Merging national insurance with income tax will boost transparency and cut costs October 20, 2011 NEXT month George Osborne will deliver his Autumn Statement, and it will have to be a good one. With the economy stalled and high unemployment, he needs a credible plan for economic growth. The credibility of the fiscal adjustment is on the line. Spending cuts are right and necessary but they are only one part [...]
Solicitor general: The US lesson on firm punishment October 20, 2011 IS PROSECUTION always the right response to corporate crime? Sometimes it can be a blunt instrument, causing unintentional collateral damage. Companies are not people and cannot be sent to prison: the effect of a prosecution can be felt by innocent employees, pensioners and shareholders as much as by the directors. Arthur Andersen’s collapse in 2002 [...]
Innovation alarm bells should not be ignored October 20, 2011 THERE has been a running controversy in the Forum this week about the rate of technological innovation (see Rapid Reponses, above). After an article by Norman Lewis argued that too much praise for Steve Jobs was a distraction from the importance of truly revolutionary scientific discoveries and world-shaping technological breakthoughs, readers have enthusiastically joined the [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 20, 2011 Stalled innovation In response to Graeme Sutherland’s claims about transistors and computers [DNA of innovation, Rapid Responses, yesterday], the original patent for a transistor was taken out in 1925. Working transistors were first produced in the late 1940s. Modern computers build on Charles Babbage’s work in the 19th century and Alan Turing’s in the 1940s. [...]
The latest plan to rescue the Eurozone is flawed: It sets the scene for another crisis October 19, 2011 AS EUROZONE leaders gear up for their umpteenth summit to solve the Eurozone crisis, they seem to have reached the conclusion that what the Eurozone needs is more leverage. Not only that, but they seem to believe that the best way to achieve this would be through using the EFSF, the Eurozone’s bailout fund, to [...]
Don’t give house room to illiberal spare-bed taxes October 19, 2011 A MISGUIDED charity has called upon the government to take action against elderly people who live in large homes. In its outrageous report Hoarding of Housing, the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) takes aim at 25m “unused” bedrooms in England. In view of the real housing shortage, the charity’s surreal answer is that the government should tax [...]
A euro escape route is well worth £250,000 October 19, 2011 IF YOU were stuck in a burning building with no exits, what would you do? You could try to put out the fire, or try to dig an escape route. When Europe’s leaders gather this weekend, they are going to spend their time trying to get the fire extinguishers to work to quell the euro [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 19, 2011 DNA of innovation I’d like to draw Tim Hammond’s [Innovation first, Rapid Responses, yesterday] attention to the computer, transistor and integrated circuit. Together they have transformed the world far more than the jet engine did, and are all more recent inventions. Then there are new technologies in the life sciences, such as DNA sequencing and [...]
It is time that business got its hands dirty – by helping rebuild the nation’s schools October 18, 2011 FOR business leaders there can be few, if any, more critical issues than the way that we educate the workforce of tomorrow. How the UK approaches education reform over the coming years will determine how successfully it closes the skills gap that threatens our future prosperity. So any good business leader knows that he or [...]
The City must be on guard for the EU’s legal angels October 18, 2011 FROM its inception, the EU has not been a simple, straightforward entity with clear rules and methods of working. Each EU treaty is an amendment of the previous one – and incorporates any number of opt-outs, derogations and allowances, not just for “national specificities” but also to allow latitude of interpretation for the EU institutions [...]