26 per cent, and youth unemployment well in excess of 50 per cent). After 300 years of separate development, the Gibraltarians surely have the [...]
UK recovery is built on a debt bubble that cannot last – it’s time for change November 19, 2013 RELIEF over recent economic data is over-done. Even if we are seeing pockets of growth in specific regions and sectors of the UK, it is far from clear that the structural imbalances in Britain’s economy have been addressed. In the last few years, the West has seen a number of financial crises of escalating seriousness, [...]